This paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of taxation in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, and its main reform needs and options. It previews the findings of recent studies prepared or commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for its forthcoming...

Specialized theoretical and empirical research should in principle be embedded in a unified framework that identifies the relevant interactions among different phenomena, enables an appropriate matching of policy instruments to objectives, and grounds normative analysis in individuals' utilities...

This Handbook entry presents a conceptual, normative overview of the subject of taxation. It emphasizes the relationships among the main functions of taxation—notably, raising revenue, redistributing income, and correcting externalities—and the mapping between these functions and various...

This chapter reviews the theory of the voluntary public and private redistribution of wealth elaborated by economic analysis in the last forty years or so. The central object of the theory is altruistic gift-giving, construed as benevolent voluntary redistribution of income or wealth. The theory...

This is a conceptual paper, the author discusses some fundamental assumptions regarding taxation. These assumptions need to be re-examined. The author has carried out a survey of fifty professionals in the field of tax administrations and based on discussions with them tried to identify the...

The Sri Lankan government implemented tax reforms in 2011, including removal of the tax exemption given to public servants and reduction of personal income tax rates in order to improve tax compliance from pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax payers. This study evaluates the 2007 and 2011 tax systems in...

Has a $5.00 shipping fee ever made you second guess an online purchase? What about a sales tax? Apparently, our Supreme Court Justices pay no mind to the latter. South Dakota v. Wayfair annihilates the concept of tax-free online shopping and allows the states to compel online companies meeting...

Substantial variations in the cost of living among regions in the United States are a major impediment to achieving a fair and equitable income tax system. Geographic cost of living differences arise because of disparities in the consumption power of income in different regions. Although the...

When policymakers look to trim fat from the federal government they too often ignore half the problem: the vast and complicated set of spending programs administered by the IRS. These programs are often referred to as tax expenditures, but this paper argues that they should be viewed just like...

In the tax literature, the tax effort index for any country is usually measured by the ratio of the actual tax ratio to the predicted ratio. This reflects mainly the variance in the taxable capacity of a country. A high value of tax effort index indicates that a particular country is collecting...