Juan Carlos Gómez Sabaini

The financing of subnational governments

Decentralisation and Reform in Latin America analyses the process of intergovernmental reform in Latin America in the last two decades and presents a number of emerging issues. These include the impacts of decentralization and the response of countries in the region to challenge such as social cohesion, interregional and interpersonal disparities, the assignment of social and infrastructure expenditure, macrofinancial shocks, fiscal rules and the sharing of natural resources revenue. The main aim of the book is to assess the effective working of decentralized arrangements and institutions, with a view of suggesting corrections and reforms where the system is not working according to expectations.

International Insertion, Volatility and Fiscal Resources in Countries Specialized in Extractive Industries: Between a Rock and a Hard Place?

The current scenario of volatility and downward commodity prices evidences the vulnerability of public finances in Latin-American countries. This is particularly of concern in countries where production is highly concentrated in non-renewable natural resource revenues. Through a transnational perspective, this chapter discusses how tax systems in the region are partly determined by the mode of international insertion and, given that the effect of multiple tax instruments may differ among these resources, this highlights the importance of considering not only the aggregate but also the mix of fiscal impacts. The chapter argues for further research and policy-making to more sophisticatedly explore the relation between fiscal policy measures, international insertion and the fluctuating evolution of non-renewable natural resource prices beyond the tax implication. From such actions there are multiple challenges and trade-offs that include: how to build a sounded, sustainable and diversified tax system; maintaining reasonable investment dynamism and simultaneously achieving a progressive state participation in economic rents derived from natural resource extraction; achieving an adequate sharing of risk between the government and the investors; and assuring compliance with a reasonably low administrative cost.

Economía informal y tributación: una exploración de los nexos

En los paises de America Latina, ya sea porque se ven excluidos involuntariamente del mercado formal de trabajo o por eleccion de los propios trabajadores, una parte importante de la poblacion realiza sus actividades economicas y obtiene una porcion o la totalidad de sus ingresos monetarios en lo que se denomina “el sector informal” de la economia. Lo mismo sucede con los cuentapropistas y las empresas (especialmente las de menor tamano), entre quienes, tanto por exclusion como por eleccion, se registran elevados niveles de informalidad

La evasión internacional y la erosión de las bases tributarias

Como bien argumenta Zucman (2015), tres han sido los principios que guiaron el diseno del impuesto sobre la renta (ISR) de las sociedades (o ISR corporativo), primero en los paises desarrollados y despues en los paises en desarrollo: i) el criterio jurisdiccional de la fuente o residencia, ii) el principio de plena competencia (arm’s length) y iii) los acuerdos bilaterales de armonizacion tributaria. Estos principios rectores datan de la decada de 1920 y en la actualidad, debido a la creciente globalizacion economica y financiera, se han visto seriamente diezmados por las estrategias —cada vez mas sofisticadas— desplegadas por las empresas multinacionales en su afan por reducir el pago de impuestos a nivel mundial. En particular, y en orden a dichos preceptos, el mencionado autor destaca el abuso de los tratados bilaterales para generar ingresos no gravados (lo que se denomina treaty shopping o busqueda del acuerdo mas favorable), la manipulacion de los precios de transferencia, el traslado artificial de utilidades y la competencia tributaria para atraer inversiones por la via de incentivos tributarios.