The genesis of this set of five papers on prefilled (or pre-populated) personal income tax returns was the observation that the Québec government had initiated in December 2007 a prefilled personal income tax program. A target group of 100,000 tax filers, 80% of whom were age 65 or older were...

The issue of tax compliance costs continues to attract public attention throughout the OECD. This is particularly true in Australia, where major tax reforms are taking place. This paper reports on an ongoing research project on federal tax compliance costs conducted by a research team from the...

The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine and evaluate the recommendations of the Henry Review as they relate to the simplification of the Australian tax system and its component parts. A subsidiary aim is to consider the Government’s initial response to the recommendations contained...

The main purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary evaluation of the simplification impacts of the TVM. By its nature the paper can only be a work in progress. It is a scoping paper. It is largely based on intuition and plausible theoretical speculation (together with the authors’...

Like the rest of the developed world, Australasian tax reforms in the past 30 years have exhibited many efficiency-enhancing features: lower income tax rates, tax base broadening, a change in tax mix towards indirect taxation, and increased neutrality and uniformity in tax structures. In New...

The focus of this article is on the burden imposed by all aspects of compliance with tax obligations in New Zealand. It explores the levels of research into tax compliance costs undertaken in New Zealand and the outcomes of that research, and compares this data with comparable international...

This paper provides a summary overview of the personal income tax–transfer reform debate in Australia. It attempts to employ a balanced approach to examine the,main issues and arguments put forward by various schools of thought with regard to tax reform. First, it explores in depth the meaning...

This paper examines the problems faced by low and middle income earners as,a result of high effective marginal tax rates ('EMTRs'). It is primarily concerned with the negative impact of these high EMTRs on workforce participation. The paper,explores some of the reasons for high EMTRs, caused by...

This research project, funded by CPA Australia under the Global Research Perspectives Program, evaluates Standard Business Reporting (SBR) as a measure designed to reduce the tax compliance burden of Australian businesses resulting from reporting obligations imposed by the government. In...

This report sets out the findings of an extended study designed to test a diagnostic tool that has been developed for use in comparative cross-country assessments of the VAT compliance burden and its main drivers. It is based on data gathered from surveys conducted in the 47 member countries of...