Trust and Tax Compliance Among Malaysian Working Youth

A high level of tax morale is necessary in promoting tax compliance among the public, including youth who tend to have a low sense of responsibility. The current tax system and working youth segment of Malaysia are first explained. Based on the relevant literature on taxation, important factors that influence trust and the resulting tax compliance are conceptualized in a research model. An online survey was administered on youth throughout Malaysia that resulted in 2,030 usable responses, of which 500 were used in testing the model. The empirical results from using partial least squares analysis show that one of the two trust variables and tax knowledge are significant determinants of tax compliance. In addition, youth in the registered taxpayers group exhibited a greater level of compliance intention than non-registered youth.     

Tax Innovation or Excise Duty in Disguise? Deviations and Distortions in Value-Added Tax in Bangladesh

The article examines and analyzes the nature of deviations and distortions in the VAT system in Bangladesh. The article argues that the Bangladesh VAT introduced in 1991—with a view to maximize tax revenue by broadening tax base and curbing tax evasion while simplifying the process—has deviated significantly from standard and international best practices. It further argues that most of the deviations have their roots in the excise system of taxation that VAT has replaced and, while some of them produce ad hoc benefits in terms of generating revenue and easing compliance, most of them, besides eroding the coherence of the tax system, defeat the core principle of VAT—self assessment. The article concludes that if the process of adulterating VAT with so many ingenious adaptations and deviations is allowed to continue, the objective of VAT to evolve as an efficient tool for maximizing revenue will remain elusive.     

csr,Tax and Development

This article explores and critically examines the connections between tax and development on the one hand and tax and corporate social responsibility (csr) on the other. It does so because, while there is increasing recognition of the importance of taxation to efforts to resource the state and to finance ways of tackling poverty, there is a surprising lack of attention to tax avoidance and evasion as a csr issue for transnational corporations operating in the South, even among those companies that pride themselves on being csr leaders. We review evidence of these trends, provide an empirical analysis of how leading firms deal with tax in their corporate reporting and make the case for including taxation as a new frontier in progressive csr.     

What Factors Influence the Intentions of Individuals to Engage in Tax Evasion? Evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study examines the views of students on the ethics of tax evasion, their intentions to evade tax, and investigates the factors that predict such intentions. Relying on the extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the study investigated whether attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and moral obligation may be good predictors of the intention to evade tax. Data were gathered from 662 students of University of Ghana Business School using questionnaires. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Results indicate that the intention to evade tax among the students is low and most respondents generally perceive tax evasion as an unethical practice. The results also demonstrate that attitude, subjective norms and moral obligations have important implications on the intention to evade tax. The evidence we provide should be useful to governments and tax agencies interested in promoting responsible tax compliance behaviour among individual taxpayers.     

Informal Countermessaging: The Potential and Perils of Informal Online Countermessaging

Abstract

Online countermessaging—communication that seeks to disrupt the online content disseminated by extremist groups and individuals—is a core component of contemporary counterterrorism strategies. Countermessaging has been heavily criticized, not least on the grounds of effectiveness. Whereas current debates are focused on the role of government and large organizations in developing and disseminating countermessages, this article argues that such approaches overlook the informal production of countermessages. Recognizing the appetite for “natural world” content among those engaged in countermessaging, this article highlights some of the potential benefits of informal approaches to countermessaging. At the same time, the article also acknowledges the risks that may result from closer working between countermessaging organizations and informal actors.     

Beads and Trinkets? Stakeholder Perspectives on Benefit-sharing and Corporate Responsibility in a Russian Oil Province

Abstract

Residents of the Komi Republic have enjoyed some benefits from the oil industry, through taxation, jobs and business opportunities. They have also suffered repeated oil spills, including one of the world's largest in 1994. Since most petroleum taxes go to Moscow for redistribution, the economic benefits are limited, and are focused in urban centres. Rural populations, who suffer most from oil spills, experience benefits primarily through companies’ social projects. We analyse local perceptions of the corporate social responsibility performance of Lukoil-Komi and consider how a weak—or ‘phantom’—social licence to operate can lead to open protest.     

Gouvernance hybride des parkings publics à Lubumbashi : quand la fiscalité informelle supporte la fiscalité formelle

“Hybrid governance” appears today as an emerging research current that focuses on the role of non-state institutions and actors to strengthen state institutions that lack legitimacy and capacity in developing countries. By examining the interactions between private and public actors involved in the governance of public motor parks in Lubumbashi, the second city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this article demonstrates that informal taxation can be a decisive support for the perception of an official parking tax.     

加强两岸税收合作促进两岸融合发展——基于《两岸税收协议》文本的分析

近年来,海峡两岸经济交往密切,人员来往频繁。为防范和消除重复征税,促进两岸经济合作,2015年8月25日《两岸税收协议》正式签署。本文通过对照OECD协定范本、UN协定范本及大陆与其他国家(地区)签署的税收协定或税收安排,分析《两岸税收协议》文本的主要条款,揭示其中所体现的协定立场,即大陆为促进两岸融合发展而让渡了诸多税收利益。随后从理论上分析了该协议生效后预期将产生的积极影响,包括实现税收协定通常的目的,以及增加台湾当局税收收入、减轻台湾地区纳税人税负、提升台湾经济地位等。最后展望未来,期待两岸共同努力,促成《两岸税收协议》尽早生效执行。     

Taxing Times: Taxation,Divided Societies and the Informal Economy in Northern Nigeria

This paper challenges the notion that taxing the informal economy provides a mechanism for increasing popular political voice and rebuilding the social contract. It contends that current arguments for taxing the informal economy suffer from a Eurocentric understanding of taxation and state formation, and a fiscally essentialist and undifferentiated notion of the informal economy. Drawing on fieldwork in northern Nigeria, this paper shows that history, gender, wealth and ethno-religious identity influence how taxing the informal economy shapes governance outcomes. Evidence from Nigeria suggests an inverse relationship between informal economy taxation and political voice, posing the risk that increased taxation will exacerbate social divisions rather than rebuild the social contract.     

Need money? roll the dice

In 1990, the Mississippi Legislature legalized dockside casino gaming as a surrogate tax system for the state. Since the establishment of the first casino in 1992, the casino industry has become an important component in the state's revenue picture. During fiscal years 1993, 1994, and 1995, gaming taxes and fees accounted for 1.6, 4.1, and 5.04 percent of Mississippi's general fund revenue, respectively. In addition, certain localities have benefitted from the industry as well. Beyond the direct revenue received through local taxation, casino gaming has substantially increased both property tax revenue and sales tax collections. The Mississippi Gaming Commission believes, however, that long-term revenue stability depends on developing resort destinations as opposed to a continued reliance on day-trippers.

Colonists who balked at paying taxes to local governments were willing to purchase lottery tickets by those same governments⁽¹⁾ (yesterday).

Government no longer possesses the capacity to secure the cooperation of the citizenry in meeting the requirements of public need. Consequently, it uses a buffer to take resources from the citizenry without invoking their wrath⁽²⁾ (today).     

Structural reform,institutions and earnings: Evidence from the formal and informal sectors in urban Peru

Reforms undertaken in Peru in the early 1990s might have resulted in a slight reduction of the informal sector. Costs associated with becoming and staying informal, and benefits of becoming formal might have increased. This, when a legalistic definition of informality is used. Earnings differentials between formal and informal self‐employed workers are negligible although they persist between formal and informal salaried workers. Skilled workers are more likely to be found in the formal sector and informal wage earners tend to be younger and less skilled. The earnings generating process for both the formal and the informal self‐employed workers is similar.     

Incoherence between Tax and Development Policies: the case of the Netherlands

Abstract

This article discusses incoherence between tax and development policies, a relatively new area in the debate on policy coherence for development, using a case study of the Netherlands. Dutch business entities play a key role in tax avoidance structures of multinational corporations. We argue that the Dutch tax regime facilitates the avoidance of substantial amounts of tax revenues in developing countries when compared to the Dutch aid budget. As domestic tax revenues are an important source of financing for development, this suggests that the Dutch tax policy is incompatible with the Dutch policy on development co-operation. The lack of policy coherence is largely unintended but it has structural and political causes.     

Tax Compliance as a System: Mapping the Field

Tax evasion is a serious and growing problem all over the world. In most cases, non-compliant tax behavior is associated with tax evasion. Such approach, however, is incomplete. There is a lack of clear definitions of compliance and non-compliance. This article focuses on defining the key terms related to tax compliance and on mapping and systematizing the determinants of tax compliance and proposes a way to develop an administrative strategy for tax compliance. The novelty of the study lies in approaching tax compliance as a systemic whole. A systemic approach to tax compliance as a comprehensive whole could serve as the basis for the tax authority in developing administrative strategies.     

Challenges to Property Rate Administration in the Offinso South Municipality,Ghana

Decentralized governments in Ghana have not been able to realize optimum benefits from their property tax potentials. The paper investigates the administration of property taxation in Ghana using the Offinso South Municipality (OSM) as a study area. Questionnaires were relied on to garner data from property owners in the municipality. It observed that low coverage and collection ratios, inadequate collection modes, and negative public perceptions have worked against the administration of property tax in the OSM. The paper suggests a complete overhaul of the property rate regime in the OSM if the buoyancy of property tax revenue is to be realized. It argues that the rating authority should purge the system of perceived corruptions. It suggests a revamp of the property rate collection means in order to slump rent seeking behavior of the mobile property rate collectors.     

From ‘remittance’ to ‘tax’: the shifting meanings and strategies of capture of the Eritrean transnational party-state

Abstract

For decades, mass out migration has remained a defining characteristic of Eritrea. The country's first major refugee crisis occurred in the early 1980s, in the midst of its liberation movement. Upon gaining resettlement in the industrialized world, Eritreans overwhelming continued their support of the liberation war, both financially and politically. Since independence, the ruling government adopted strong measures to ensure the diaspora's continued political and economic engagement. We examine the Eritrean party-state's changing relationship with members of its dispersed population focusing on the evolution of an expatriate tax (2 percent Income Tax on Eritreans Working Abroad) levied on all emigrant Eritreans. Building on work that argues for recognizing the social and political dimensions of money sent ‘home’, this paper makes two contributions. First, we use an historical perspective to show how contextual changes can significantly shift the meanings of remittances, in this case from a voluntary patriotic remittance sent to the liberating government, to a coerced tax. Second, we bring the remittance-tax into the literature on remittances and development, expanding the types of income transfers under consideration. Attention is drawn to the party-state's articulation of the 2 percent Tax policy as a national development imperative and the various transnational governance mechanisms employed to coerce compliance. Citizenship serves as a lens for examining the state's instrumentalization and politicization of the diaspora's engagement with the Eritrean nation.     

Tax Innovations and Public Revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

We study the effect of two tax innovations – value added taxes (VAT) and autonomous revenue authorities (ARA) – on tax revenues in sub-Saharan Africa. The dataset consists of 47 countries over 1980–2010. We find that VATs have no effect on total tax revenues, neither in the short- nor in the long-run. ARAs lead to higher tax revenues in the short- and medium-run, but the effect dissipates over time. The main conclusion is that tax innovations are not a panacea to overcome the revenue shortages in African countries, but they are helpful in the short- and medium-run.     

Are Tax Havens Good Neighbours? FDI Spillovers and Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of tax havens on non-tax haven countries in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI). We analyze the importance of agglomeration effects by including FDI inflow levels in tax havens and capture geographic spillovers by measuring proximity to the nearest tax haven. Our analysis yields several interesting findings. First, using panel data for 142 countries, we find evidence of positive spillovers from tax havens to nearby developing countries, but not to nearby developed countries. Second, restricting our panel to developing countries, we find the positive effect of tax haven FDI on developing countries to be robust. Third, we find that geographic distance matters for financial flows: developing countries which are the closest to a nearby tax haven benefit the most in terms of FDI inflows. This result is robust to accounting for spatial interdependence of FDI.     

Does Conditionality Mitigate the Potential Negative Effect of Aid on Revenues?

Abstract

This paper assesses whether conditionality in IMF-supported programmes has helped offset the potential negative effect of foreign aid on tax revenues. The analysis – carried out on panel data covering 1993-2012 for 111 low- and middle-income countries – shows that growing use of revenue conditionality by low-income countries partially offsets the depressing effect of foreign grants on tax revenue, particularly on taxes on goods and services. The impact of conditionality is strong in countries where aid dependence is high and where institutions are strong, suggesting that revenue conditionality cannot substitute for weak institutions in mitigating any negative effect of aid on tax revenue collection.     

Alternative forms of sales taxation for a developing country

In an increasing n umber of developing countries, as in virtually all of the major industrial countries, one or other form of sales taxation has taken root as an important provider of revenue, though in spite of much recent debate—much of it concerning the value added tax—no single form of sales taxation has emerged as being the most efficacious. This article does not discuss the merits of sales taxation, nor its effects or, development, but rather focuses on the question of which form of sales tax should be adopted assuming that one is to be.     

国际税收制度改革新进程及其影响

针对数字经济税基侵蚀和利润转移的国际税收制度改革于2013年被正式提上议程,并逐渐形成了以双支柱为核心的税改方案。2021年10月,改革取得突破性进展,正式获得大多数改革参与国同意,计划于2023年开始在全球范围内实施。国际税收制度改革未来将对全球税收治理、全球贫富差距、数字经济发展、资本流动和避税型离岸中心等产生持续影响,也将给中国完善税收体制、发挥大国优势、吸引中资跨国数字企业回归、推动自由贸易试验区改革与创新等带来机遇。但国际税收制度改革同时会收紧中资跨国企业的海外投资环境,对香港金融稳定也会造成影响。中国应以本轮国际税收制度改革为契机积极参与,并完善税收征管机制,加快市场化建设和金融开放进程,在自贸区对标高水平国际创新,以及提升香港内生增长动力和稳定性。