Program: Fiscal

Get My Tax Base if You Can

| 25 June 2021
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Developing Countries, Minimum Tax Rate, Tax Competition
The headlines from the G7 summit in Cornwall might suggest that the groundwork has just been laid for the most fundamental overhaul of the international tax regime in decades. The twin proposal accords additional taxing rights to states with large consumer markets and introduces a ... continue reading

Global Tax Expenditures Database – Official Launch

16 June 2021, 15.00-17.30 CET | Online
Conferences, Fiscal | Tags: Inequality, Sustainability, Tax Expenditures, Tax Reform
The Council on Economic Policies (CEP) and the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) have launched the «Global Tax Expenditures Database» (GTED): www.GTED.net with an online conference on 16 June 2021.   The key findings of the GTED Flagship report presented at ... continue reading

Globalization and Digitalization – Interconnections Between Taxation, Trade and Investment

3, 10, 17, 24 June and 1 July, 2021 14.00-17.00 CET | Online
Fiscal, Trade, Workshops | Tags: Digitalization, Investment, Services Trade, Tax Expenditures, Taxes
Recent decades have witnessed structural changes in the way production is organized. Trade and investment liberalization together with technological developments, notably in transport and communications, have substantially reduced trade and foreign investment costs and enabled global value chains, supported by global finance, to proliferate. As ... continue reading

Tax Incentives for Investment. Old and New Challenges for International Trade

24 June, 2021 14.00-17.00 CET | Online
Fiscal, Workshops | Tags: Digitalization, Investment, Tax Expenditures, Tax Incentives
Despite their stated goals including attracting FDI, creating employment and boosting R&D and innovation, tax incentives for investment are often ineffective. Indeed, several provisions are redundant and hence end-up triggering costly windfall gains. They can also trigger negative spillover effects on third countries, e.g. when ... continue reading

Reforming Tax Expenditures – Challenges and Barriers in the United States

14 April, 2021 20.00 CET, 14.00 EDT | Online
Fiscal, Panel | Tags: Tax Expenditures, Tax Reform
The panel addressed the main challenges and barriers holding back reform of the tax expenditure system in the US including:  The politics of tax expenditures “Negative” and “positive” tax expenditures Collecting racial, ethnic, and gender information Improving transparency in public finance management. ... continue reading

Assessing Pension-Related Tax Expenditures in South Africa

and | 6 April 2021
Fiscal, Research Papers | Tags: Inequality, Pensions, South Africa, Tax Expenditures
In 2016, the South African government introduced a comprehensive reform to simplify and harmonize the pension system in order to incentivize pension savings and increase the fairness of the retirement system. Using administrative tax micro-data, we assess the impact of the 2016 reform and find that it triggered ... continue reading

“If Something Cannot Go on Forever, It Will Stop“

| 1 April 2021
Fiscal, Monetary, Policy Briefs | Tags: Covid-19, Debt, Democracy, Environment, Financial Stability, Health Systems, Inequality, International Cooperation, Resilience
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This famous observation was made by Herb Stein, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. It became famous largely because it was just that, obvious. Yet, what is no less obvious is that public policy is ... continue reading

Disparate Racial Impact: Tax Expenditure Reform Needed

| 23 March 2021
Fiscal, Policy Briefs | Tags: Income Inequality, Tax Expenditures
This policy brief discusses the issues of potential disparate racial impacts of U.S. tax laws regarding government subsidy and incentive programs run through the tax system: tax expenditures. It analyzes the available data, provides normative insights, and describes eight steps to address disparate racial impacts ... continue reading

Why Governments Continue to Offer Inefficient Investment Incentives? The Role of Bureaucratic Design

and | 19 March 2021
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Investment, Tax Incentives
Governments worldwide use a myriad of tax incentives to promote investment and yet, there is little evidence that these incentives actually work as intended. Moreover, although the striking lack of transparency makes it hard (if not impossible) to accurately estimate their fiscal cost, the available ... continue reading

How to Design Environmentally Beneficial Tax Incentives

and | 4 March 2021
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Carbon Tax, Climate Change, Tax Incentives
The fight against climate change requires effective economic policy instruments. In addition to environmental taxes, such as a carbon tax, environmentally beneficial tax incentives that favour less polluting consumption and investment activities can be used to promote climate-friendly behaviour. In search of governments around the ... continue reading