Tax Category Research Articles

The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768: The Ottoman Empire by Molly Greene

Reviewed by: The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768: The Ottoman Empire by Molly Greene Phokion Kotzageorgis (bio) Molly Greene, The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768: The Ottoman Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2015. Pp. 239. 6 figures, 2 maps. Paper $49.95. Following the recent publication in Greek of Petros Pizanias’s history of Greece from 1400 to 1821 (Pizanias 2014), the present work comes to provide a fresh historical account of a period generally unexplored by contemporary historians. As part of The Edinburgh History of the Greeks series, Molly Greene’s book aims to provide a history of the Greek people and not of Greece in geographical terms. It also takes into account the latest findings on the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the period, employing the methodological tools of other disciplines apart from historiography. The result is intended to provide an innovative and exciting approach to the history of the period. In a study that extends beyond the chronological limits specified in the title, the author devotes two chapters to each of the four centuries involved, basing her analysis on basic themes for each century. The subtitle, “The Ottoman Empire,” prepares the reader for a history of the Greeks in Ottoman lands and not those of the diaspora or in Venetian-occupied territories. The narrative begins with “Thessaly” (the title of chapter 1), because, in Greene’s opinion, it was there that the Ottomans first established—at least as far as the Greek [End Page 410] lands are concerned—their new form of society. Thessaly also provides a useful insight into how the various Greek communities were formed. Through this attention paid to the Thessaly region, the author touches on issues relating to the early appearance and expansion of the Ottomans in the Balkans, such as the enlistment of Christians into the Ottoman armed groups, the special categories of taxes levied in the villages, the negotiating power of the monasteries, the formation of towns, and the protection of Christian urban and rural areas by patrons or benefactors (vakıfs, metropolitans, guilds). As she does throughout the book, Greene focuses on the Greeks through a narrative discourse that takes in both the Muslim perspective and the broader Christian reality in the Balkans. Chapter 2, “From Constantinople to Istanbul,” revolves around the Fall of Constantinople. After analyzing the relationships between the Byzantines, the Church, and the sultan, the author goes on to discuss the identifying terms Roman/Rum and Greek/Hellene. She contends that regionalism, which resulted from the political fragmentation of the Greek lands before and after the Fall, is the key point for interpreting the preeminence of the religious meaning of the term Roman/Rum over the political nuance it had during the Byzantine era. Rejecting the view that a sense of Greekness was already in existence by 1204, Greene claims that there was neither any national sentiment attached to the Greek language nor any support for the notion of a common descent from the ancient Greeks apart from in the Byzantine capital and amongst the Christian elites. Continuing along the same line of reasoning, the author notes her intention to study Hellenism “as a project rather than a reality” (53) and to ascertain where and why it succeeded or failed. In chapter 3, “Christians in an Islamic Empire,” posing an unusually phrased research question, the author asks how it was possible for a powerful Greek elite to continue to exist in Constantinople and for the Greeks to prosper in various fields of activity during the sixteenth century, when the Ottoman Empire was Islamicized and a different form of religious orthodoxy was imposed by the ruling power. The relative peace and stability that prevailed in the Ottoman world is put forward as a possible answer to this singular question. The author lays emphasis on the wave of conversions to Islam in the towns, a phenomenon she believes can be explained by the migrations to these places. Also, she challenges the view that the towns were dominated by Muslims, emphasizing their strong, if not dominant, Greek cultural character. Continuing with the sixteenth century in chapter 4, “The Larger Greek World,” the...

The great tax reform, a French myth

The need for a great tax reform is often debated in France, although the content and objectives of such a reform are never clearly specified. There is no unanimity on how the tax reform should be designed, some advocating that the reform should aim at cutting taxation (which implies further public spending cuts) while according to some others the tax system become more progressive. The French tax-to-GDP ratio is 46%, and primary public expenditure amount to 50% of potential GDP. This high level of public spending reflects a choice of society, which should be maintained. The French tax system is already very progressive, similar taxation applies to capital and labour incomes. France is one the very few countries where inequalities have not risen in the recent past. The paper addresses, for each category of tax, the reforms which could be introduced, and discusses whether they would be appropriate. In particular, the paper shows that replacing employers’ social contributions by VAT would be useless. It is desirable but difficult to raise environmental taxation; French taxation should remain family-based, merging the income tax with the CSG is not desirable. Tax expenditures should be reconsidered, especially as concerns companies’ and households’ tax optimization schemes. Merging PPE and RSA is not obvious. A competitiveness shock (i.e. strong cuts in employers’ social contributions and corporate taxation financed by a rise in CSG) should be implemented only in a European context.

Sustainable tax policy

The current academic and political debate about the quality of tax systems does not systematically take into account aspects of sustainability. For some time now, OECD, International Monetary Fund and European Commission have been pushing the case for enhancing the growth-friendliness of tax systems. Ecological and social/equity considerations appear to have lower priority in the hierarchical order of objectives guiding the recommendations for the design of tax systems. The European Commission and the OECD regularly publish an increasing number of indicators and the underlying data that can be used to assess different sustainability dimensions of tax systems and/or individual tax categories also in a cross-country comparison and over time. In particular, the European Commission has developed a set of indicators trying to capture the contribution of member states’ tax systems to the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. This set of indicators, however, focuses on the growth-friendliness of member states’ tax systems, while indicators for their distributional and environmental impact play a less prominent role. The paper attempts at establishing a conceptual basis for the development of a consistent set of indicators to capture the sustainability impact of tax systems. Firstly, we formulate fundamental objectives underlying a sustainable tax system. Then we present some fundamental deliberations about the function of indicators and a classification of indicators which may be useful to assess the sustainability impact of tax systems. Against this background, we critically review the European Commission’s indicator-based approach to evaluate EU member states’ tax systems within the European Semester. Finally, we address open questions and next research steps.

Extent of Tax Stamp Evasion Among Categories of Informal Operators in Twifu Atti-Morkwa and Hemang Lower Denkyira Districts in Ghana

This study examined the extent of tax stamp evasion among categories of micro-business owners in Twifo-Atti Morkwa and Hemang Lower Denkyira districts in Ghana. Data were collected from taxpayers in the study area who qualify for tax stamps and interview schedule was used for the collection of the data from the respondents. In total, 305 taxpayers were interviewed. The study employed chi squared statistics as the analytical tool. Overall, the study found a significance association between extent of tax stamp evasion and categories of micro-business owners. The partitioned pearson’s chi2 revealed that there is a significant association between fashion designers and full tax stamp evasion; a significant association between partial tax stamp evasion and traditional caterers and a significant association between no tax stamp evasion and beauticians (hairdressers and barbers). This study strongly recommends that the Ghana Revenue Authority’s policy intended to curb tax evasion in the informal sector should be customized to meet the unique features of the various categories of the informal business operators. Besides, Ghana Revenue Authority should pay more attention to fashion designers in the informal sector.

Tax Revenue Elasticities Corrected for Policy Changes in the EU

This paper investigates how tax revenue elasticities develop with respect to their tax base and analyses the specific impact of the business cycle. The main novelty of the paper is to use revenue data net of discretionary tax measures. The latter come from a new database, filled by Member States and managed by the European Commission (DG ECFIN). Based on an EU country panel for the period 2001-13, we estimate short-term and long-term revenue elasticities for consumption taxes, social security contributions, personal income taxes and corporate income taxes, using a wide range of specifications. The estimated revenue-to-base elasticities are broadly in line with the results found in previous research, although the robustness of the estimates varies across tax categories. Then, we add different indicators of the business cycle to test its specific influence on the short-term dynamics of revenue-to-base elasticities. This confirms the existence of a specific impact of the business cycle on short-term revenue elasticities – beyond the direct effect on the tax base – for all revenue categories, except for consumption taxes. Corporate income taxes appear to be the most cyclically-dependent tax category, followed by personal income taxes, for which estimation results turn out particularly robust.

On the Composition of Public Spending and Taxes

This paper studies the implications of changes in the fiscal (spending-tax) policy mix when all categories of spending and taxes are according to their functional breakdown. In so doing, we build a general equilibrium OLG model which naturally incorporates the main functional categories of public spending and taxes as in the euro area. Departing from the crisis year of 2008, the main result is that an increase in public spending on education and health would have outperformed all other changes in fiscal policy that have either happened or have been debated in policy circles.

Assessing The Impact Of Fiscal Shocks On Output In MENAP Countries

This note is a reference guide to the econometric work on fiscal multipliers for MENAP countries. Spending and tax multipliers are estimated from conventional VAR models and identified using a sign-restrictions approach. Estimates show that fiscal multipliers tend to be small, except for those associated with government investment spending, which generally exceed unity. For the average MENAP country, fiscal multipliers for current spending, government consumption and government investment spending are 0.5, 0.8, and 1.1,respectively, while the tax revenues multiplier is estimated at around –0.4. There is also significant variation in the size of these multipliers across countries, consistent with differences in economic fundamentals, such as openness to trade and the flexibility of the exchange rate. The estimated multipliers are generally consistent with theoretical priors, and are in line with the evidence from the literature for other economies and categories of spending and taxes.

Przejście od opodatkowania pracy do opodatkowania konsumpcji - wpływ na zmienność dochodów podatkowych państwa

This paper provides estimates of tax revenues with respect to their individual tax bases, focusing on differences between long- and short‑run elasticities and allowing for asymmetries in the speed of adjustment as well as in short‑run volatility. Estimates are presented for two major tax categories in Poland- value added tax, and employer and employee social contributions for the 1999–2013 period. Our results indicate that long‑run elasticities are close to unity. An analysis of short‑run elasticities based on considering their asymmetric responses to economic fluctuations, complemented by a rolling regression exercise, suggests that VAT revenues are subject to greater volatility. Therefore, a shift in taxation from labor income to consumption increases the sensitivity of public finances to the business cycle.

Qualidade de investimentos no uso de água pluvial: Particles Swarm Optimization para a maximização do valor presente líquido

A análise da qualidade dos investimentos deve fazer parte da tomada de decisão pela implantação dos sistemas de aproveitamento de água pluvial, de modo a avaliar se os investimentos na redução dos impactos ambientais são atrativos também sob o ponto de vista dos investidores. Considerando-se os métodos baseados no fluxo de caixa descontado, o valor presente líquido é o melhor indicador para tal avaliação, pois permite decidir qual é o melhor entre dois projetos excludentes, além de apresentar uma rotina de cálculo simples e de fácil entendimento pelos usuários. Este trabalho teve como objetivo propor uma ferramenta para a análise da qualidade dos investimentos em um sistema de aproveitamento de água pluvial, baseada na otimização do valor presente líquido, por meio da técnica de Particles Swarm Optimization. Para demonstrar a utilização da ferramenta proposta, desenvolveu-se um estudo de caso para uma edificação pública existente. Foram considerados três cenários para a tarifa água: sem reajuste e com valores limite e máximo do reajuste histórico das tarifas da concessionária local: 5,69 e 19,63% ao ano. Em todos os cenários foram encontradas duas alternativas: existência de cobrança da tarifa de esgoto correspondente ao volume de água pluvial utilizado e inexistência dela. Os resultados obtidos com o uso da ferramenta proposta podem auxiliar na tomada de decisão para uso dos sistemas de aproveitamento da água pluvial.

Using simulation to compare 4 categories of intervention for reducing cardiovascular disease risks.

The Prevention Impacts Simulation Model (PRISM) projects the multiyear impacts of 22 different interventions aimed at reducing risk of cardiovascular disease. We grouped these into 4 categories: clinical, behavioral support, health promotion and access, and taxes and regulation. We simulated impacts for the United States overall and also for a less-advantaged county with a higher death rate. Of the 4 categories of intervention, taxes and regulation reduce costs the most in the short term (through 2020) and long term (through 2040) and reduce deaths the most in the long term; they are second to clinical interventions in reducing deaths in the short term. All 4 categories combined were required to bring costs and deaths in the less-advantaged county down to the national level.

The Role of the Automatic Stabilizers in Modern Economy

English Abstract: Automatic stabilizers as a factor of cyclical fluctuations stabilization attract economists' attention for several decades. This paper deals with the mechanisms through which automatic stabilizers influence economy and positive and negative effects on aggregate demand they can produce. It is common when discussing automatic stabilizers to put the accent on certain tax categories, such as personal income tax and corporate income tax, оr some public expenditures, such as unemployment benefits and social protection. Given that, here only fiscal stabilizers will be discussed, although some nonfiscal categories also demonstrate stabilizing impact.Serbian Abstract: Аутоматски стабилизатори као фактор стабилизације цикличних флуктуација привлаче пажњу економиста већ неколико деценија. Овај рад се бави механизмима путем којих аутоматски стабилизатори утичу на економска кретања и позитивним и негативним ефектима на агрегатну тражњу које они могу да произведу. Уобичајено је, када се расправља о аутоматским стабилизаторима, да се нагласак стави на одређене порезе, као што су порез на доходак физичких лица и порез на добит корпорација, или неке јавне расходе, као што су накнаде за незапосленост и социјална заштита. Сходно томе, у раду се разматрају само фискални стабилизатори, иако и неке нефискалне категорије такође остварују аутоматске стабилизационе ефекте.

Does the Law Matter? Win Rates and Law Reforms

The empirical legal study of tax law has developed greatly in recent years and has yielded many insights into the judiciary in particular and the legal system as a whole. This article continues this process by evaluating, through the prism of tax litigation and based on theories of analyzing judicial decision making, the effect of law reforms on win rates and whether win rates can help predict future law reforms. The analysis is based on a comprehensive database (census, not sample) of 1,330 tax decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC), divided into seven tax categories, and covering 60 years of tax jurisprudence since Israel's establishment (1948–2008). The data enabled us to find changes in win rates over time, among different tax categories, and in relation to several tax reforms. The detailed analysis found that law reforms have a significant effect on win rates and that win rates have a predictive ability for future law reform. These findings strengthen the legal model and the neo-institutional theory and do not provide support for selection effect theory or the attitudinal model regarding their explanatory function in analyzing judicial decisions.

Research on the Relationship between the Development of our Country Service Industries and Tax Based on the Co-Integration Model

In our country tax system, the most category of taxes have relationship with service, involving almost every part of the service industry. With the development of service industry, the tax revenues will increase. This paper uses co-integration test and Granger causality tests to analysis the relationship between the development level of the service industry and tax revenue.In order to use tax policy to promote the transformation and upgrading of service industry.

A Primer on State and Local Tax Policy: Trade-Offs Among Tax Instruments

This primer provides an overview of the different types of general revenue taxes used in American state and local governments. The intended audience includes policy makers, their advisors, and other citizens interested in the trade-offs involved in setting tax policy. The primer begins with a short discussion of criteria for evaluating tax revenue options (i.e., economic efficiency, equity, transparency, collectability, and revenue production). It proceeds to an overview of the different types of taxes employed at various levels of government and an evaluation of each tax against these criteria. The tax categories included here are individual income taxes, consumption taxes, real property taxes, and corporate income taxes.

Canada's Equalization Formula: Peering Inside the Black Box...And Beyond

Ontario only started receiving equalization payments, for the first time in its history, in 2009. As soon as Ontario slipped into that “have-not” status, the federal government imposed a cap on the growth of equalization payouts. That led to substantial federal savings, but has cost Ontario and other recipients what would have been much larger payments since then. The federal government’s move to rein in the potential ballooning cost of equalization may have been understandable, from a cost-control perspective, but it ultimately defied the very purpose of equalization. The fixed-growth rule imposed by the federal government is just one of several elements within the current equalization arrangement that should be corrected. The federal government should end that practice and absorb any resulting increase in cost. However, if that cost is onerous, then it could consider adjustments of its other major transfers to the provinces – Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer – and reduce those per-capita transfers to provinces that are well ahead of the equalization norm. That would be better than shifting the entire burden to the those below the norm.Another flaw in the current equalization arrangement is the inclusion of Crown-owned hydro corporations’ remittances of earnings to their provincial owners in the natural resources category of equalization calculations. Many of these corporations are not simply energy producers, but are also vertically integrated, with transmission and retail sales operations, and some have no resources at all, but rely instead on fuel purchased in the marketplace. Moreover, taxes paid by private energy corporations are not considered part of the natural resource category but are included in the business income tax category. This means the formula is essentially inconsistent, discriminating based on the ownership profile. Hydro remittances should be removed from the natural resource revenue category in the formula that calculates equalization. They should go in the business income tax category, just as do the earnings of other commercial Crown corporations and taxes paid by private businesses. Going beyond the formula, it is time to re-consider the practice of exempting commercial Crown corporations from corporate income taxation. A more fundamental and long-recognized problem is the incentive for provinces receiving equalization payments to underprice the water-rental rates they charge for hydro production. Lowering water-rental rates has the effect of reducing provincial hydro revenues, which can entitle those provinces to larger equalization payments, while benefitting residents with cheaper hydro rates. Looked at empirically, “have-not” provinces do charge lower average rates for hydro than do “have” provinces, lending credence to the criticism that non-recipient provinces subsidize cheaper energy for residents of recipient provinces. The increased development of competitive North American wholesale electricity markets in recent decades has made it more feasible to assess what a fair market price for water-rental rates could be. Updating the equalization formula to consider not water-rental revenue, but water-rental fiscal capacity, should be the highest priority of all in reforming Canada’s equalization formula to align it more closely to the principles behind its creation.It is also time to include municipal government revenues from user fees in the formula. Those revenues are significant and it makes little sense to exclude them when municipal property tax revenues are included. Equalization is not out of control but reform is needed. Action on these fronts should be the priorities. These inside- the-box issues should be resolved before going beyond and considering the more complex task of extending the formula to account for provincial governments’ different expenditure needs and costs.

Determining the Exogeneity of Tax Components with Respect to GDP

In this study we examine the relationship between tax revenues and GDP for Turkey for the period from 2004.Q1 to 2012.Q1. The effectiveness of tax components on GDP are investigated by using Johansen and Juselius (1990) cointegration and Granger Causality test. According to our findings, the main categories of taxes are cointegrated with GDP but the sub categories are not. This results means that more than optimal level of tax is collecting in some sub categories. When determined these sub categories, we have found as result that policy makers should increase Withholding Income Tax. When consider Special Consumption Tax, except Tobacco and Alcohol Products’ SCT, all categories of Special Consumption Tax should be increased.

The effect of cigarette prices on brand-switching in China: a longitudinal analysis of data from the ITC China Survey

BackgroundRecent studies have found that Chinese smokers are relatively unresponsive to cigarette prices. As the Chinese government contemplates higher tobacco taxes, it is important to understand the reasons for this...

The Information Content of Tax Expense for Firms Reporting Losses

ABSTRACTWe investigate whether management's decision regarding the recognition of the valuation allowance (VA) for deferred tax assets provides incremental information about the persistence of accounting losses. We introduce a classification scheme that assigns loss firm‐years into three categories based on whether management appears to have recognized a material change in the VA, and whether or not the firm has positive taxable income (e.g., a net operating loss). The results of our study show that our tax categories contain information about the persistence of accounting losses over the following three years beyond variables previously identified to predict loss persistence. This incremental information is consistent with management using private information about the firm's future prospects in setting the VA. Finally, we find that investors’ pricing of the VA varies with the saliency of the tax signal and the information environment of the firm.

Life Satisfaction and Public Finance: Empirical Analysis Using U.S. Micro Data

The objective of this paper is to explore various relationships between self-reported life satisfaction and state public finance in the U.S. The paper focuses on both government expenditure and revenue (especially tax) structures. This paper is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between individual life satisfaction and overall tax structure, and to consider the expenditure and tax structures together. Using life satisfaction data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 2005 and 2009, we find that government spending and revenue structures are related to individual life satisfaction as follows: First, the size of general expenditure is positively related to life satisfaction. Among different categories of expenditures, public health expenditure has a positive impact on life satisfaction. The impacts of education and welfare expenditures depend on specific categories within the expenditure. In addition, higher income groups report lower life satisfaction than does the lowest income group with a greater amount of general expenditure, especially with welfare expenditure. Second, with respect to government revenue, life satisfaction is lower with greater tax revenue, and higher with greater non-tax forms of financing expenditures, such as intergovernmental transfer. Among different categories of taxes, individual income tax has a negative impact on life satisfaction. In particular, compared to the lowest income group, higher income groups report lower life satisfaction with greater individual income tax. These results indicate that state public finance matters for individual life satisfaction, and the impact is different across income groups.

The application of decision tree and artificial neural network to income tax audit: the examples of profit-seeking enterprise income tax and individual income tax in Taiwan

Income tax is one of the key revenues for a government, though taxpayers are often tempted to evade it, using many different means. In Taiwan, income tax auditing relies on a computerized selection of cases. Its result is thereby dependent on the quality of sampling, so is its effect on curbing tax evasion. Insufficient workforce also makes the auditing more difficult. To enhance the effectiveness of tax auditing, we used previous filing records of enterprise and individual income taxes as a database to develop two different models via decision tree and artificial neural network. The accuracy rates of the models were compared in order to confirm their suitability for different tax types. The results showed that the DT model had a higher accuracy rate in detecting tax evasion in individual income tax. In comparison, ANN performed better in the category of enterprise income tax. Auditors have to choose different techniques for different tax types, either based on their own experience or additional information, such as the results of this research, which provides a useful reference for the choice of auditing tools.