Tax Changes Research Articles

Sweetened Beverage Tax Implementation and Change in Body Mass Index Among Children in Seattle

Sweetened beverage taxes have been associated with reduced purchasing of taxed beverages. However, few studies have assessed the association between sweetened beverage taxes and health outcomes. To evaluate the association between the Seattle sweetened beverage tax and change in body mass index (BMI) among children. In this longitudinal cohort study, anthropometric data were obtained from electronic medical records of 2 health care systems (Kaiser Permanente Washington [KP] and Seattle Children's Hospital Odessa Brown Children's Clinic [OBCC]). Children were included in the study if they were aged 2 to 18 years (between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2019); had at least 1 weight measurement every year between 2015 and 2019; lived in Seattle or in urban areas of 3 surrounding counties (King, Pierce, and Snohomish); had not moved between taxed (Seattle) and nontaxed areas; received primary health care from KP or OBCC; did not have a recent history of cancer, bariatric surgery, or pregnancy; and had biologically plausible height and BMI (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared). Data analysis was conducted between August 5, 2022, and March 4, 2024. Seattle sweetened beverage tax (1.75 cents per ounce on sweetened beverages), implemented on January 1, 2018. The primary outcome was BMIp95 (BMI expressed as a percentage of the 95th percentile; a newly recommended metric for assessing BMI change) of the reference population for age and sex, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts. In the primary (synthetic difference-in-differences [SDID]) model used, a comparison sample was created by reweighting the comparison sample to optimize on matching to pretax trends in outcome among 6313 children in Seattle. Secondary models were within-person change models using 1 pretax measurement and 1 posttax measurement in 22 779 children and fine stratification weights to balance baseline individual and neighborhood-level confounders. The primary SDID analysis included 6313 children (3041 female [48%] and 3272 male [52%]). More than a third of children (2383 [38%]) were aged 2 to 5 years); their mean (SE) age was 7.7 (0.6) years. With regard to race and ethnicity, 789 children (13%) were Asian, 631 (10%) were Black, 649 (10%) were Hispanic, and 3158 (50%) were White. The primary model results suggested that the Seattle tax was associated with a larger decrease in BMIp95 for children living in Seattle compared with those living in the comparison area (SDID: -0.90 percentage points [95% CI, -1.20 to -0.60]; P < .001). Results from secondary models were similar. The findings of this cohort study suggest that the Seattle sweetened beverage tax was associated with a modest decrease in BMIp95 among children living in Seattle compared with children living in nearby nontaxed areas who were receiving care within the same health care systems. Taken together with existing studies in the US, these results suggest that sweetened beverage taxes may be an effective policy for improving children's BMI. Future research should test this association using longitudinal data in other US cities with sweetened beverage taxes.

Spillovers from tax shocks to the Euro area

Abstract I study the spillover effects of legislated discretionary tax changes in the USA, Germany, and the UK to a panel of eleven Eurozone countries for the period 1980Q1–2018Q4 employing Local Projections. When considering aggregated tax shocks, I find little evidence for significant spillovers. When allowing for state-dependent effects, I find no effects of German or US tax cuts regardless of the state of the business cycle. When allowing for asymmetric effects, there is, in general, evidence for negative (positive) spillovers from US, German, and UK tax hikes (UK tax cuts). US tax hikes always cause adverse spillovers, whereas the effects for Germany and the UK are state dependent. When considering country-specific effects, the effects turn out as heterogeneous across the Eurozone countries. UK tax cuts are generally expansionary, whereas US (German) tax cuts cause positive spillovers mainly during recessionary (non-recessionary) times.

Fruit for thought.

This commentary discusses the New Zealand Labour Party's announcement to remove tax on fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. It aims to explore its potential impact on the psychological well-being of New Zealanders in the context of the growing global burden of mental illnesses in the current food environment. The proposed tax exemption on fruits and vegetables demonstrates the government's commitment to improving the food environment. While the precise mental health effects of this potential tax change remain unstudied, existing evidence suggests a positive impact on New Zealanders' well-being, marking a pivotal step in addressing broader health issues and fostering a healthier, more equitable food landscape.

Economic Growth Effects of Fiscal Policy in South Africa: Empirical Evidence from Personal Income Tax

Economic Growth Effects of Fiscal Policy in South Africa: Empirical Evidence from Personal Income Tax

Modern Challenges of Adjusting the Effectiveness of the Application of Laws (on the Example of Tax and Legal Regulation)

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the current state of social relations. It is notedthat the analysis of modern social relations cannot be carried out outside the boundaries of significantchallenges that require not only their understanding, but also consideration in the relevant reform measures.The most important challenges today are the following: Russia&amp;#39;s war with Ukraine; European integrationprocesses that characterize modern trends in Ukrainian development; digitization of all aspects of public life.Given the problems associated with this, the article defines both objective reasons that affect tax relations, aswell as requirements that are subjective in nature.The purpose of the article is to highlight problematic aspects of the state of modern legal regulation.Attention is focused on the fact that war, European integration and digitalization are among the mostinfluential factors in this aspect. It is clear that they cannot fail to influence the traditional legal means thatguarantee the effectiveness of tax legislation. These aspects are the subject of analysis.Traditional methods of scientific knowledge are used in the research, thanks to which a systematicidea is formed about the reasons for adjusting legal means of influence on tax relations. The characteristicsof the influence of martial law on tax regulation are carried out depending on the stages. The beginning ofthe first is associated with 2014, while the second - with 2022. Despite common features (narrowing of theterritories where Ukrainian jurisdiction exists, reduction of the tax base and tax-paying taxpayers, etc.),differences in the content of these stages have been singled out. European integration processes, whichreflect the movement of Ukraine towards the European community, provide for the adjustment of the natureand content of tax legislation in the following directions: a) adaptation of the current tax legislation ofUkraine to European requirements; b) consideration of European prescriptions at the stage of developmentof zocono projects; c) achieving a balance of acts of the national legislation system.Three areas of relations, which most fundamentally affect the legal status of tax regulation, havebeen studied. The prospects of tax changes depending on the state of war, the prospects of the impact ofharmonization of EU legislation and national legislation, the need to take into account the processes ofdigitalization of tax relations are considered.On the basis of the conducted research, conclusions were made and recommendations were maderegarding the harmonization of the prescriptions of both exclusively tax norms and tax norms on the borderwith other industry regulations. Adjustment of the current set of legislative norms determines the importanceof a systematic approach to the turnover of virtual assets. The formation of a generalized, systematicapproach to these relations is fundamentally important. In order to achieve such a state, it is very importantto supplement the private law means of regulating the circulation of virtual assets with effective tools ofpublic and legal influence (taxation, supervision, public control). The study analyzes the substantive factorsof the regulation of such relations proposed by the two draft laws.

Output, employment, and price effects of U.S. narrative tax changes: a factor-augmented vector autoregression approach

Output, employment, and price effects of U.S. narrative tax changes: a factor-augmented vector autoregression approach

Tax reforms and network effects

This paper investigates the effects of a tax reform that eliminates tax rate heterogeneity and cumulative taxation using a general equilibrium model with multiple sectors with market power. Industries are connected through input-output linkages, and changes in taxation are not confined within industries. We calibrate the model to Brazil, a country with a highly distorted tax system. The revenue-neutral tax reform generates gains of 7.9% of GDP and 1.8% of welfare. Just eliminating VAT rate dispersion leads to a 6.0% increase in GDP. Due to propagation effects, in 10 sectors direct taxes increased but output and profits did not fall.

GST A Robust Tax Regime: A Bibliometric Analysis on GST

A value-added tax placed on the delivery of goods and services is known as the goods and services tax (GST), and it is one of the most critical tax changes implemented in many countries worldwide. Indirect taxes, including sales tax, service tax, excise duty, and value-added tax, will be rolled into a single, all-encompassing tax system called the goods and services tax (GST). The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been the topic of substantial study and analysis. This literature review aims to summarise the most important results and insights from the existing literature on GST. This review will focus on the research that has been conducted. The goods and services tax, sometimes known as the GST, has been adopted by several countries worldwide, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, and India. The evolution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been affected by several issues, including the necessity to simplify the tax system, expand the tax base, increase revenue collection, encourage economic development, and make it easier to do business across international borders. In addition, the research underlines that the design and execution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) differ from country to country due to each nation's specific economic, social, and political conditions. Increasing the amount of money that the government takes in is one of the most important objectives of the GST. According to the research findings, the GST's effects on the income collected are complex. While some studies suggest that an increase in revenue collection has occurred as a result of the adoption of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), other studies highlight the challenges that have arisen as a result of the GST, including revenue leakage, compliance concerns, and the requirement for ongoing monitoring and enforcement. In addition, the research analyses elements that impact revenue collection, such as the tax rate, tax base, exemptions, and the efficiency of tax administration. These factors all have a role in determining how much money is brought in. This study focuses on scientific visualization based on the bibliometric analysis of 426 publications, of which 180 were completed after applying the filters on the keywords "Goods and services tax" in the Scopus database from 2017 to 2022. The articles were analyzed for a period ranging from 2017 to 2022. Bibliometric analysis, appraisal, and visualization are some of the uses that R has seen. The examination produced a scientific map that included co-occurrence analysis, network analysis, a co-citation network, and a collaboration network. These elements contributed to a better understanding of the research topic as conceptual, intellectual, and social structures. The outcome of the bibliometric analysis demonstrates that the evolution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has resulted in the introduction of a new tax regime in several nations. Furthermore, the outcome of the social collaboration analysis demonstrates that many nations, including India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, are collaborating to conduct more fruitful research.

The Heterogeneous Effects of Government Spending: It’s All About Taxes

Abstract Historically, large changes in U.S. government spending induced fiscal efforts that were not all alike, with some using more progressive taxes than others. We develop a heterogeneous-agent New Keynesian model to analyse how the distribution of taxes across households shapes spending multipliers. The model yields empirically realistic distributions in marginal propensities to consume and labour elasticities, which result in lower responsiveness to tax changes for higher-income earners. In turn, multipliers are larger when spending is financed with higher tax progressivity—that is, when the tax burden falls more heavily on higher-income earners. This result is historically material. We estimate that, on average, tax rates increased more for top-income than for bottom-income earners after a spending shock. Thus, the typical U.S. spending shock was financed with higher tax progressivity. We further exploit the historical variation in the financing of spending to estimate progressivity-dependent multipliers, which we find consistent with the model.

Tax measures to reduce food losses and waste in the United States and the European Union: a comparative analysis

Target 12.3 of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda is as follows: “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.” The implementation of the specific targets of the UN 2030 Agenda, such as this one, presents a significant challenge, as they require immediate action, proper public policies, and unprecedented collaboration between private and public entities and countries. Target 12.3 is intrinsically related to many other targets, so its achievement has a direct impact on several of them. Therefore, it is vital to successfully achieve it, not only to reduce hunger but also to achieve many other Agenda targets and, in particular, to be able to reduce our environmental footprint. Preventing Food Losses and Waste (FLW) is a target within Circular Economy that can be considered to be most instrumental as Target 12.3 tries to prevent food overproduction with better redistribution that not only reduces inputs but also attempts to minimize waste by the donation of food products to Social Economy (SE) entities that help those in need. Circular Economy contributes to the resolution of the three most pressing environmental problems: overuse of resources or overexploitation, global warming, and biodiversity loss, in addition to all the negative impacts derived from these (UN Environment, 2019), preventing food losses and waste is also key to ensure the solution of both a deep social problem a public health one and the most important environmental ones. Even though the urgency of immediate action is clear, various academics, such as Martin Rio, Rogenhofer, and Sandoval Alvarado (2022), highlight that the attention this target receives from professionals remains scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare these policies on both sides of the Atlantic, to propose recommendations, and to help raise awareness of the problem of FLW, following a holistic approach for all possible actors involved, as communication is critical to achieve this target. Special attention is paid regarding tax policies in cases where food is donated to Social Economy Entities such as food banks, non-profit foundations, or soup kitchens as taxes can both act as barriers or facilitators to this aim; therefore, it is crucial to implement them correctly to ensure they act as true enablers to achieve the target. Thus, we will be able to assess the tax changes that can help do so by means of a comparison between the existing ones in the United States and the European Union.

The electoral consequences of taxation in OECD countries

Researchers, politicians, and pundits commonly expect that voters retrospectively punish and reward government parties for tax policies, but there is surprisingly little cross-country evidence that backs this claim. This study provides comprehensive evidence from 30 OECD countries, 1970–2020. It analyzes the electoral fates of government parties that increased or cut taxes on personal incomes and consumption. Our findings confirm the prevalence of electoral consequences, but these depend on the type and direction of tax change. Government parties lose votes when they increase personal income taxes while there is only marginal evidence suggesting electoral reward for income tax increases and electoral consequences after value-added tax changes. The findings also indicate the distributive effects of reforms to matter. The most pronounced consequences arise when governments raise income taxes on the poor. The moderating role of conditional factors such as government partisanship and fiscal pressure are explored, but no consensus emerges from the findings.

Information about changes in platform economy taxation diminishes optimism regarding future use

AbstractSome economic interactions are based on trust, others on monetary incentives or monitoring. In the tax compliance context, the monitoring approach creates compliance based on audits and fines (enforced compliance), in contrast to the trust-based (voluntary compliance) approach, which is based on taxpayers’ willingness to comply. Here, we examine how changes in taxation regarding platform economy revenues affect intended labor supply on such platforms. New EU legislation, effective from 2023, will mandate data sharing between platforms and tax authorities across Europe, thus resulting in increased monitoring. We investigate how this upcoming shift in monitoring power affects the intended use of platforms and how it may interact with users’ trust. We use a survey among platform workers (N = 626) in the Netherlands to examine views of the proposed regulation change, corrected for the proportion of platform income and several measures of trust. We experimentally manipulate information by either informing participants about the upcoming monitoring change or not. Results show that informing respondents about the change negatively affects expected supply of labor, and this effect is independent of respondents’ trust. We discuss the policy implications of these results.

Corporate taxes, leverage, and investment: Evidence from Nazi‐occupied Netherlands

AbstractWe examine the Netherlands around the Second World War, where the occupying Nazi regime overhauled the country's corporate tax regime and introduced a profit tax of 55 per cent. We estimate that the new tax regime cost investors at least 300 million guilders, an amount equivalent to 5 per cent of Dutch GDP in 1940. We demonstrate that the tax introduction changed the financing of Dutch businesses. In particular, we find strong evidence that debt financing increased because it provides a tax shelter. The changes in taxation also led to an after‐tax reduction in the cost of debt, which had large real effects on firm investment. After the end of the war, firms with more leverage had higher capital expenditures.

Landfill tax and recycling

AbstractThis paper provides new empirical evidence on the role of landfill taxes in reducing landfill waste and promoting recycling. We focus on the impacts of the 2017 landfill tax law reform in Catalonia, a Spanish region, which increased the tax rate from 18 to 47 euros per tonne over the period 2017–20. Using municipality‐level data for Catalonia from the 2013–20 period, we contrast municipalities that differed in the use of door‐to‐door waste collection by the beginning of our study period. As door‐to‐door waste collection is advocated as especially efficient at reducing landfill waste, we hypothesise that municipalities that had not yet adopted this system had greater leeway in responding to the tax changes. Based on a two‐way fixed effects design, our findings reveal large differential responses to the tax hike. Compared with municipalities that had implemented door‐to‐door waste collection by 2013, we estimate that those that had not done this responded to the tax hike by reducing landfill waste by an additional 12 per cent, reducing total waste by 4 per cent, and increasing the share of recycled waste and waste that is sorted as organic by 6 and 2.5 percentage points, respectively. We provide suggestive evidence that the adoption of door‐to‐door waste collection is the main mechanism driving these responses.

The Impact of Changes in Tax Regulations on Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices in Indonesia

Using a quantitative approach using Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS), this study examines the effects of tax law changes on business tax evasion practices in Indonesia. The research delves into the moderating impacts of industry type and economic conditions, in addition to the mediating roles of corporate financial structure and firm size. Each of the 150 companies in the sample, which come from a variety of industries, offers insightful information about their operational and financial traits. The findings show that corporate tax avoidance and changes in tax laws have a substantial positive correlation, which is mediated by company financial structure and business size. The moderating effects of business type and economic conditions are evident, underscoring the significance of industry-specific characteristics and contextual economic factors in comprehending the behavior of corporation taxes. Policymakers, tax authorities, and enterprises can benefit from the findings, which offer practical insights for formulating and enforcing tax policies.

Use and Abuse of the Concept of ‘Excess Burden’ in the Theory of Public Finance

Optimal tax theory assigns two roles to the measure of excess burden, one to compare the costs of alternative tax instruments, the other to measure the deadweight loss of specific tax instruments, which presumably correspond to the welfare costs of their distortionary effects. This paper claims that the deadweight loss provides misleading measures of welfare costs from tax distortions, because it requires to make unverified assumptions to equate costs to distortions and ensure that the deadweight loss is greater than zero. Taxes other than the lump-sum tax and tax-induced changes in relative prices cannot generally be assumed to be distortionary.

Asymmetric Analysis of the Impact of Taxation on Unemployment in Uganda

Uganda, like most developing countries, has one of the highest tax rates not only in Africa but also in the world. This explains the numerous challenges faced in mobilizing sufficient revenues to fight poverty and improve people’s economic welfare. We, therefore, use a more recent nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) to analyze the impact of higher taxes on the unemployment rate in Uganda. Results indicate that total Unemployment in Uganda is a negative function of both an increase in tax and a negative change in tax. Specifically, if taxes increase, then unemployment decreases by almost 3.9%, and if taxes decrease, then unemployment increases by about 4.9%. Also, the unemployment level decreased by 0.06% with a decrease in the gross capital formation (GFKF). Finally, unemployment also decreases with a rise in GDP and decreases with a decrease in GDP. In a nutshell, Uganda lacks the possibility of making the economy more productive and thus only relies on taxing an already overtaxed economy. Overtaxing an economy kills the possibility of ever building a formidable capital base that can stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty and unemployment. The government, therefore, should cut taxes and level the playing field regarding tax policies for foreign and home-grown investors. Finally, policymakers should also aim to unlock the potential of the informal sector not only to create jobs but also to widen the tax base

종합부동산세의 정책적 변화가 아파트 매매가격에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

1. CONTENTS&#x0D; (1) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES&#x0D; This study is a study on the impact of policy changes in comprehensive real estate tax on apartment sales prices. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of real estate characteristics, macroeconomic characteristics, and comprehensive real estate tax characteristics on apartment sales prices in the metropolitan area, Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon. In particular, we want to know how policy changes in comprehensive real estate holding tax affect apartment sales prices through the characteristics of comprehensive real estate tax.&#x0D; (2) RESEARCH METHOD&#x0D; This research method was analyzed as a fixed effect model using the Hausman test.&#x0D; (3) RESEARCH FINDINGS&#x0D; This study has the following implications. First, it examines the impact of policy changes in comprehensive real estate holding tax in the metropolitan area, Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon on apartment sales prices. This study can be said to have implications at the present time in terms of comprehensive real estate holding tax changes due to the real estate recession. Second, this study was constructed with panel data combining time series and cross-sectional data, and attempted to determine the relevance of the apartment sales price index by dividing it into real estate characteristics, macroeconomic characteristics, and comprehensive real estate holding tax characteristics. Third, at a time when changes to the comprehensive real estate holding tax are taking place, research on the impact of the comprehensive real estate holding tax on apartment sales prices will be important, and regional differences in the metropolitan area on the impact of the comprehensive real estate holding tax by characteristics will be examined. This will be seen as meaningful.

The Impact of Raising Alcohol Taxes on Government Tax Revenue: Insights from Five European Countries.

Reducing the affordability of alcoholic beverages by increasing alcohol excise taxation can lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption but the impact on government alcohol excise tax revenue is poorly understood. This study aimed to (a) describe cross-country tax revenue variations and (b) investigate how changes in taxation were related to changes in government tax revenue, using data from Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. For the population aged 15 years or older, we calculated the annual per capita alcohol excise tax revenue, total tax revenue, gross domestic product and alcohol consumption. In addition to descriptive analyses, joinpoint regressions were performed to identify whether changes in alcohol excise taxation were linked to changes in alcohol excise revenue since 1999. In 2022, the per capita alcohol excise tax revenue was lowest in Germany (€44.2) and highest in Estonia (€218.4). In all countries, the alcohol excise tax revenue was mostly determined by spirit sales (57-72% of total alcohol tax revenue). During 2010-20, inflation-adjusted per capita alcohol excise tax revenues have declined in Germany (- 22.9%), Poland (- 19.1%) and Estonia (- 4.2%) and increased in Latvia (+ 56.8%) and Lithuania (+ 49.3%). In periods of policy non-action, alcohol consumption and tax revenue showed similar trends, but tax level increases were accompanied by increased revenue and stagnant or decreased consumption. Increasing alcohol taxation was not linked to decreased but increased government revenue. Policymakers can increase revenue and reduce alcohol consumption and harm by increasing alcohol taxes.

Global corporate tax policy space

This study investigates the economic growth implications of ongoing and prospective rises in corporate tax rates following G20 countries’ minimum corporation tax agreement. We use a panel data estimation approach to examine economic growth rates and associated macro-economic variables of 42 nations from 1990 to 2017. To elicit more comprehensive insights, we make a distinction between advanced countries (ACs) and emerging market economies (EMEs) and different levels of growth using a quantile estimation approach. The results reveal that corporate tax rate rises depress growth, with a relatively sizeable impact for EMEs, whereas it is not statistically significant for ACs. At high quantiles of growth rates, the impact of the corporate tax policy on growth increases. These findings suggest a dual effect for EMEs with relatively high growth rates and symmetric growth effects of corporate tax changes, necessitating innovative policy prescriptions to address the negative growth impact of prospective higher corporate tax rates.