Social Security Contributions Research Articles

The Modelling of Tax Influence on Macroeconomic Framework in Spain

The study provides an empirical analysis of tax impact on selected macroeconomic aggregates in Spain from 1996 to 2016. The objective of this research is to determine how tax forms effect on macroeconomic framework of Spanish economy. The analysis includes the impact of direct taxes such as personal income tax, corporate income tax and tax on property as well as social contributions. On the other hand, gross domestic product per capita, unemployment, inflation, investment and government expenditures are selected as the main macroeconomic determinants and present dependent variables in defined models. Results of defined model show that tax revenue growth, personal income tax, tax on property and social security contributions significantly affects the gross domestic product per capita. Further, personal income tax and corporate income tax have a significant impact on unemployment, investment and government expenditures. Findings show that the intensity of personal income tax' effect is higher on investment and government expenditures compared to corporate income tax. In addition, present tax structure does not have a significant effect on inflation, which can be explained by fact that indirect taxes are more related to inflation than direct taxes.

Tax Composition and Growth: A Broad Cross-country Perspective

AbstractWe investigate how changes in the composition of tax revenue affect long-run growth in a broad cross-section of countries. To do this, we construct a new dataset that covers 70 countries (23 high-, 23 middle- and 24 low-income countries), with at least 20 years of observations during the period 1970-2009. In the context of revenue-neutral reallocations, we find that increasing consumption and property taxes while reducing income taxes boosts long-term growth. Among income taxes, we find that social security contributions and personal income taxes tend to have a stronger negative association with growth relative to corporate income taxes. Results, however, depend on countries’ development levels, suggesting nonlinearities in the relation between taxes and growth even after controlling for convergence effects. Although results are robust for high- and middle-income countries, these are generally not significant for low-income countries.

Podstawa wymiaru składek na ubezpieczenie społeczne członka zarządu spółki z o.o. zatrudnionego na umowę o pracę i uzyskującego jednocześnie ryczałt za posiedzenia zarządu spółki

Podstawa wymiaru składek na ubezpieczenie społeczne członka zarządu spółki z o.o. zatrudnionego na umowę o pracę i uzyskującego jednocześnie ryczałt za posiedzenia zarządu spółki

The Assessment of Long-Term-Care, its Quality Assurance and Results -The German Perspective-

The consequences of demographic aging caused an impulse for German politics to establish an independent Social Long-Term-Care Insurance in 1995. Since then the assessment for long-term-care became stepwise more comprehensive to cover the bio-psycho-social needs of an increasing part of the population. Nowadays, about 3.3 Million persons receive benefits from this social insurance which help to cover a great part (but not in full) of financial and material support to overcome the impacts of long-term-care. About 2.5 Million persons are assessed every year with continuously increasing tendency by nursing experts working for the Statutory Medical Service mostly performing home visits. They assess the appropriate scores for mobility, cognitive and communicative abilities, behavior, attitudes, habits and psychic problems, self-sufficiency, coping and handling of requirements due to disease and therapy, management of everyday life and maintaining social contacts, adding up to one of 5 grades, the need for technical aids, flat conversion, therapeutic procedures, rehabilitation and educative support. The assessment guidelines and the monitoring of the quality of their realization are presented as well as the outcome for the Long-Term-Care Insurance on the federal level. Twenty-five years of Long-Term-Care Insurance have led to a well established and steadfast insurance but with increasing expenses as well as rising social security contributions to face the challenges of a human and dignified evening of life for an increasing part of the population.

PCN276 KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS ABOUT CANCER - RESULTS OF QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS WITH THE GENERAL POPULATION IN FRANCE

Recent research developments suggest cures will become available for many cancers in the near future. Societal preferences should be taken into account in the evaluation of these, which will likely come with high costs to society. The objective of this study was to prepare preference studies by exploring knowledge and beliefs about cancer types, prevalence, treatment and its costs amongst the French general population. A literature review was conducted to identify characteristics influencing perception of cancer and its treatment. Extracted data was used to develop an interview guide. Adults from the general population in France were recruited for telephone interviews. Respondents were asked about cancer severity, prevalence, treatment, its reimbursement and price. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using grounded theory methods. 10 respondents completed 60-minute interviews. Respondents were 51.7 years old on average (range 19-80); 50% were female. Respondents mostly associate cancer severity with location. Cancer aggressiveness, treatment given and patients’ state of mind are also linked to severity. Perceived incidence was highest for breast, prostate and gastrointestinal cancer. Regarding treatments, perceived advantages are linked to efficacy and positive mental impact. Reported disadvantages are more numerous and mostly concern tolerability and negative psychological impact. Some respondents perceive cancer treatment as a business. Respondents’ estimates of treatment cost vary, from €100 to several hundred thousand Euros. Most respondents are unaware what proportion of social security contributions are used for cancer treatment. Beliefs about reimbursement and access are disparate. Half believe all treatments are available in France. Others believe treatment access depends on elements such as treatment cost, country of development, and location of hospitals. This study suggests members of the French general population have greater knowledge of cancer severity and prevalence than of treatments. Little is known about access to and cost of treatment, and reimbursement conditions.

The Integration of Refugees in Germany: Intergovernmental Aspects of Public Sector Costs and Benefits

ABSTRACTIn this paper, the 2015/16 budgetary effects of refugee immigration in Germany are analyzed. The Public sector spends billions of Euros to accommodate and supply refugees and to integrate those into the labor markets who have a perspective for a permanent or even medium-term residence permit. In case of a successful integration, we can expect flow backs in the form of income tax revenues and social security contributions. The costs and financial benefits of several types of refugees are modelled and – weighted with the number of cases – added to a public sector ‘financial balance’. Financial ‘profitability’ depends on labor market integration, the volume of labor participation and the future income earned, which depends on qualification, education and training. The levels of government will experience diverging cost-benefit balances. They will only receive future flow backs in the form of their share in the income tax revenues if refugees find jobs within their territories. Administrative efforts should concentrate on a successful labor market integration of refugees and no longer continue the policy of preventing them from entering the labor market for many years and thereby making them heavily dependent on public transfer payments.

P5243Indirect costs of acute myocardial infarction in Portugal

Abstract Introduction Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in Portugal. The high incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is also a major problem, particularly due to the economic burden caused by productivity losses (indirect costs) associated with temporary absence from work, not yet sufficiently studied in Portugal. Our objective was to quantify the indirect costs of AMI in the first year after admission. Methods All consecutive patients admitted in a single center with <66 years (official retirement age) during one year that survived to discharge were included in the present study. Employment status on admission was assessed in every patient. For each employed patient, working at the time of admission, the monthly wage was estimated from market wage rates from national public sources (grossed up by social security contributions) according to gender and age. A day-cost was calculated to assess the cost of temporary absence from work. A half-day absence was considered for Cardiology medical appointments and exams. The duration of temporary absence from work was assessed by a first follow-up contact at 30-day and a second follow-up evaluation up to one-year after admission. The cost of temporary absence from work per episode was calculated in this sample and results were applied to the total number of MI in Portugal during the year 2016 (last available national data) and separately according to ST-elevation AMI (STEAMI) or non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTACS). Results We included 219 patients (54±7 years, 83% males), from which, 66.2% were working, 16.4% early-retired, 11.9% unemployed and 5.5% in long-term exit from work due to non-cardiac disease. During the one-year follow-up there were no changes in employment status. In our sample, mean monthly labor cost was 1802 euros (69 euros/day). Median number of days absent from work were 34 days (31 days in men and 52 days in women) and a median of 2 half-days were also obtained for Cardiology appointments / exams. We obtained a total cost of 760.521,55 euros. We used available data from 2016 to estimate indirect costs at a national level. There were 4133 patients with <66 years admitted in Portugal due to AMI that survived to discharge. We performed an analysis, using the proportions of 41% of cases with STEAMI and 59% with NSTACS that came out of the Portuguese Registry on Acute Coronary Syndromes and the working patient's proportions in each group. Costs were higher in patients with STEAMI. We estimate an indirect total cost in Portugal of € 10.12 million in the first year after MI. Conclusions In Portugal, the costs to society of disability generated losses of productivity are over ten million euros during the first year after AMI. Strategies to improve time of return to work are very important to lower these costs.

Current status, issue and future perspectives for biosimilars in Japan from the viewpoint of cost-effectiveness

Abstract In Japan, maintaining the universal health insurance system has become a major social issue in our rapidly aging society with soaring expense of social security contributions and skyrocketing medical costs, etc. Nowadays generic medicines have become standard therapeutic medicines even in the field of cancer treatment. In terms of cost-effectiveness, biosimilars are expected to enhance patients’ access to beneficial treatment and so contribute to patients’ quality of life as well as reducing the economic burden and total medical expenses while providing equivalent therapeutic outcomes inexpensively compared to the original biologics. Regarding the approval requirements of biosimilars, unlike generic products, they need a Phase III clinical trial in addition to the characterization study which proves similarity to the originals. Biosimilars have been approved through a review process of an application package which is similar to that of new drugs. However, in Japan, biosimilars have not become standard therapeutic choices yet. Approvals of biosimilars and their prevalence in the medical front have been proceeding in Europe and those products have grown in popularity as standard therapeutic choices. In European countries, the European Medicines Agency, academic societies and governmental authorities in each country have implemented a variety of measures to facilitate use of biosimilars. As part of such efforts, the EMA published a guideline on similar biological medicinal products containing G-CSF in 2006. In overseas ASCO and ESMO have already issued a position paper and statement on biosimilar products. In Japan, the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology recommends the biosimilars in its guideline for acceptable use in 2013. This presentation covers the initiatives for biosimilars in Europe and the US, the situation and the challenges in Japan as well as the activities of the Japan Biosimilar Association.

The impact of tax structure on investment: an empirical assessment for OECD countries

Does taxation structure have an impact on investment dynamics? In our paper we evaluate the share of tax revenues in GDP and investment outcomes, making use of gross fixed capital formation as a proxy for investment. This empirical analysis is carried out for all OECD countries, during the period of 1980-2015, to assess the tax system composition effects in both the short and the long-run. Resorting to panel data econometric techniques, the paper also aims to find optimal tax-investment threshold values. Our results lead us to conclude that there is a maximising effect of income taxation on investment growth when revenues from this tax source are about 10.7%. Furthermore, we find that revenues from social security contributions are detrimental to growth, in both the short and the long-run, while tax revenues from firms and consumption are only detrimental in the short-run.

Determinants of Tax Morale in Croatia: an Ordered Logit Model

Abstract Background: A lower tax morality leads to an increased readiness to become active in the unofficial economy and causes the lack of public revenues. Objectives: The aim of this paper is to investigate determinants that shape tax morale of Croatian citizens. Methods/Approach: An ordered logit model is employed to evaluate which determinants shape tax morale of Croatian citizens. Data for the research were collected from 2,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in Croatia in late 2015. Results: The descriptive analysis illustrates that 52 percent of respondents reported a high level of tax morale, 26 percent of respondents have a low tax morale, while 8 and 14 percent have a mid-low and a mid-high tax morale, respectively. The ordered logit analysis revealed that gender, age, financial situation, region, and participation in the unofficial economy have an impact on the tax morale. Conclusions: Besides socio-demographic, socio-economic, and spatial determinants, a great number of sanctions for participation in informal activities also shapes tax morale of the Croatian citizens. More precisely, marginal effects show that those perceiving the expected sanctions as “normal tax or social security contributions due, plus a fine or a prison sentence” have by 6.3 percentage points higher probability of reporting the highest tax morale than others.

Tax structure for consumption and income inequality: an empirical assessment

In this study, we assess the relationship between several tax items and consumption and income inequality levels. For OECD countries between 1980 and 2015, we use panel data techniques and find tax threshold values regarding inequality levels and consumption. In particular, we obtain threshold values for social security contributions between 9.50 and 11.80% (of GDP), for long-run consumptions, while to promote a reduction in income inequalities we found a 15.51% share of social security contributions over GDP, in both short- and long-term perspectives. Lastly, our results would support higher taxes on firms, in GDP terms, to decrease income inequalities, although that might hamper aggregate consumption.

A Research on the Impact of the Social Security Payment Burden on the Survival Risk of Chinese Enterprises

For a long time, most enterprises in China’s market are facing a greater withdrawal risk, and their average life span is relatively short. The impact of the social security payment burden on the survival risk of enterprises has been a hot topic of social concern. Based on the theoretical analysis, this paper examines the impact of the social security payment burden on the survival risk of Chinese enterprises and its mechanism by using the method of propensity score matching and Cox proportional hazard model. The results show that under the condition of other factors unchanged, the increase in the social security payment burden will have a U”-type effect on the market exit risk rate of enterprises, which will be reduced first and then increased. This is due to the combined effect of social security contributions on the scale of labor investment in enterprises and the promotion effect on labor output. Specifically, in the low-burden stage, improving the level of social security contribution will help to promote the efficiency of labor output and reduce the risk of withdrawal; but when the social security burden of enterprises exceeds the optimal rate, if we continue to increase the social security burden, it will restrain the investment of enterprises in labor force, which will lead to the increase of the risk of withdrawal of enterprises. The optimal social security contribution rate (calculated by total corporate social security contributions/total wages payable”) is about 20.28% on average. Different types of enterprises have different tolerance to the social security burden. On average, small and medium-sized enterprises are less able to bear the social security burden than large enterprises; new enterprises are less able to bear the social security burden than long-term enterprises. Based on these findings, this paper argues that it is necessary to reduce the statutory social security premium rate of enterprises in China, because the statutory social security premium rate of enterprises in most regions is more than 25%. But at the same time, the implementation of the social security policy needs to be strengthened, because many enterprises in China have not paid social security fees in full, and the average actual social security premium rate is far lower than the statutory rate. In addition, this paper also puts forward other policy suggestions to help to reduce the survival risk of enterprises.

La compétitivité de la Belgique : d’où venons-nous, où allons-nous ?

In the five years after the financial crisis of 2008, the competitiveness of the Belgian economy deteriorated. Starting in 2014, the government took a set of corrective measures to improve wage competitiveness. These measures helped to restore competitiveness, export market shares, and the current account balance. Employment has increased significantly, and the economy is moving towards full employment. Under these conditions, labor shortages will drive up wages and the 1996 law as reformed in 2017 will have to be strictly enforced. The social and environmental context is pushing to radically change budgetary priorities with the end of reductions in general and untargeted employer social security contributions and more resources devoted to education, training, research, and public investment.

The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Working Hours

AbstractThe present paper analyzes how the statutory minimum wage introduced on January 1, 2015, has affected working hours in Germany up to 2016. The data used come from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which provides not only contractual working hours but also actual hours worked. Using a difference-in-differences estimation approach, we find a significant and robust reduction incontractualworking hours among employees who are subject to social security contributions and earned less than the minimum wage before the introduction. The effect in 2015 is about −5 % and corresponds to a 1.7 hours reduction in average weekly working hours. The effect on actual hours is smaller and estimated less precisely. Extending the analysis until 2016 does not yield significant effects on contractual or actual working hours, while some specifications reject the common trend assumption.

Social Security Contributions and Corporate Financing Decisions: Evidence from China’s Social Insurance Law

This paper investigates whether social security contributions affect corporate financing decisions. Treating the 2011 Social Insurance Law in China as a quasi-natural experiment, our difference-in-differences framework utilizes two-dimension variations: initial social security contribution rates across firms (i.e., high relative to low) and year (i.e., before and after 2011). We find that more social security contributions lead firms to decrease capital structure, particularly for firms with greater labor intensity and tighter financial constraints as well as those located in areas with greater fiscal pressure. Furthermore, consistent with the financial distress hypothesis, a firm’s operating leverage and profitability volatility increase, and the supply of trade credit decreases. Specifically, we exclude several alternative explanations, including firms’ other motivations and creditors’ strategic behavior. Our findings demonstrate that firms tend to choose conservative financing policies to partially mitigate the likelihood of financial distress caused by increasing social security contributions.

Obciążenia fiskalne pracy mikroprzedsiębiorstw w Polsce

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie i analiza obciążeń fiskalnych pracy mikroprzedsiębiorstw w Polsce z wyodrębnieniem obciążeń osoby fizycznej prowadzącej działalność gospodarczą w ramach tzw. samozatrudnienia oraz obciążeń odprowadzanych przez przedsiębiorcę za pracowników. W artykule zostały zaprezentowane ponadto uwarunkowania fiskalne prowadzenia działalności gospodarczej na podstawie danych pochodzących z raportu Doing Business 2018 opracowanego przez Bank Światowy (World Bank Group). Zasadniczą kwestię w zakresie obciążeń fiskalnych pracy odgrywają obciążenia parapodatkowe pracy, wyrażające się w obowiązkowych składkach na ubezpieczenia społeczne i ubezpieczenie zdrowotne, co stanowi dla mikroprzedsiębiorstw jedną z większych barier w prowadzeniu i rozwoju działalności gospodarczej. W ostatnich latach Polska uzyskała znaczącą poprawę w kryterium dotyczącym czasu poświęconego rozliczeniom podatkowym.

Targeting Women’s Employment: Do Employment Subsidies Work? Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the effect of the 2008 employment package on the gender employment gap in Turkey. The package introduced subsidies for the employment of women in all 81 provinces. However, positive discrimination was only effective in the provinces that did not benefit from social security contribution cuts under a previous subsidy scheme. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, I find that those provinces saw a 5.1 percent higher increase in the female share of employment in comparison with provinces where positive discrimination was not in force. Moreover, the effectiveness of the package is not lower in more conservative provinces, where conservatism is measured by the percentage of early marriages, gender inequality, and gender empowerment indices. The study concludes that the 2008 employment package was successful in closing the gender gap, even in more conservative provinces. By showing that a demand-side intervention can overcome the cultural constraints, it offers valuable insights to policy-makers interested in pursuing policies related to disadvantaged groups, particularly women. JEL Classification: C31, J08, J21, Z10

(IN) contributory justice in the general social security regime: RGPS from the point of view of actuarial science from the point of view of income and the actuarial social security factor

Issues related to public social security have generated widedebate between society and government. The average citizen cares about the fair measure between what he pays in the present and how much he will receive from retirement in the future. In view of this, this article aims to define according to the foundations of actuarial science, the fair measure between the value of contributions (payments) and the value of benefits (retirement) managed by the General Social Security Regime – RGPS as a tool of social (in)justice. The methodology used to obtain all parameters relevant to the RGPS as well as to the actuarial social security regime was the creation of situations involving men and women under specific conditions of entry into the social security system of initial age, retirement age and contribution salary and from these input data, the values of contribution and benefits were calculated through the Matlab program , where calculations were operationalized as a calculation routine. The results were segmented by gender (male or female) and income range, it was observed that social security contribution rate, the most important parameter to define the value of contributions to the RGPS, from 28% to 31% is very high in comparison with the rate calculated by actuarial science of 16% to 17% for men and 13% to 14% for women. It is concluded that for the ordinary citizen subject to the rules of the RGPS in force, the amounts of the contributions paid that reflect the retirement benefits received differ from the fair measure, calculated by actuarial science, therefore, it was not observed factors that attest that the RGPS is fair to the taxpayer and therefore to society.

Podstawa wymiaru składek na ubezpieczenia społeczne pracowników oraz osób prowadzących pozarolniczą działalność gospodarczą i jej kwestionowanie przez ZUS

The legislator adopts various methods to determine the amount of the basis for calculating social security contributions. In the case of employees, it assumes that it is income from employment. In relation to persons conducting non-agricultural business activity, the legislator established the possibility of declaring the amount constituting the basis for calculating social contributions dimension, but it cannot be lower than 60% and not higher than 250% of the projected average monthly salary. ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) has the competence to determine the amount of contributions and their collection. However, in view of the techniques adopted for determining the basis, the pension authority’s competence in checking the amount of the contribution base is different according to the category of the insured.

The rise of modern taxation: A new comprehensive dataset of tax introductions worldwide

This article describes the new Tax Introduction Dataset (TID). Listing the year and the mode of the first permanent introduction of six major taxes (inheritance tax, personal income tax, corporate income tax, social security contributions, general sales tax and value added tax) in 220 countries, 1750–2018, TID is the most comprehensive dataset of its kind. The comprehensiveness of our measure is of critical value to empirical work on the causes of tax innovation and its consequences for state, society and economy. In this paper, we explain the selection of our tax sample and the structure of the dataset, descriptively map temporal and regional patterns of tax introductions around the world, and draw on TID to investigate associations between tax introductions and economic development, war, and democratization.