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How should governments tax e-commerce? What does e-commerce mean for existing international tax principles and systems? What are the administrative challenges of taxing e-commerce, and how can these be tackled? How can governments harness the new technology to improve taxpayer service and reduce compliance costs? These are just some of the pressing questions addressed in this book.
This volume provides a comprehensive guide to the status of the OECD-led international work on these questions, and hence to emerging conclusions and recommendations across a wide span of tax policy and tax administration issues. It sets out the latest thinking of the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs on the taxation aspects of electronic commerce, and on progress toward implementing the Ottawa Taxation Framework Conditions. It includes a number of documents for public review and comment, and details the outputs from the past two years' intensive dialogue with the international business community and with non-member economies. As such it is an invaluable reference for all those interested in how governments around the globe are responding to the taxation challenges presented by e-commerce.
This publication examines the effects of taxation on employment, highlights the resulting policy challenges, and discusses the ways governments endeavour to address these challenges. Chapter 1 provides a broad overview of the effects of taxation on employment, examining how taxes on labour income can affect both the size of the labour force and the level of unemployment, and highlighting key areas of concern for tax policy makers. This analysis is then augmented in chapters 2-4 by the more detailed analysis of the effects of taxation on the employment of three groups where empirical research suggests that responses of labour supply to taxation may be relatively large: low-income workers, mobile highly-skilled workers, and older workers. As well as highlighting key areas of concern for tax policy makers, the report places a particular focus on the different measures that have been adopted by countries to attempt to overcome these problems, discussing, where possible, the main design features, and the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches that have been adopted.
This report, commissioned by the Brazilian G20 Presidency ahead of the July 2024 G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, contributes to discussions on the role of tax systems in addressing inequality. It explores how tax systems can mitigate or exacerbate inequality with a focus on the distribution of income and wealth and identifies scope for potential reform. It zooms in on the specific tax policy and compliance challenges associated with taxing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), some of which have a cross-border dimension.
This report provides a detailed review of the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and philanthropic giving in 40 OECD member and participating countries. The report first examines the various arguments for and against the provision of preferential tax treatment for philanthropy. It then reviews the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and giving in the 40 participating countries, in both a domestic and cross-border context. Drawing on this analysis, the report then highlights a range of potential tax policy options for countries to consider.
This Tax Policy Study on Taxation and Skills examines how tax policy can encourage skills development in OECD countries. This study also assesses the returns to tertiary and adult education and examines how these returns are shared between governments and students. The study builds indicators that examine incentives for individuals and governments to invest in education. These indicators take into account the various financial costs of skills investments for individuals such as foregone after-tax earnings and tuition fees, as well as whether investments are financed with savings or with student loans. Costs borne by governments such as grants, scholarships, lost taxes, and skills tax expenditures are also accounted for. The indicators also incorporate the returns to skills investments for individuals and governments through higher after-tax wages and higher tax revenues respectively.
This study catalogues the treatment of farmers within the tax and social security systems of a large number of OECD countries – knowledge of which has been very scarce up to now. The conceptual basis for deciding what constitutes a concession conferring financial benefit to the farmer is discussed and estimates of the values of those concessions are reported in the few cases where they have been found. Many different types of taxes are covered including income taxes, taxes on property, (annual or on transfer by death or sale), and taxes on goods and services, as is preferential treatment in social security contributions or entitlements. In all, twenty four countries are covered. The different measures are analysed from the point of view of their likely impact in distorting production and trade, and how they may affect structure and asset values in the sector. Finally, the report indicates that fuller integration of farming into economy-wide, social safety nets or tax systems could be more efficient, effective and equitable than sectoral approaches in tackling instability or low incomes in farming.
This review of taxation in agriculture in 35 OECD countries and emerging economies outlines the diversity of tax provisions affecting agriculture, provides an overview of cross-country differences in tax policy, and confirms the widespread use of tax concessions specifically for agriculture, although their importance and modalities differ across tax areas and countries. Potential effects on innovation, productivity, and sustainability in the agricultural sector are also discussed.
This book investigates policy considerations in the taxation of capital gains of individuals and design features of capital gains tax systems. Perspectives on these are reported for 20 OECD countries. Descriptive information on aspects of capital tax rules for gains on domestic assets of resident investors are presented in summary tables covering all OECD countries.
The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in cross-border capital flows and a pronounced shift in their composition towards portfolio investment, with much of the capital under management by mutual funds or "collective investment institutions" resident in OECD countries, as well as in offshore tax-free environments. These developments motivate countries to review and monitor the operation of their tax rules in this area, notably the interaction of domestic tax rules with tax systems and practices in other countries, to ensure that policy goals are being addressed.
This book analyses the taxation of cross-border portfolio investments by means of collective investment institutions. Possible tax distortions specific to the area of collective investment institutions are identified for a representative group of OECD countries. The analysis and calculations contained in the book, while illustrative and not capturing the full richness of the possible permutations under tax regimes, draw out key tax distortions, neutrality conditions and policy options.
This report provides a detailed review of the taxation of household savings in 40 OECD and partner countries. It examines the different approaches that countries take to taxing household savings, and calculates marginal effective tax rates on a wide range of savings vehicles (including bank accounts, bonds, shares, private pensions and housing) to assess the impact of these approaches on savings behaviour. It examines asset holdings across income and wealth distributions to help assess the distributional impact of savings taxation, and discusses recent changes in the exchange of information for tax purposes between tax administrations. It also draws out a range of implications from this analysis for savings tax policy as part of an inclusive growth tax agenda.
This report covers a broad range of SME taxation issues, including possible effects of taxation on the creation and growth of SMEs, and considerations arising from a relatively high compliance burden. Differing income tax and social security contribution burdens of unincorporated and incorporated SMEs are considered in detail, with analysis of average statutory tax rates carried out to investigate possible tax distortions to business creation and business structure decisions of a single worker/owner of an SME. Various arguments are presented for and against the targeting of tax incentives at SMEs. Country examples of SME tax incentives and compliance cost reduction measures are provided in the report.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are important for their contribution to employment, innovation, economic growth and diversity. This report examines the tax treatment of SMEs, the case for SME preferences, and the use of tax preferences and simplification measures for SMEs in thirty-nine OECD and G20 countries. It finds that many of the tax systems examined provide incentives to incorporate and to distribute income in certain types of capital form. Ideally, taxes should be neutral with regard to the business decisions of SMEs, including decisions related to their creation, form and growth. However, certain features of the tax system may disproportionately affect SMEs, for example, the asymmetric treatment of profits and losses, a bias toward debt over corporate equity, and the higher fixed costs of tax and regulatory compliance for small businesses. This report recommends that measures designed to address these concerns be carefully targeted to affected firms and seek to avoid introducing further distortions and complexity.
Solving the world’s environmental problems could take a significant toll on economic growth if only today’s technologies are available. We know that innovation – the creation and adoption of new cleaner technologies and know-how – provides a means to achieve local and global environmental goals at significantly lower costs. Innovation is also a major driver of economic growth.
OECD governments are increasingly using environmentally related taxes because they are typically one of the most effective policy tools available. Exploring the relationship between environmentally related taxation and innovation is critical to understanding the full impacts of this policy instrument as well as one potential facet of “green growth.” By putting a price on pollution, do environmentally related taxes spur innovation? What types of innovation result? Does the design of the tax play a critical role? What is the effect of this innovation?
In analysing these questions, this report draws on case studies that cover Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Israel and others. It covers a wide set of environmental issues and technologies, as well as the economic and policy contexts. The research methods range from econometric analysis to interviews with business owners and executives. The report also explores the use of environmentally related taxes in OECD countries and outlines considerations for policymakers when implementing these taxes.
Green growth policies can stimulate economic growth while preventing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable natural resource use. The results from this publication will contribute to the Green Growth Strategy being developed by the OECD as a practical policy package for governments to harness the potential of greener growth.
The taxation of different sources and uses of energy (particularly those that give rise to emissions of greenhouse gases) will play a key role in governments’ efforts to mitigate the scale of global warming and climate change. At present, effective tax rates vary widely across different sources and uses of energy within countries, as well as across countries. This publication provides the first systematic statistics of such effective tax rates – on a comparable basis - for each OECD country, together with ‘maps’ that illustrate graphically the wide variations in tax rates per unit of energy or per tonne of CO2 emissions. These statistics and maps should be an invaluable tool for policymakers, analysts and researchers considering both domestic fiscal reform in response to climate change and other environmental challenges (e.g. to achieve emissions reductions targets most cost-effectively) and wider international responses.
Energy is a critical input into the production and consumption patterns that support economic and social wellbeing. However, many forms of energy use contribute to the environmental and climate challenges societies face today. Taxation is a key tool by which governments can influence energy use to contain its environmental impacts. This report provides a systematic analysis of the structure and level of energy taxes in OECD and selected other countries; together, they cover 80% of global energy use.
This report builds on the 2013 edition of Taxing Energy Use, expanding the geographic coverage of the 2013 data set to include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The report describes energy use, taxation and pricing in these countries and presents detailed graphical profiles of the structure of energy use and taxation for each.
The analysis reveals large differences in the taxation of energy across countries, although common patterns emerge. Transport taxes are considerably higher than in other sectors, where fuels that cause considerable harm for the environment and human health are often taxed at very low – or zero – rates. With few exceptions, countries' energy taxes do not harness the full power of taxes to reduce pollution and combat climate change.
Emissions from energy use cause environmental and health damages and they also contribute to climate change. By charging for these damages, taxes on energy use can reduce excessive emissions, while raising revenue that can be used to fund vital government services.
This report assesses the magnitude and coverage of taxes on energy use - carbon taxes and other specific taxes on energy use - in 2015, across different countries and selected country groups, six sectors and five main fuel groups. It also considers change in effective tax rates on energy use between 2012 and 2015. The analysis is based on the OECD’s Taxing Energy Use database, a unique dataset to compare coverage and magnitude of specific taxes on energy use across 42 OECD and G20 economies, which together represent approximately 80% of global energy use and CO2-emissions associated with energy use.
Well-designed systems of energy taxation encourage citizens and investors to favour clean over polluting energy sources. In particular, fuel excise and carbon taxes are simple and cost-effective tools to curb dangerous climate change. Energy and carbon taxes also contribute to limiting health damage from local pollution. Taxing Energy Use (TEU) 2019 presents a snapshot of where countries stand in deploying energy and carbon taxes, tracks progress made, and makes actionable recommendations on how governments could do better. The report contains new and original data on energy and carbon taxes in OECD and G20 countries, and in international aviation and maritime transport.
This study examines the difficult task of applying income taxation to the life and property and casualty insurance industries. Particularly in the case of life insurance, OECD countries have pursued a variety of methods to try to tax the income arising in insurance companies. This study analyses the policy and technical problems that arise in designing an effective means of income taxation.
In addition to outlining the general approaches used by OECD countries in this area, the authors have drawn upon their extensive practical experience in designing a tax system for the insurance industry in their home country. Based on this experience, they have addressed the major policy questions faced by tax policy-makers in this area and included a critical analysis of the various technical issues which arise in turning theory into practice.
In many OECD countries, issues in fiscal federalism feature prominently in the political debate. Policy discussions in this area should preferably be supported by internationally comparable statistical information on fiscal relations between levels of government, both in the areas of taxation and spending. The annual OECD Revenue Statistics publication reports tax revenues by sub-sector of general government. However, it does not indicate the degree of control state and local governments exercise over their tax revenues. Because such data are not available on an internationally comparable level from other sources, the OECD has developed a framework to assess and analyze the degree of control that sub-central governments have over their taxes.
Results shown in this book serve to illustrate the great variety in tax autonomy at the level of sub-central government. This volume contains a description of fiscal relations in most of the nineteen countries concerned and it provides a set of detailed tables for each country, with revenues split by 1) level of sub-central government; 2) OECD classification of taxes; and 3) category of tax autonomy, following the framework developed by the Working Party on Tax Policy Analysis and Tax Statistics.
Crypto-assets, and virtual currencies in particular, are in rapid development and tax policymakers are still at an early stage in considering their implications. G20 Leaders and Finance Ministers have called international organisations to analyse the risks posed by crypto-assets. So far, the tax policy and evasion implications have been largely unexplored, although forming an important aspect of the overall regulatory framework. Prepared with the participation of over 50 jurisdictions, Taxing Virtual Currencies is the first comprehensive analysis of the approaches and policy gaps across the main tax types (income, consumption and property taxes) for such a large group of countries. This report also considers the tax implications of a number of emerging issues, including the growing interest in stablecoins and ‘central bank digital currencies’; as well the evolution of the consensus mechanisms used to maintain blockchain networks and the dawn of decentralised finance. This report was prepared for presentation to the October 2020 meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. It provides key insights and a number of considerations to help policymakers wishing to improve their tax policy frameworks for virtual currencies.