Tax systems have become increasingly complex in recent decades. There is no such thing as a single tax. There are individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, sometimes local income taxes. There are a variety of indirect taxes, such as the value added tax (VAT), various kinds of excise...

Paying taxes is a cost of doing business. The looters (or public servants, depending on your perspective) must be paid and tax proceeds must be distributed to various groups and individuals, both worthy and unworthy. But tax expense includes more than just the amount of taxes that must be paid....

The goal of this paper is to explore the perception of Kosovo's citizens of the severity of tax evasion relative to other crimes and abuses. Perception of tax evasion may somewhat clarify the degree of rebelliousness with the tax laws. Using data from a self-administered survey and a personnel...

Each year the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal publish the Index of Economic Freedom. This major study compiles economic data on more than 150 countries. The compilers divide the data into ten categories, ranging from business freedom to labor freedom. One of the ten categories is...

This paper presents a brief overview of Armenia's public finance system and compares it to the public finance systems of 160 other countries and to the public finance systems of the other 14 former Soviet republics. Fiscal burden is discussed as a factor that affects foreign investment

This paper discusses the current state of taxation and public finance in the Russian Federation and compares some aspects of Russian public finance to other CIS and Eastern European countries and to selected OECD countries. The paper begins with a discussion of the present tax system and...

There is an on-going debate about tax competition or tax harmonization. The high-tax welfare states want to keep tax rates high so that they can continue to fund their social welfare programs. But they are losing business and investments to lower tax jurisdictions where governments let people...

One might think that bribery is always unethical. Studies by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development discourage the practice and a number of other studies have viewed bribery in negative terms. However, a closer examination of the issue reveals that the question of whether...

This study examined attitudes on the ethics of bribe taking in four European countries – France, Great Britain, Italy and Germany. Nineteen demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, etc.) were also examined, and most mean scores were found to be significantly different. Although most...

This paper examines ethical opinion on bribe taking in four African countries – South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Nineteen demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, etc.) are also examined. Although all countries expressed a strong opposition to bribe taking, opposition was...