Parthasarathi Shome

A Primer on Tax Evasion

Tax evasion is universal. It depends on the economic and tax structures, types of income, and social attitudes. The theory of tax evasion has limitations since it rests solely on attitudes toward risk, with full information regarding the tax administrations behavior. Methodologies for estimating tax evasion include estimating the underground economy and comparing declared taxes with potential tax revenue calculated from national accounts. Measures to address tax evasion include use of withholding, presumptive and minimum taxes, selective auditing, penalties, and cross checks between taxes.

Taxation in Latin America: Structural Trends and Impact of Administration

From the mid-1980s to early 1990s, Latin American tax policy provided rich lessons for other reforming countries. Meaningful innovations led also to perceptible revenue gains. Later in the 1990s, tax policies began to drift. Shining examples of fundamental reform seemed to lose their luster. Revenue in terms of GDP also stagnated, partly reflecting over-reliance on consumption taxes and neglect of taxable capacity on incomes. The stagnation has been exacerbated by excessively simplified administrative practices. Based on these developments and on the limited taxability of internationally mobile capital, the paper anticipates a likely tax structure for the new century.

A Primeron Tax Evasion

Tax evasion is universal. It depends on the economic and tax structures, types of income, and social attitudes. The theory of tax evasion has limitations since it depends solely on the attitude toward risk with full information regarding the tax administration’s behavior. Methodologies for estimating tax evasion include predominantly estimating the underground economy, and comparing taxes declared with potential tax revenue calculated from national accounts. Actions in addressing tax evasion include use of withholding, presumptive and minimum taxes, selective auditing, penalties, and cross checks between taxes.

Financial Transactions Taxes

Financial transactions taxes have recently gained attention as a possible means to influence the behavior of financial markets and to reduce destabilizing capital flows. One variation is a tax on all foreign currency conversions, often termed a “Tobin tax.” This paper suggests that these taxes would probably not produce the desired effects and would be difficult to design and implement. It is unclear that the possible advantages in reducing some short-term speculative trading would outweigh the possible disadvantages in impairing the efficiency of financial markets. From an administrative perspective, without a broad international consensus and application, these taxes are likely to be easily avoided.

Trends and Future Directions in Tax Policy Reform: A Latin American Perspective

Tax reform in Latin America during the 1980s emphasized broad-based, low-rate consumption taxes over steeply progressive income and property taxes, primarily to simplify the tax structure and facilitate tax administration. While tax reform need not necessarily raise tax-to-GDP ratios, countries that undertook tax reform experienced a higher revenue gain in terms of GDP relative to those that did not. Tax reform issues during the 1990s will include a minimum income tax, alternative corporate taxes (cash flow tax, assets tax), capturing difficult tax bases (financial intermediation, property), environment taxes, extending withholding as a taxing mechanism, and tax harmonization.

Cash-Flow Tax

The cash-flow tax has been proposed as an alternative to corporate income tax on grounds of clarity and simplicity in defining the tax base in the face of widespread departures from the comprehensive income tax in actual practice. Variants of the tax, with their advantages and disadvantages, demonstrate that it would require careful design. Simplicity is not an obvious property because of expectable administration problems related to tax avoidance and evasion through transfer pricing; to inflation adjustments; and to incompatibility with existing international tax regimes. Thus, the tax remains theoretically attractive but difficult to implement by a single--especially developing--country.

The Mexican Value-Added Tax (VAT): Characteristics, Evolution, and Methodology for Calculating the Base

The value-added tax (VAT) is often a major component of national fiscal structures. While its effects on allocative efficiency, inflation, income distribution, and tax administration have been addressed, little work exists on the theoretical base of a VAT, given its structure. This is essential for knowing how much of the base is actually taxed. Using Mexican national accounts and input-output tables, this paper develops a methodology for calculating the theoretical base of the Mexican VAT for 1980 and 1983 (two years whose individual VAT structures were considerably different). The method is applicable to other VAT systems as well.

Is the Corporate Tax Shifted? Empirical Evidence from Asean

The importance of the corporation income tax in overall tax revenue is as high in ASEAN member countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—as in selected developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. This article surveys available fiscal incidence studies for ASEAN members and, after a critical evaluation of their methodologies, employs a two-sector general equilibrium model in order to study the incidence of the corporation income tax in ASEAN. It concludes that, except in Singapore, the tax is borne entirely by the owners of capital in contrast to the usual presumption that the tax is shifted. The policy implication of capital across the economy bearing the corporate tax is that double taxation of dividends—present, at least partially, in each ASEAN member—should be curtailed if these economies are to avoid the necessarily detrimental ramifications for capital formation.