Paying Taxes 2013 : The Global Picture

The paying taxes indicators (the total tax rate, the time to comply and the number of payments) have now been part of the World Bank Group Doing Business project for eight years, monitoring the changes and reforms made to tax regimes around the world. The simple aim of the study is to supply business leaders and policy makers with robust data to enable tax systems to be compared on a like for like basis, and to help inform the dialogue which underlies the development of tax policy. The study is unique in that it now not only covers 185 economies, but it also provides an insight into how tax systems have developed over a significant period of time, using a consistent methodology. The author has focused on the trends that the Paying Taxes data show, both at the global level, and also by geographical region. Globally it is now easier for firms to pay taxes than eight years ago. Both the administrative burden and the average tax rates have decreased over this period. The studies for some time have shown a trend toward a lowering of corporate tax rates and a broadening of the tax base. In last year's publication the pace of reform continued but with an increasing focus on improving the administrative aspects of the tax system. This year's results are more complex; administrative reforms have continued, but the fall in average global tax rates seems to have stalled; this may indicate that tax rates are stabilizing as the pressure on public finances to grow.