When governments analyze tax policies aimed at attracting investment, they typically rely on a variable called the marginal effective tax rate (METR) on capital. The METR is a measure of the effective tax burden on new business investment.Recent Ontario budgets have presented estimates of the...

Tax reforms are crucial to promoting inclusive growth in India. The replacement of a myriad of consumption taxes by a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost India's competitiveness, investment, job creation and tax compliance. The potential to raise additional revenue from taxes on goods and...

Property taxes are generally considered by economists to be good taxes, and many countries are being advised to increase and improve their property taxes. In practice, however, property tax reforms have often proved to be difficult to carry out successfully. This paper discusses why property...

We examine whether firms use tax reserve decreases to meet analysts’ quarterly earnings forecasts in the period prior to the passage of FIN 48 and whether that behavior changed following the enactment of FIN 48. In the pre-FIN 48 period, we observe that firms reduce their tax reserves (i.e.,...

Accrual-method taxpayers must use the all events tests to account for rights and liabilities under contracts for sales of goods and services. These longstanding tests evolved from transactions that involved relatively straightforward exchanges of goods or services for payments, and the tests...

We examine the role of political connections in US state government-awarded corporate economic incentives, and whether a role (if present) is cause for constituent concern. We find that companies are more likely to receive an incentive award in a politically connected state and this association...