Special Levy Research Articles

Examining Institutional Challenges of Land Value Capture: The Case of Implementing Land-based Taxes in the Philippines

Leveraging the increase in property values emerges as an innovative financing method, enabling property owners and developers to contribute to collective benefit. The special assessment tax or special levy is a land value capture tool used to recover the costs of government infrastructure projects. Despite its long-standing existence in the Philippines’ Local Government Code, it is underutilized and its potentials as revenue sources have not been realized. This qualitative study combines extensive literature reviews and semi-structured interviews, including a self-assessment scoring of government staff in the cities of Metro Manila, citing perspectives and experiences in land taxation to examine institutional challenges in utilizing the special assessment tax. Findings reveal that institutional, financial, and technical capacity problems have prevented its utilization despite existing legal mechanisms. Moreover, there is a noteworthy gap in understanding and application at the local level, as the concept of land value capture is yet to be mainstreamed in local public finance. The discussions aim to inform cities and municipalities about the untapped potential of the special assessment tax as a viable revenue source for local development and the regulation of urban growth. Additionally, the study advocates for the importance of building capacities in land-based financing. It emphasizes the need for support and improvements in the current institutional arrangements of land valuation to address socio-economic inequalities.

Resolving Failed Banks: Uncertainty, Multiple Bidding and Auction Design

Abstract The FDIC resolves insolvent banks with scoring auctions. Although the structure of the scoring rule is known to bidders, they are uncertain about how the FDIC trades off different bid components. Scoring-rule uncertainty motivates bidders to submit multiple bids for the same failed bank. To evaluate the effects of uncertainty and multiple bidding for FDIC costs, we develop a methodology for analysing multidimensional bidding when the auctioneer’s scoring weights are unknown to bidders. We estimate private valuations for failed-bank assets during the great financial crisis and compute counterfactuals in the absence of scoring uncertainty. Our findings imply a substantial reduction in FDIC resolution costs of between 29.8% ($8.2 billion) and 44.6% ($12.3 billion). These savings can reduce policy-driven banking-sector distortions, since FDIC resolution costs are covered either through special levies on banks or through loans from the US Treasury. Our analyses also shed new light on optimal bid portfolio choice in combinatorial auctions.

Concept and Case Study of Special Tools of Public Finance: Special Levies, Construction Advantage and Compensation for Special Sacrifice

Concept and Case Study of Special Tools of Public Finance: Special Levies, Construction Advantage and Compensation for Special Sacrifice

What alternative and innovative domestic methods of healthcare financing can be explored to fix the current claims reimbursement challenges by the National Health Insurance Scheme of Ghana? Perspectives of health managers

BackgroundLow-and-middle -income countries (LMICs), to achieve sustainable universal health coverage (UHC) governments are implementing local and sustainable methods of healthcare financing. However, in Ghana, there is limited evidence on these local methods for healthcare financing to inform policy. This study aimed at exploring health managers views on alternative domestic and sustainable methods of healthcare financing for UHC under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).MethodsA qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 16 health facility managers were held. The health facilities and participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling methods. A written consent was obtained from participants prior to participation in the interview. Data was transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic framework approach.ResultsHealth managers across all the health facilities mentioned delayed and erratic claims reimbursement to health facilities as the main challenge. Participants attributed the main reason to lack of funds by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA). They said the delayed and irregular payments has been a challenge to efficient delivery of quality healthcare to clients. That in some instances they have been compelled to demand cash or out-of-pocket payment from insured clients or insurance card bearers to be able to render needed healthcare services to them. Participants think that to ensure regular reimbursement of claims to the health facilities by the NHIA, the managers think alternative local sources of funding need to be explored to fill the funding gap. To put in place this, they suggested the need to start levying special taxes on natural resources such as crude oil and gas, gold, bauxite, cocoa, mobile money transfers, airtime and increasing the proportion of levies on the existing Value Added Tax (VAT).ConclusionThe study provides important insights into potential innovative alternative domestic sources for raising additional funds to finance healthcare services in Ghana. Despite the potential of these sources, it is important for governments and health policy makers in Ghana and other LMICs who are working towards implementing innovative local methods using special levies on mobile communication services and natural resources to finance their UHC, to implement those that best suit their economies to ensure equity for better health.

Contribution of Environmental Factors to Quality Education Delivery in Public Junior High Schools in Talensi-Nabdam District

This study investigates the contribution of environmental factors to quality education delivery in public Junior High School in Talensi-Nabdam district. Quantitative approach using descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. All 32 headmasters and 230 teachers of the 32 public Junior High Schools in the Talensi-Nabdam district, all the supervisors for the 8 circuits, the District Director of education (DDE), 32 Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and 32 School Management Committees (SMCs), and the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Talensi-Nabdam totaling 303 participants were randomly selected. Results of the study showed that parents engaged in dressmaking and tailoring, shea butter extraction, pito brewing, pottery, dry season gardening, animal husbandry there are available income generating activities within the communities that parents often engage in for a living. Also, findings revealed that parents used income they generate to support quality education delivery by buying their school uniform for their children, provide exercise books and other writing materials, provide pocket money to their children for school, pay for mock examinations, pay for registration fee for final examinations, and other special levies that a school’s PTA may ask for. Keywords: Talensi-Nabdam, district, quality education delivery, shea butter extraction DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-2-05 Publication date: January 31 st 2021

Concept and Questions of Special Levies: An Analysis of Judgement (Pan Tzu No. 68) of the Supreme Administrative Court 2015

Concept and Questions of Special Levies: An Analysis of Judgement (Pan Tzu No. 68) of the Supreme Administrative Court 2015

On the Infinitely Divisible of Meixner Distribution

The log-returns of most financial data show a significant leptokurtosis. For the better fit we showed a special levy process which is called the Meixner process. The Meixner distribution belongs to the class of infinitely divisible distribution chracterized by using characteristic function and it was proposed as a model for represented efficiently of the log-returns of financial data. The perfect fit of underlying Meixner distribution performing by using goodness of fit test.

More room for water

Watercourses are among the basic natural phenomena that characterize the environment. On the one hand, the water regime limits the anthropogenic use of space; on the other hand, it enriches landscape. The problem of allowing the space that ‘belongs’ to water to be used for intensive anthropogenic uses has been dealt with by the oldest known civilizations. With the growing population, industrialization and urbanization, the inundated areas and wetlands have been consumed and, through river engineering, watercourses have been regulated such that the space belonging to water has been reduced. Since ancient times, and more intensively from the mid-19th century, riverbeds have been shortened and narrowed, and levees have been built for flood protection; this resulted in the serious reduction of flood plains and wetlands. The surfaces ‘taken’ from rivers were intended primarily for agriculture and urban development. The middle of 19th century saw the emergence of such regulation works on the Rhine River, and in the first half of the 20th century, in the United States (de Bruin 2005 and Cassidy 1962). Similar developments occurred worldwide. After World War II, the Netherlands greatly increased its arable land by polder development, land that has been taken from the lakes and rivers (Tol and Langen 2000). A similar situation occurred in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and France, where such works were developed from the late 19th century. At the end of the 20th century, many rivers in Europe were in highly confined channels. The situation was similar in Slovenia. Major projects and developments on the Mura, Drava, Sava and Ljubljanica rivers were carried out in the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, we dealt mainly with drainage of agricultural land. A special levy was introduced to compensate for agricultural land in construction. The collected funds were available for agricultural land management and supported the implementation of water management projects, such as the regulation of the Ljubljana Marshes, the Pesnica River and the Vipava River. Twenty years ago the maintenance of embankments of regulated natural watercourses was brought to a halt, and the new practice was seen as eco-friendly maintenance of watercourses. Many river banks were overgrown with bushes and the space for water was only further reduced. In some places, the vegetation in the narrow channels completely obscured the surface of the water (Fig. 1). The serious damages due to the recent floods and, last but not least, fatalities, are the price that we pay today; examples are the floods of the Gradascica and Vipava River in 2010. To make matters worse, the pressure on the water land is increasing in urban areas. A particular problem is the culverting of streams for urban purposes. It is ecologically extremely inappropriate; open water disappears from the environment in which it can only be enriched. Channels are diverted and small streams are put in culverts, despite the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Water land which was often flooded is now occupied by roadways and parking lots.

Legitimation und Grenzen nichtsteuerlicher Abgaben. Zur Individualisierung der Finanzierungslast im Ordnungs- und Wirtschaftsverwaltungsrecht

Abstract Legitimation and limits of non-tax levies under constitutional law The German Basic Law proves to be an adjustable system concerning its financial constitution. The latter not only contains and regulates the taxes, but also the non-tax levies. Additionally to the traditional forms of non-tax levies like fees and contributions, there is a constant tendency of creating special levies whose mere purpose is to raise public funds. The increasing amount of non-tax levies seems to be a sign that public finances are going to be no longer mainly founded by taxes but by non-tax levies. But it also explains the attempt to secure taxes as the main constitutional fundraising instrument and to make non-tax levies an exemption. The constitutionally prescribed limits for non-tax levies can be found in the constitutional rights, particularly in the constitutional guarantee of equality. Accordingly this guarantee is the basis of the benefit principle concerning non-tax levies. In order to counter the constitutiona...

Key Amendments to Slovak Tax Legislation

This note outlines recent legislative developments in the Slovak Republic, in particular, an increase in the corporate income tax rate, the introduction of a special levy for businesses in regulated industries and a return to progressive taxation of the income of individuals through the introduction of a second tax bracket.

Does taxation have real effects on agricultural output? Theory and empirical evidence from China

China has a long history of taxing agriculture, with special levies on output. Whether farm households are taxed on a lump-sum basis or as a proportion of output is an important issue. This paper develops a theoretical model to understand better the effects of the lump-sum and proportional taxation on agricultural output. It then empirically investigates the predictions using tax and output data on Chinese agriculture. The theoretical model predicts that lump-sum taxation affects only consumption, while proportional taxation simultaneously affects consumption, capital inputs and final output. Although the main tax policy targeted output, our results suggest that taxation had only a modest impact on output since it was effectively applied as lump sum taxation brought about by localized levies and taxes.

Between a rock and a hard place: Recession and telecoms taxation

Excessive taxation in the telecoms services sector is rarely found in developed economies as it hinders high technology investments, confines innovation and eventually impedes economic growth. Recession eventually complicates this process. In this paper the repercussions of multi-layer service taxation on the Greek mobile sector during the last five years are studied. It is found that public revenues, companies and subscribers would significantly benefit from a direct decrease of the special levy imposed on the use of mobile services today. An econometric model that links the consumption propensity of mobile voice service usage with the disposable income of the users and the price of the product is applied. The results of this research indicate that the adoption of high sector specific service taxes with the objective of increasing government revenues creates an economic distortion that lowers service usage, shrinks sector revenues, and, ultimately, jeopardizes the competitiveness of the mobile telecommunications sector.

Revisiting the Balance between Aid, Selectivity and Selective Aid in Respect of Taxes and Special Levies

Revisiting the Balance between Aid, Selectivity and Selective Aid in Respect of Taxes and Special Levies

Structures for reducing drug-related harm: the case of the alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand

Once hailed as the ‘social laboratory of the world’, voices from New Zealand have been strangely muted in many of the debates about how best to tackle drug-related harm. In relation to alcohol, however, New Zealand offers one of the most interesting case studies of how government responses to drug-related problems are framed. Since the late 1970s, New Zealand has had a stand-alone agency, the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, with a national mandate to minimise alcohol-related harm. Set up under its own Act of Parliament, and at an arms-length distance from government, this body was also given a dedicated source of funding from a special levy on beverage alcohol products. Despite this seemingly unique constellation of features (a national organisation, established by statute, with an alcohol-only focus and a mandate to lead alcohol-related harm minimisation, directly funded by a ‘tied-tax’ on alcohol), the Alcohol Advisory Council model has received little attention in the published literature. This paper seeks to introduce the Alcohol Advisory Council model to a wider audience. After backgrounding the establishment of the Council in the late 1970s, and its reconfiguration following a Ministerial review in the early 1990s, the paper assesses recent changes to the Council's empowering legislation. A number of criticisms that have been made against the Council are also canvassed, along with a brief discussion of the Council's future prospects. The paper concludes that, while questions remain about the extent to which an entity like the Alcohol Advisory Council can remain truly independent from government, it is a model that usefully brings together a critical mass of people working to minimise the harm associated with alcohol, and sharpens the focus of debates in both the public and political arenas about alcohol's effects in the community.

The public health and safety benefits of the Northern Territory's Living with Alcohol programme

AbstractAn evaluation is presented of the impact of a comprehensive population‐based alcohol harm‐reduction programme in the Northern Territory funded by a levy of 5 cents per standard drink which took effect from April 1992. The proceeds of the levy supported increased treatment, public education and other prevention activities. Towards the end of the study period (the first 4 years) other positive initiatives were introduced: the lowering of the legal limit for drivers to 0.05mg/ml and a special levy on cask wine. Indicators of alcohol‐related harm were tracked from 1980 to June 30 1996 and developed from hospital, mortality and road crash data. In each case appropriate control data from the same source was employed to control for other possible confounding effects. Alcohol aetiological fractions for major alcohol‐related causes of death were estimated taking account of the level of high‐risk alcohol use in the Northern Territory. Multiple linear regression and time‐series analyses were employed to test for any effect coinciding with the introduction of LWA. There were reductions in estimated alcohol‐caused deaths from acute conditions (road deaths 34.5%, other 23.4%) and in road crash injuries requiring hospital treatment (28.3%). In addition there were substantial reductions in per capita alcohol consumption and self‐reported hazardous and harmful consumption via surveys. These reductions were evident immediately from the outset of the introduction of LWA and were largely sustained throughout the 4 years studied. The data reported here suggest that significant health and safety benefits accrued to the people of the Northern Territory during the first 4 years of the Living With Alcohol programme. This benefit is likely to be due to several factors: the effect of the levy on alcohol consumption, other factors depressing alcohol consumption and the effect of the LWA programme itself.

Special levies on punitive damages: Decoupling, agency problems, and litigation expenditures

This article extends the economic model of “decoupling” the damage award payable by a defendant and the award received by a plaintiff in the context of recently enacted “special levy” statutes. These statutes require plaintiffs to hand over portions of their punitive damage awards to the state. The basic model of decoupling is expanded by incorporating the effect of levies on litigation expenditures and settlement and by examining the effect of agency problems between plaintiff and his attorney. Consistent with the basic model, we find that, in the absence of agency problems, if a case goes to trial, levies reduce the expected award payable by the defendant and the plaintiff's litigation expenses. However, the effect of levies on settlement is indeterminate. In the presence of agency problems, certain forms of levies will have no effect on the defendant's expected payments, on litigation expenses, or on settlement; and other forms will either be equally ineffective as the former forms or less effective than they are in the absence of agency problems.

Fixed Capital Formation in the British Economy, 1956-1965

problems of efficacy and timing of instrumental changes in tax practice. Although the model was overtly based on the work of Irving Fisher, the particular formulation is sufficiently distinctive to warrant a separate name; and we shall refer to it as the Jorgenson model. Few econometric analyses dealing with aspects of the post-war British economy are available. In 1968, a study sponsored by the Brookings Institution ([3], ch. 1) was compelled to acknowledge the absence of any econometric investigation of the British system of investment incentives. In the following sections, this omission is remedied and some empirical results are tabulated for two models applied to data derived for one decade of the post-war British economy.3 These models explicitly include variables representing three types of capital allowances and a variable representing a composite tax-rate. The latter takes account of Income Tax, Profits Tax and a number of other special levies. The Jorgenson model provided a convenient starting point in the process of building these models, although its translation to a different economy involved the rejection of Jorgenson's specification for the system of tax allowances chargeable against gross income as defined for tax purposes. An alternative specification was substituted, and there are marked differences between the expression for the user-cost of capital services derived on the basis of the Jorgenson model and the corresponding expressions derived for our alternative models. All of these models share deficiencies in the final expressions for desired capital services arising from the use of the Cobb-Douglas characterization of

The Estates of Normandy and the Revolts in the Towns at the Beginning of the Reign of Charles VI

THE reign of Charles V seems to the modern historian a period of triumph for the French monarchy in the dark early stages of the Hundred Years' War: unlike his father and grandfather, Charles was not hampered by lack of money; unlike his son, he kept the royal court under his control; and even on the battlefield, French armies did better than they were to do again before Joan of Arc. Under the leadership of Bertrand du Guesclin, the royal armies were able to contain the advance of the English. Charles' brothers, whose disputes were to tear the country apart after his death, were for the time satisfied with the generous places he assigned them in his court. And perhaps most important, regular taxes had been established, and thus the king was spared from having to treat continually with troublesome and recalcitrant assemblies. While Charles' ability to choose and handle men does much to explain the stability of his regime at the highest levels, it does not account for the responsiveness of the provinces to his wishes. The co-operation of the important men of the provinces was essential if the crown was not to be thwarted in every undertaking or hamstrung by lack of money, and while he was still dauphin Charles moved to assure himself of their continued support for his government. The regular collection of taxes and the docility of those assemblies that did meet are the most important signs of the mutual confidence that existed between the king and the notables of the countryside and the towns. Normandy is a prime example of how effective this policy was. The Norman estates since the time of Philip the Fair had been unyielding in their defense of the liberties of the duchy. Even when there was danger of an invasion by the English, the estates had refused to grant taxes for defense until the king had dealt with their grievances. But this changed dramatically after 1360, and while Charles V ruled both regular taxes and special levies for local defense were collected without interference from the estates. Sometimes the king consulted them, as he did when he raised money for the siege of Saint-Sauveur, and sometimes he did not, as in 1378 when he gathered an army to move against the strongholds of Charles of Navarre, but it made no difference. When the estates were called, they were co-operative; when they were not called, no one protested, and the taxes were collected anyway.' The death of Charles V on 16 September 1380 ended this peaceful period. On his deathbed the king cancelled the hearth tax which had run, with one brief

Excess Profits Taxation and the Taxpayer

Excess profits taxation goes hand in hand with warfare. It need not be stressed that war requires great sums of As the Marshal de Trivulce said when Louis XIV asked him what he needed to make war-Money, more money, and always money. Governments tap every available source of revenue in times of stress; what is more logical than a special levy on profits considered to be derived either directly or indirectly from the war effort.