The federal government is reducing its GST rate from 7% to 5%. We examine a broader reform in which this reduction in federal tax rates and revenues is accompanied by a similar reduction in federal transfers to the provinces. At the same time, the provinces may if they wish increase their own...

Ontario's new Harmonized Sales Tax applies to a broader base of consumer purchases than before, but it also removes some of the “hidden” taxes on business inputs. This paper offers a first look at how the change has affected consumer prices and the welfare of Ontario families. While consumer...

This report presents and discusses the findings of the “Study to quantifyand analyse the VAT Gap in the EU-27 Member States” (Contract TAXUD/2012/DE/316, FWC No. TAXUD/2010/CC/104), conducted by CASE and CPB.The structure of this report is as follows. In Chapter 1, we discuss the structure...

This report presents and discusses the findings of the "Study to quantify and analyse the VAT Gap in the EU-27 Member States", conducted by CASE and CPB. The main aim of the study was to help better understand the recent trends in the field of VAT fraud and analyse determinants of VAT Gaps using...

With recent accessions to the federal-provincial Harmonized Sales Tax, provinces with value added taxes (VATs) now comprise over two-thirds of the national economy. While Canadian VATs are economically superior to the taxes they replaced, they are not as well designed as in other countries. An...

Canadians developed and implemented a sales tax system that no one in their right mind would have designed from scratch. Nonetheless, more by accident than design, Canada ended up being a bold innovator in sales tax policy and administration in several important respects. For decades, academics...

A decade ago, several Canadian provinces replaced retail sales taxes by value-added taxes. This paper estimates the effects of this tax substitution on consumer prices in the reforming provinces. Consistent with theory, we find that the resulting effective tax rate changes were shifted forward...

We develop a simple structural model of value added tax (VAT) compliance, and estimate it using widely available national accounts data to learn about compliance in countries where little is currently known. International border controls improve VAT compliance, generating a correlation between...

We develop a simple structural model of value added tax (VAT) compliance, and estimate it using widely available national accounts data to learn about compliance in countries where little is currently known. International border controls improve VAT compliance, generating a correlation between...