This paper explores how the tax treatment of investment and savings affects international capital flows as well as national and global welfare. Focusing on portfolio investment, it evaluates the international effects of capital income taxes in the United States and Japan. During the 1980s, these...

This paper discusses findings of the assessment of Financial Sector Supervision and Regulation on the Cayman Islands. The assessment reveals that substantial progress has been made in the implementation of the 2003 Offshore Financial Center assessment recommendations, including, importantly,...

Several Asian emerging market economies have recently adopted measures to limit the offshore trading of their currencies. This paper provides a general overview of such measures and evaluates the experiences of selected countries that resorted to such measures. It concludes that the measures...

This study focused on environmental tax measures, and on allocation, pricing, and taxation of Iceland’s major hydropower and geothermal resources. Measures to secure the tax base for the corporate income tax (CIT) are proposed. Taxation of the financial sector can be improved by a number...

This paper identifies tax factors in 21 developing countries that have an impact on foreign direct investment flows. It categorizes those factors into issues associated with tax coordination; tax rates and rate structures; and composition of the tax base. Recent actions by countries reveal no...

This paper addresses core challenges that all tax administrations face in dealing with noncompliance-which are now receiving renewed attention. Long a priority in developing countries, assuring strong compliance has acquired greater priority in countries facing intensified revenue needs, and is...

After narrowing modestly in 2013, the global scale of current account imbalances, and of excess imbalances, held steady in 2014. Over the last several years, while the country composition of imbalances has rotated somewhat, overall there has been little progress on reducing excess imbalances....

Capital flows are an important aspect of the international monetary system. They provide significant benefits, both direct and indirect. At the same time, they also carry risks, and a key challenge for countries is how to harness the benefits while managing the risks. The institutional view on...