Empirical Studies of Taxation in BRICS Countries: Literature Review

Abstract

The cross-country studies in taxation could provide a number of unique advantages over national studies The paper aims to analyze existing empirical research devoted to tax issues in BRICS countries to classify them according to their aim and empirical base and answer the question: could BRICS countries really be compared in tax frame, and for what extend. The sample for this study includes all papers available in Science Direct, Google Scholar and E-Library databases, which include pair of words “tax” and “BRIC(S)” or “налог” and “БРИКС” simultaneously in the title, abstract, keywords. Literature sources were sorted by relevance and search depth was not limited. The literature review showed that studies devoted to taxation in BRICS countries have different approaches based on their aim and data. The most part of research is based on tradition approach (tax rates and tax legislation) only few research of taxes and related topics in BRICS are based on indices. We also separated several directions in studies related to taxation in BRICS countries: comparative description of taxation; tax avoidance and tax evasion and their determinants; examination of the particular tax or particular industry to find relevant experience to apply; examination the interaction between taxes and other variables (taxes and economic development; taxes and economic inequality; taxes and environment). The majority of articles do not aim to find some regularities for BRICS countries they only use these countries as random sample comparing them with G7 or MINT or other groups of countries. While almost the BRICS member countries are rapidly developing, they are diverse in culture, economic conditions and social and political structures. From this perspective we could not address to BRICS countries as a homogeneous group that could be used for observation in tax frame.