Cost Fee Research Articles

State control over the economic activities of large taxpayers during martial law

The article presents the main scientific and practical results of the analysis of the situation regarding the exercise of state control over large taxpayers in terms of their compliance with tax legislation when applying for a value added tax refund.
 The article examines the peculiarities of exercising the rights of taxpayers to access a fair trial of claims for appealing tax assessment notices, the practice of considering the latter, and practical aspects of relations between taxpayers seeking VAT refunds and their counterparties. The author analyzes the practice of providing legal assistance to large taxpayers in the course of their legal activities. The author also analyzes the legal nature of the VAT refund procedure and identifies the key issues that arise when taxpayers apply for the relevant refund.
 The author proposes to amend the current legislation in order to eliminate the problematic issues arising when applying for a VAT refund, which create the basis for the corruption component, and also force the country to spend significant funds to ensure the work of a large number of tax service employees, as well as the forced costs of paying court fees when appealing against court decisions made in favor of taxpayers when appealing against tax notices (tax decision notices).
 The author proves that the problem of appealing tax assessment notices, which has its origin in taxpayers’ claims for VAT refunds, can be solved quite simply. As a result, it will be possible to improve the audit procedure, eliminate the costs of court fees in obviously losing cases, and eliminate significant gaps in the current legislation that complicate transparent business activities and create corruption risks.

Predatory fines and fees: Revenue, fiscal contrition, and policy change

AbstractFiscal contrition refers to the phenomenon of policy‐makers becoming aware of the social costs of fines and fees, recognizing a need to reduce those costs, and taking action to do so. In order to reveal the occurrence of fiscal contrition, this analysis examines detailed budget data from three U.S. counties. Findings indicate a dominance of predatory over punitive monetary sanctions in county budgets. That is, fines and fees that extract revenue from a justice‐involved population are more common than those with social control objectives. The analysis also reveals patterns and nuances in fine and fee usage and the revenue they produce, which illuminates pathways for reducing reliance on fine and fee revenue. This approach provides useful context for the burgeoning scholarship focused on the role of monetary sanctions in fueling social inequities.

A Charging Guidance Optimization Model for Electric Vehicle Travel by Considering Multi-Dimensional Preferences of Users

The dual-carbon strategy advocates a green, environmentally friendly, and low-carbon lifestyle. In the field of transportation, electric vehicles (EVs) have been regarded as an effective solution to reduce carbon emissions and to conserve energy. Developing a reasonable charging guidance scheme for users is a feasible way to solve problems, such as the range anxiety of EV users, and has a great application value for the promotion of EVs in the future. In practical situations, how to develop charging induction schemes for users that better meet their needs according to the type of user and their multi-dimensional preferences is the focus of this paper. To this end, this study utilized charging behavioral data to investigate the multi-dimensional charging preference of users based on the collaborative filtering algorithm. Then, a multi-objective optimization model was established based on the preference degree of each charging station and the integrated travel cost. An NSGA-III framework was used to design the algorithm to solve the proposed model. The algorithm was tested using simulation experiments that were designed based on the road network and charging stations in Beijing. The final result is an experimental analysis of the weight matrices for the three different preferences of minimum energy consumption cost, minimum time cost, and minimum fee cost, which yields a difference of about 4.4% between the optimal energy consumption cost and the maximum energy cost, about 2.9% between the optimal time cost and the maximum time cost, and about 10% between the optimal fee cost and the maximum fee cost under these three different preferences, respectively. The proposed multi-objective optimization model is able to provide users with reliable charging station selection by incorporating their personalized charging preference characteristics and charge guidance schemes.

A Blockchain-Based Method for Optimizing the Routing of High-Frequency Carbon-Trading Payment Channels

Carbon trading is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. It is a market mechanism aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide emissions. Blockchain technology can be applied to the carbon-trading scenario using characteristics that guarantee the security, decentralization, data immutability, and data traceability of the carbon-trading process. It would be difficult to implement carbon trading on blockchains for all enterprises and individuals, as the current performance of blockchains does not meet the requirements. There has been extensive research conducted on blockchain performance optimization, and the off-chain payment channel is one of the more mature solutions. This approach involves the transfer of transactions to off-chain transactions, thus avoiding high transaction fees. Existing research has addressed the problem of routing security and efficiency, with less emphasis on factors such as routing transaction costs, node reputation, and routing path considerations. This paper researches the optimization of payment routing in Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) and proposes the Multi-Factor Routing Payment Scheme (MFPS), which integrates factors such as the node reputation, transaction fee cost, and distance to select the route for payment transactions. In order to improve the success ratio of routing transactions, the transaction-splitting algorithm is proposed. To ensure the security and privacy of the transaction process, the Asymmetric Time-Lock Contract (ATLC) protocol is proposed. The results of extensive experimental simulations show that the MFPS proposed in this paper outperforms the ShortestPath, Cheapest, and SplitDistance algorithms. It achieves an approximately 13.8%∼49% improvement in the transaction success ratio and reduces the average transaction processing cost. The security and privacy measures can defend against wormhole and double-flower attacks and exhibit better performance in terms of computational verification and message overhead.

Investment AUM Fee Costs: Evaluating a Simple Formula

Investment AUM Fee Costs: Evaluating a Simple Formula

Learning-Based Off-Chain Transaction Scheduling in Prioritized Payment Channel Networks

Payment channel network (PCN) is one of the promising solutions for scalable blockchains since it shows great potential in improving blockchain network throughput. However, the growing number of transactions and the payment-channel sharing of concurrent transactions can lead to channel congestion. Although many studies have proposed different solutions to solve this problem, they ignore a fact that applications may have different transaction rate requirements at different times. In this paper, we propose a priority-aware PCN to meet the requirements of those transactions. Senders in priority-aware PCNs can specify the priority of their transactions by paying a corresponding forwarding fee on each hop along the transaction path. However, capacity competition occurs on the shared hops. Moreover, we propose a multi-agent DQN-based priority assignment algorithm to address the competition issue and design a PCN simulator for performance evaluation. Simulation results show that our solution can guarantee a high throughput of transactions and assign priorities appropriately to balance the transaction rate and forwarding fee cost. The experimental results demonstrate that the priority scheduling scheme can achieve higher transaction throughput and success ratio than other scheduling methods in a congested PCN environment.

Household costs associated with seeking malaria treatment during pregnancy: evidence from Burkina Faso and The Gambia

BackgroundMalaria in pregnancy remains a major health threat in sub-Saharan Africa to both expectant mothers and their unborn children. To date, there have been very few studies focused on the out of pocket costs associated with seeking treatment for malaria during pregnancy.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was undertaken in Burkina Faso and The Gambia to estimate the direct and indirect costs associated with outpatient consultations (OP) and inpatient admissions (IP). Direct costs were broken down into medical (admission fees, drug charges, and laboratory fees), and non-medical (transportation and food). Indirect costs reflected time lost due to illness. In total, 220 pregnant women in Burkina Faso and 263 in The Gambia were interviewed about their treatment seeking decisions, expenditure, time use and financial support associated with each malaria episode.ResultsIn Burkina Faso 6.7% sought treatment elsewhere before their OP visits, and 27.1% before their IP visits. This compares to 1.3% for OP and 25.92% for IP in The Gambia. Once at the facility, the average direct costs (out of pocket) were 3.91US$ for an OP visit and 15.38US$ of an IP visit in Burkina Faso, and 0.80US$ for an OP visit and 9.19US$ for an IP visit in The Gambia. Inpatient direct costs were driven by drug costs (9.27US$) and transportation costs (2.72US$) in Burkina Faso and drug costs (3.44 US$) and food costs (3.44 US$) in The Gambia. Indirect costs of IP visits, valued as the opportunity cost of time lost due to the illness, were estimated at 11.85US$ in Burkina Faso and 4.07US$ in The Gambia. The difference across the two countries was mainly due to the longer time of hospitalization in Burkina Faso compared to The Gambia. In The Gambia, the vast majority of pregnant women reported receiving financial support from family members living abroad, most commonly siblings (65%).ConclusionsHigh malaria treatment costs are incurred by pregnant women in Burkina Faso and The Gambia. Beyond the medical costs of fees and drugs, costs in terms of transport, food and time are significant drivers. The role of remittances, particularly their effect on accessing health care, needs further investigation.

Research on Price Influencing Factors of Third-Party Payment Platforms: An Empirical Study From China.

In this article, we use the two-sided market theory as a support and take the operating data of eight Chinese third-party payment platform companies as samples, based on pricing models and multiple regression analysis, to build a price feature model for a third-party payment platform. The results show that under the two-sided market environment, the scale of consumer and the same-side network externality of the merchant have a negative significant effect on the pricing of the third-party payment platform to the seller; The market share of the platform and the bank fee cost of the platform have a positive significant effect on the pricing of a third-party payment platform to the merchant. At the same time, the same-side network externality of the seller, the scale of a merchant, and the selection of the business model of the platform have no significant effect on the pricing of the third-party payment platform to the merchant. These conclusions provide a scientific basis for a third-party payment platform enterprise to develop an appropriate pricing strategy and operating model.

Growth and productivity of Kampung chicken fed with different protein levels

This research aimed to study the growth and productivity of kampung chicken fed with different protein level. Kampung chickens were randomly assigned to a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 10 replications. The treatments were Ration with 14% protein content (A), Ration with 16% protein content (B), Ration with 18% protein content (C) and Ration with 20% protein content (D). The variables observed were body weight, weight gain, consumption, FCR, digestibility, egg production, percentage of hatched eggs and income over feed. Data were analyzed by variance and if there was a significant difference between treatments (P<0.05), it was continued with Duncan's multiple distance test. The results showed that the protein level of the diet 18% significantly (P<0.05) increased weight gain, egg production, and better feed use efficiency. The provision of 20% protein gave the same effect (P>0.05) on growth, production. Income over feed costs tended to be lower in the protein level of the 20% than 18%. It can be concluded that kampung chickens reared in enriched cages with a ration protein level of 18% and metabolic energy of 2850 kcal/kg showed the best performance in terms of growth, production, hatch percentage, and income over fee cost.

The health and educational impact of removing financial constraints for school sport.

Financial barriers often restrict sport participation among children from low-income families. Schools are thought to offer equitable access to programming, including school sport participation. However, pay-to-play school sport models can inhibit participation among students from low-income households. Recognizing the potential benefits of school sport and realizing the financial barriers to participation, the purpose of this study was to understand the extent to which school sport promotes educational experiences and holistic well-being of Canadian youth from low-income families. A case study was conducted with stakeholders who were supported by funding from a non-profit organization to help cover the costs of school sport registration fees. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with low-income students and their parents, teacher-coaches and school administrators. Three overarching themes were representative of the experiences of school sport participation among low-income students: (1) healthy student-athletes, (2) developing student-athletes in school, for life, and (3) supporting student-athletes as a community. The participants perceived that school sport participation offered holistic health benefits, and developed skills and behaviours that support positive educational experiences and foster life skills. Further, our results highlighted the importance of the school community in supporting low-income students to participate in school sport teams and the need to reframe school sport to better support low-income families.

IDENTIFICATION OF FACTORS IN SELECTING HIGH SCHOOL USING FACTOR ANALYSIS

Parents want the best education for their children. Before starting the academic year, parents focus on finding the most suitable schools for their children. This study aimed to examine the factors affecting parents’ decision-making when selecting schools. A sample of 150 parents whose children are incoming high school students in 2020/2021 is involved in this study and selected using a snowball sampling technique and confirmatory factor analysis. This study has shown that the quality of the teachers is the factor that parents consider the most in their decision-making process. It is followed by the tuition and fee costs, the school facilities, and the school achievements.

Variation in Trauma Team Response Fees in United States Trauma Centers: An Additional Undisclosed Variable Cost in Trauma Care.

Background: The rising costs associated with trauma care in the United States is an important topic in today’s healthcare environment. Factors such as innovations in technology, increasing governmental and organizational regulations, and the specialization of care have led to increasing costs to the patient. A component of trauma cost is the one-time trauma team response fee (TTRF). The determination process of the TTRF’s dollar amount is elusive as no apparent standardized process exists and the literature is scant regarding this aspect of trauma care.Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional convenience sample was conducted using SurveyMonkey. Surveys were sent to 525 trauma centers in the continental United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, between October 8, 2019 and March 11, 2020. Additionally, hospital medical directors and trauma medical directors were queried on their knowledge of their facility’s TTRF amount.Results: Only 46 out of 525 trauma centers, or 8.8% of those surveyed shared their scheduled fees. Comparisons of TTRFs among different trauma centers, activation levels, and geographical locations were not statistically significant.Conclusions: Understanding the true costs of trauma care and fees for patients in the United States remains elusive due to inadequate data and low response rates. Trauma centers struggle to maintain financial viability as regulatory agencies and the public push for transparency of TTRFs. Collaboration between trauma centers and regulatory agencies is needed to ensure a balance between providing quality trauma care with justified associated charges and financial sustainability.

From the Editorial Archive of the Journals "Vremya" and "Epokha" Published by the Dostoevsky Brothers

The journals "Vremya" and "Epokha" attracted the attention of researchers primarily in connection with the personality and work of the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, who took an active part in the journals published by his brother, Mikhail Dostoevsky. This fact determined the nature of the study of these journals: they are least researched as independent periodicals in the 1860s, with most of the works being devoted to specific aspects. Despite the increased attention of researchers to "Vremya" and "Epokha" in recent decades, many questions remain unresolved: the editorial and royalty policy of journals and the financial side of the publication have not been sufficiently studied, the key problem of attribution of anonymous and pseudonymous journal articles has not been fully resolved, i.e., in regard to the co-authorship and editorial work of F. M. Dostoevsky, and the determination of the degree of the writer’s contribution to the articles by other authors. The article not only enumerates the problems of studying "Vremya" and "Epokha" and the role of Dostoevsky in these journals; it also presents an analysis of certain materials from the editorial archive. The entries of a credit and debit notebook offer insight into the financial side of the publication (costs and income of the editorial office), the conduct of editorial and publishing affairs by the Dostoevsky brothers, and allow to judge the success of their enterprise. A payroll record includes receipts from employees for the honoraria received for their work and publications. The editing fee system is determined by the ratio of the costs of fees to the amounts received by the journal staff on the payroll record. The materials from the editorial archives of "Vremya" and "Epokha" analyzed in this article contain valuable information for attribution of anonymous and pseudonymous journal texts. The analysis of editorial records, correspondence of journal employees, memoirs and other documentary sources allow to confirm existing attributions or find contradictions in them and highlight the most reliable ones. The analysis of the materials from the editorial archives of "Vremya" and "Epokha" significantly expand the understanding of these two periodicals of the 2nd half of the 1860s and the writer’s related activities as part of his creative work. These documents open up broad prospects for further study and search for answers to questions.

Implementation of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) Method for Selecting Securities Company

A securities company has a purpose as an intermediary for stock trading between investors and the stock company to be purchased. Securities companies must be listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and supervised by the Financial Services Authority. The limited information that potential investors can receive regarding the criteria for selecting securities companies causes potential investors to have difficulty comparing each company. And no system supports decisions in this election. Based on the research, obtained eight assessment criteria in the selection of securities companies, as well as determining the weight of each criterion by calculating the Likert scale and determining the cost or benefit attribute for each criterion, as follows: initial deposit fee (15%) cost, transaction fee (12%) cost, stock recommendation fee (12%) cost, registration process time (12%) cost, support application rating (12%) benefit, company establishment (9%) benefit, customer service response (15%) cost, and features (15%) ) benefits. In this study, the authors use five alternatives. The calculation process results in a ranking, and the top-ranking is a highly recommended alternative based on existing criteria and weights. Then a website-based decision support system is made with the SAW method, which can assist in selecting securities companies based on the desired criteria and weights. Users can also view information on the value of each criterion given by each securities company

The Influence of Chosen Plant Fillers in PHBV Composites on the Processing Conditions, Mechanical Properties and Quality of Molded Pieces.

This work is inspired by the current European policies that aim to reduce plastic waste. This is especially true of the packaging industry. The biocomposites developed in the work belong to the group of environmentally friendly plastics that can reduce the increasing costs of environmental fees in the future. Three types of short fibers (flax, hemp and wood) with a length of 1 mm each were selected as fillers (30% mass content in PHBV). The biocomposites were extruded and then processed by the injection molding process with the same technical parameters. The samples obtained in this way were tested for mechanical properties and quality of the molded pieces. A significant improvement of some mechanical properties of biocomposites containing hemp and flax fibers and quality of molded pieces was obtained in comparison with pure PHBV. Only in the case of wood–PHBV biocomposites was no significant improvement of properties obtained compared to biocomposites with other fillers used in this research. The use of natural fibers, in particular hemp fibers as a filler in the PHBV matrix, in most cases has a positive effect on improving the mechanical properties and quality of molded pieces. In addition, it should be remembered that the obtained biocomposites are of natural origin and are fully biodegradable, which are interesting and desirable properties that are a part of the current trend regarding the production and commercialization of modern biomaterials.

Evaluation of the selection of cerebrospinal fluid testing in suspected meningitis and encephalitis

Diagnostic stewardship interventions can decrease unnecessary antimicrobial therapy and microbiology laboratory resources and costs. This retrospective cross-sectional study evaluated factors associated with inappropriate initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing in patients with suspected community-acquired meningitis or encephalitis. In 250 patients, 202 (80.8%) and 48 (19.2%) were suspected meningitis and encephalitis, respectively. 207 (82.8%) patients had inappropriate and 43 (17.2%) appropriate testing. Any inappropriate CSF test was greatest in the immunocompromised (IC) group (n = 54, 91.5%), followed by non-IC (n = 109, 80.1%) and HIV (n = 44, 80%). Ordering performed on the general ward was associated with inappropriate CSF test orders (adjOR 2.81, 95% CI [1.08−7.34]). Laboratory fee costs associated with excessive testing was close to $300,000 per year. A stepwise algorithm defining empiric and add on tests according to CSF parameters and patient characteristics could improve CSF test ordering in patients with suspected meningitis or encephalitis.

Budget Impact Analysis of Treatment Flow Optimization in Epilepsy Patients: Estimating Potential Impacts with Increased Referral Rate to Specialized Care.

Objectives: We developed a Markov model to simulate a treatment flow of epilepsy patients who refer to specialized care from non-specialized care, and to surgery from specialized care for estimation of patient distributions and expenditures caused by increasing the referral rate for specialized care.Methods: This budget impact analysis of treatment flow optimization in epilepsy patients was performed as a long-term simulation using the Markov model by comparing the current treatment flow and the optimized treatment flow. In the model, we simulated the prognosis of new onset 5-year-old epilepsy patients (assuming to represent epilepsy occurring between 0 and 10 years of age) treated over a lifetime period. Direct costs of pharmacotherapies, management fees and surgeries are included in the analysis to evaluate the annual budget impact in Japan.Results: In the current treatment flow, the number of refractory patients treated with four drugs by non-specialized care were estimated as 8766 and yielded JPY5.8 billion annually. However, in the optimized treatment flow, the number of patients treated with four drugs by non-specialized care significantly decreased and who continued the monotherapy increased. The costs for the four-drug therapy by non-specialized care were eliminated. Hence cost-saving of JPY9.5 billion (-5% of the current treatment flow) in total national expenditures would be expected.Conclusion: This study highlights that any policy decision-making for referral optimization to specialized care in appropriate epilepsy patients would be feasible with a cost-savings or very few budget impacts. However, important information in the decision-making such as transition probability to the next therapy or excuse for sensitive limitations is not available currently. Therefore, further research with reliable data such as big data analysis or a national survey with real-world treatment patterns is needed.

Budget Impact Analysis of Treatment Flow Optimization in Epilepsy Patients: Estimating Potential Impacts with Increased Referral Rate to Specialized Care

Objectives: We developed a Markov model to simulate a treatment flow of epilepsy patients who refer to specialized care from non-specialized care, and to surgery from specialized care for estimation of patient distributions and expenditures caused by increasing the referral rate for specialized care. Methods: This budget impact analysis of treatment flow optimization in epilepsy patients was performed as a long-term simulation using the Markov model by comparing the current treatment flow and the optimized treatment flow. In the model, we simulated the prognosis of new onset 5-year-old epilepsy patients (assuming to represent epilepsy occurring between 0 and 10 years of age) treated over a lifetime period. Direct costs of pharmacotherapies, management fees and surgeries are included in the analysis to evaluate the annual budget impact in Japan. Results: In the current treatment flow, the number of refractory patients treated with four drugs by non-specialized care were estimated as 8766 and yielded JPY5.8 billion annually. However, in the optimized treatment flow, the number of patients treated with four drugs by non-specialized care significantly decreased and who continued the monotherapy increased. The costs for the four-drug therapy by non-specialized care were eliminated. Hence cost-saving of JPY9.5 billion (-5% of the current treatment flow) in total national expenditures would be expected. Conclusion: This study highlights that any policy decision-making for referral optimization to specialized care in appropriate epilepsy patients would be feasible with a cost-savings or very few budget impacts. However, important information in the decision-making such as transition probability to the next therapy or excuse for sensitive limitations is not available currently. Therefore, further research with reliable data such as big data analysis or a national survey with real-world treatment patterns is needed.

(Sub)Optimal Asset Allocation to ETFs

We study the allocation of capital to U.S. equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Investors tend to invest more in ETFs with lower fees and higher liquidity, consistent with common intuition. We also find, however, that investors make substantial allocations to ETFs that are similar to existing ETFs while incurring the costs of higher fees and lower liquidity. We estimate the aggregate cost to ETF investors from investing in dominated funds to be $1.1 billion to $17.5 billion since 2000 depending on the bench-marking approach. We conclude that ETF investors may be better off, as a whole, by concentrating on a relatively small set of low-fee, high-liquidity funds.

The influence of macroeconomic variables, processing industry, and education services on economic growth in Indonesia

This study aims to look at the effect of Human Development Index (HDI), consumption, investment, and imports on economic growth in Indonesia and especially in the Province of Yogyakarta from 2010 to 2018. The research model used was panel data. The findings showed that HDI had a negative influence on economic growth. This happens because the education fee and health costs are expensive in Indonesia. Other findings implied that the number of imported goods did not have an influence on economic growth in the Special Province of Yogyakarta. Therefore, this issue needs to be studied seriously since it will have an impact on unemployment.