This paper examines the role of tax policy reforms in enhancing fiscal shock smoothing in a panel of 13 OECD economies during the period 1980-2017. The results suggest that tax reforms, in particular those that broaden the tax base, significantly enhance the ability of fiscal policy to mitigate...

Structural transformation has resulted in an increasing share of services in aggregate value-added in advanced and developing countries across the world. We analyze the impact of this shift into services on countries' efficiency in collecting the value-added tax (VAT). The analysis is based on...

The ever-increasing digitalization of businesses has accelerated the need to address the many shortcomings and unresolved issues within the international corporate income tax system. In particular, the customer or 'user'-through their online activities-is now considered by many as being a...

At a time when states are desperately struggling to balance their budgets, one source of additional revenue has been overlooked: decoupling state tax policies from federal tax policies to modify deductions and credits that reduce citizens’ state tax liability. While forty-three states and the...

Using the post-WWII data of U.S. federal corporate income tax changes, within a Smooth Transition VAR, this paper finds that the output effect of capital income tax cuts is government debt-dependent: it is less expansionary when debt is high than when it is low. To explore the mechanisms that...

There is no consensus on how strongly the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has stimulated U.S. private fixed investment. Some argue that the business tax provisions spurred investment by cutting the cost of capital. Others see the TCJA primarily as a windfall for shareholders. We find that U.S....

A recent Sixth Circuit case challenged the validity under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution of an Ohio income tax credit. Although the Supreme Court overruled the decision on May 15, holding that the plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to challenge the incentives in federal...

In recent years, Canada's courts have expressed a number of conflicting views about whether the parol evidence rule can be invoked by or against the Minister of National Revenue (Minister) in tax disputes. Unfortunately, the courts in these cases did not elaborate, to a sufficient extent, on the...

Government subsidies to higher education have recently become a hot button political issue. But what if the federal government doesn't actually subsidize higher education, but rather, taxes it? This article gauges efficient investment levels based on marginal rates of return relative to other...