Program: Fiscal

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

Avoiding a Household Debt Crisis with a Targeted Policy Response

| 8 January 2021
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Covid-19, Debt, Income Tax, Unemployment
The economic effect of the Covid-19 pandemic varies highly across industrial sectors, education levels and income groups, adding further to inequality across the globe. This calls for highly targeted policy responses for the sake of fiscal prudence and to avoid further economic and financial hardship ... continue reading

Reforming Tax Expenditures – Focus on Europe

11, 18 and 25 February, 2021 | Online
Fiscal, Roundtables | Tags: Consumption Tax, Corporate Tax, Personal Income Tax, Tax Expenditures, Tax Reform, Wealth Tax
A significant amount of government funding worldwide is channeled through tax breaks, aka “tax expenditures” (TEs), in the form of exemptions, deductions, credits, deferrals, and reduced tax rates. Despite their magnitude and the fact that their net impact on government budgets is the same as direct ... continue reading

COVID-19 and Inequality: The Urgent Need for Tax Expenditure Reform

and | 24 November 2020
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Covid-19, Inequality, Tax Expenditures, Tax Reform
The economic impact of COVID-19 is both unprecedented and far-reaching. There is now little doubt that the pandemic will disproportionally hit the worse-off, hence exacerbating inequality. It is also clear that the pandemic is particularly affecting groups and sectors that were already under significant stress ... continue reading

Tackling Inequality Through Tax Expenditure Reform

and | 24 September 2020
Fiscal, Policy Briefs | Tags: G20, Inequality, Tax Expenditures, VAT
Inequality endangers social cohesion and hampers economic growth, and as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality is set to increase. Hence, the commitment of the Group of Twenty (G20) to address inequality in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is arguably more ... continue reading