Tax Money Research Articles

Public Preferences for Government Spending Priorities: Survey Evidence from Germany

Abstract Employing data from a representative survey conducted in Germany, this paper examines public preferences for the size and composition of government expenditure. We focus on public attitudes towards taxes, public debt incurrence and public spending in six different policy areas. Our findings suggest, first, that individual preferences for the use of additional tax money can be categorised as either capital-oriented expenditure or public debt reduction. Second, we find that fiscal preferences differ along various dimensions. Specifically, personal economic well-being, economic literacy, confidence in politicians, political ideology and time preference are significantly related to individual attitudes towards public spending, taxes and debt. The magnitude of the effects is particularly large for time preference, economic knowledge and party preference. Third, public preferences for public spending priorities are only marginally affected when considering a public budget constraint.

Automatic Exchange of Information on Indonesia Jurisdiction in order to Control Business Opportunities

The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is a product of common reporting standard as a result of Indonesia's ratification of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The convention purpose is to prevent transnational tax evasion and money laudry, with the existence of an automatic exchange of information system through out members of the convention can enact and enforce its laws. The main problems concerning an autamated system is the jurisdiction regarding the enacting state, as well as bank secrecy laws in ratifying countries. With banks are compromised to reveal tax payers information to the state, many tax payers will eventually lose interest in one state and start seeking tax havens, which will impact the economy and business sectors as well as trade policies between states. The purpose of this research is to find out what law governs AEOI in Indonesia and its impact on transnational jurisdiction between ratifying and non-ratifying states. This research is a juridical-emphirical research which uses statute approach, conceptual approach and comparative approach. The research compares Indonesia laws including banking law as well as statistics of Indonesian economic growth since the enactment of tax amnesty as a reaction towards AEOI.

Visual querying and analysis of temporal fiscal networks

We present TeFNet, a new system for the visual analysis of temporal networks in the fiscal domain, aimed to contrast tax evasion, fiscal frauds, and money laundering. The design of TeFNet has been driven by domain experts (tax officers) and the system is currently used by the Italian revenue agency, Agenzia delle Entrate. TeFNet is based on a powerful visual query language that allows users to easily define suspicious patterns involving temporal constraints. To efficiently execute graph pattern matching algorithms on large networks, TeFNet exploits modern graph database technologies. Besides its visual query language, TeFNet is equipped with graph visualization techniques to quickly convey time-varying information during an interactive exploration of the subgraphs that match a desired pattern. Both the query language and the visualization techniques rely on a suitable timeline approach, which maps the time dimension to the space dimension. The system has been tested in a real working environment. We demonstrate its effectiveness by discussing use cases on real suspicious patterns and the results of experiments conducted with expert tax officers on real data. Furthermore, we performed a qualitative evaluation to get additional insights about advantages and limits of our system.

Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters – An Effort to Curb Tax Evasion and Money Laundering

In this article, the author reviews Pakistan’s recent legislative history governing protection for foreign exchange accountholders. He concludes that, until the enactment of the Finance Act 2018, the legislation contained gaping loopholes, which were misused by tax evaders for tax evasion and money laundering. The article assesses how Pakistan’s participation in the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters will assist the country in combating tax evasion and money laundering, in conjunction with the most recent legislative amendments.

The Effect of Exposure to Racialized Cues on White and Black Public Support for Justice Reinvestment

Racial priming theory predicts that exposure to racialized cues causes whites to express stronger opposition to social policies designed to ameliorate racial disparities. This study uses racial priming theory to analyze black and white public opinion about the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) with a particular emphasis on the choice of how to reinvest tax money. A framing experiment tests whether exposure to racialized cue words affects people’s willingness to invest money into the social infrastructure of neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage versus invest money into the criminal justice system. Results indicate no investment preference differences between people exposed to implicitly racialized cues and people exposed to no cues, but whites who were explicitly told that “African American communities” would receive reinvestment funds allocated significant less money toward programs and services in these communities. This study also explores how racism and perceptions of fairness in the justice system moderate this framing effect.

Формування інституційного поля економічної самоідентифікації українців в умовах Австро-Угорської імперії

The article explores the institutional conditions of the development of the national household in the West Ukrainian land as part of Austria-Hungary. Outlined the actuality of the national tradition of economic self-realization and self-identification in the crisis conditions of modern Ukraine. Pointed out the complex process of searching of the ways of stimulating the development of a modern national market economy that is required to create forming a new economic mentality of Ukrainians, educated on the values of the national tradition of economic self-identification. The essence of the modernization changes of the institutional field with the entry of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia into the Austrian Empire at the end of the eighteenth century is revealed. In particular, the judicial reforms of Empress Maria Theresa during 1768–1776 were analyzed, which led to changes primarily in the field of formal rules of the game. The institutional changes in the fiscal sphere that became important for market development are revealed. The influence of the laws of Joseph II, which for the first time affirmed the status of a subject of law for the peasant, was substantiated. The significance of the Patent of Joseph II of April 5, 1782, which abolished serfdom as a personal dependence of the peasants on the landowners, was proved, as well as that of the Urban Patent of February 10, 1789, on the abolition of the serfdom and its replacement by money tax. The role of the Josephine peasant reforms in the formation of a new institutional field of national identity, social capital, and economic self-organization is substantiated. It is established that the decrees of Joseph II (1780–1787) on the introduction of public spies created the ground for the formation of proto-civil society. The events of the "spring of peoples" and the abolition of the cornice in 1848 were characterized, which became an important stage of the institutional maturation of the basis of the national economic movement. Attention is given to the significance of the law modernization of September 7, 1848 on the elimination of the personal dependence of peasants on the former owners and granting them the rights of citizens. The author covers the formation of wealthy peasants at the expense of the parceling of the landownership, whose owners were not able to properly manage in market conditions. The conclusion is formulated about the importance of the national tradition of economic self-identification of Ukrainians in the conditions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the modern strategy of economic development of the Ukrainian state.

Реалізація податкової політики нацистів у селі Лосинівка Лосинівського району Чернігівської області

At the foundation of documental materials of Chernihiv’s oblast State archive was explored a system of taxes in the village of Losynivka Losynivka region Chernihiv oblast in a period of occupation (1941–1943years). It was analyzed main kinds of natural and money taxes, taxes, that had to be paid by inhabitants. It was characterized system of fines as an effective form of inhabitants’ robbery. It was followed a role of consumer class in ensuring products and goods in change of deficit goods of first aid. It was shown, that occupants’ politics had a robbed character and caused taking agricultural production from inhabitants. There weresome examples of material stimulation and attraction inhabitants with the purpose of trying get their adore.

Beneficial Ownership in the Investment Industry: A Strategy to Roll Back Anonymous Capital

Current regulation of the investment industry and securities trading primarily focuses on protecting investors and maintaining the soundness of the investment and securities market. While financial institutions and other intermediaries are usually also bound to perform customer due diligence and anti-money laundering procedures to prevent illicit financial flows, the secrecy underpinning the investment industry and securities trading significantly undermines measures to address tax evasion, corruption and money laundering. The main secrecy problem in the investment industry and securities trading is that no single party has access to a full picture of individual chains of ownership, meaning nobody fully knows who owns what. At best, some parties have access to partial information. Two recent transparency advancements improved the investment industry’s situation, but only marginally. Many countries, especially in the EU, have started to establish beneficial ownership registries, where companies, trusts, partnerships and other legal vehicles have to disclose their “beneficial owners”, the individuals who ultimately own, control or benefit from a legal vehicle. However, investment entities (as well as companies listed on a stock exchange, whose shares may be held by investment entities as underlying financial assets) are in many cases being excluded from the scope of these new beneficial ownership registries, either by law or in practice. The other transparency breakthrough is the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of information. However, many loopholes and exemptions prevent the new standard from being truly effective at solving the secrecy problem of the investment industry and securities trading. Notwithstanding the many loopholes and exemptions, when the CRS does apply to the investment industry, it only covers information about the value and income from investment entities. It does not collect information on the underlying securities held by investors through investment entities. This makes it impossible for authorities to detect misreporting or underreporting. To address these secrecy problems, the most comprehensive solution to the secrecy underpinning the investment industry and securities trading could be to disclose every individual that directly or indirectly holds: (i) any interest in an investment fund, (ii) any interest in an underlying financial asset (eg a share in a company listed on a stock exchange), and (iii) how the individual holds these underlying securities, including all intermediaries involved. Given the current trend of super-fast trading where securities may be held for just a few seconds, ownership could be reported regarding the situation at the end of the business day (identifying only the last end-investors who held each interest in the investment fund and in the underlying security at the end of each business day). In addition, this comprehensive identification of the end-investor and its beneficial owner (the individual end-investor) should involve replacing omnibus accounts (that pool together money from many different investors) and employ segregated accounts at the end-investor beneficial ownership level. To be comprehensive in its scope, beneficial ownership thresholds for legal persons (currently at “more than 25%” of ownership) should be lowered so as to require any individual holding any interest in an investment fund or in a financial asset (eg holding one share in Apple) to be registered as a beneficial owner. By identifying every individual holding at least one share or unit of interest it would be possible to account for every underlying financial asset, and every interest in an investment fund in the world (or at least in a given market). This granular ownership detail about every existing investment fund and every underlying financial asset would ensure that there is no case of underreporting or double reporting of financial assets (to prevent evading income tax, capital gains tax, or trying to obtain illegal tax refunds).

War, International Finance, and Fiscal Capacity in the Long Run

AbstractIn this article I revisit the relationship between war and state making in modern times by focusing on two prominent types of war finance: taxes and foreign loans. Financing war with tax money enhances the capacity to assess wealth and monitor compliance, namely fiscal capacity. Tax-financed war facilitates the adoption of power-sharing institutions, which transform taxation into a non-zero-sum game, carrying on the effect of war in the long run. Financing war with external capital does not contribute to long-term fiscal capacity if borrowers interrupt debt service and, as part of the default settlement, war debt is condoned or exchanged for nontax revenue. The empirical evidence draws from war around the world as early as 1816. Results suggest that globalization of capital markets in the nineteenth century undermined the association between war, state making, and political reform.

الأحکام الفقهیة للتهرب الضریبی

تعرض هذه الدراسة لقضية التهرب الضريبي فتعرض لمفهوم التهرب الضريبي وأنواعه المختلفة وتوضح الفرق بينه وبين التجنب الضريبي ونظرة علماء المالية إلى کل منهما، ثم تعرض للأحکام الفقهية للتهرب الضريبي فتبين حکم التجنب الضريبي وحکم التهرب الضريبي وتعرض لأحکام بعض التطبيقات الحديثة في هذا الصدد کالتهرب من الضريبة التي يحتاج إليها المرء بسبب حاجة أو دين والتهرب من الضريبة في الدولة الغنية التي تنفقها في الکماليات والتهرب من الضريبة في بلد غير مسلم ينفقها في بعض المحرمات، ثم تعرض للوسائل التي وضعها الفقه المالي الإسلامي لعلاج هذه المشکلة وهي الالتزام بضوابط فرض الضرائب في الفقه الإسلامي، وإيقاظ الوعي بأهمية الضرائب وفرض العقوبات الجنائية على التهرب الضريبي، ثم تتعرض عند دراسة هذه الوسائل لحکم المصالحة على مال أقل من دين الضريبة فتبين ذلک الحکم في ضوء القواعد العامة للشريعة الإسلامية ونصوصها الخالدة. الکلمات المفتاحية: التهرب الضريبي - أحکام الفقه الإسلامي Islamic Jurist Rulings on Tax Evasion By: Sultan Fahd Al-Kannah sultan555@hotmail.com Abstract This study tackles the issue of tax evasion. It explores the concept of tax evasion, its kinds, and the difference between evasion and avoidance, with financial scholars’ commentaries on both. The study then demonstrates the jurist ruling on tax evasion and tax avoidance, with modern application on relevant cases, such as evading tax due to one’s need for money or being in debt, evading taxes in prosperous countries that spend tax money on luxuries, and evading taxes in a non-Muslim country that spends them on some prohibited things. The paper also highlights the means for handling those issues according to the Islamic financial jurisprudence, namely compliance with taxation controls in Islamic jurisprudence, raising awareness regarding the importance of taxes, and enforcing criminal penalties on tax evasion. The study mentions the rulings regarding reconciliation on less money than the tax debt in the light of the general laws of the Islamic Sharia and its eternal legal texts. Key words: tax evasion – Islamic jurist rulings.

Reputation Management in the AEC-industry after Work-related Crime

Construction companies can be difficult to manage because of complex supply chains, autonomous project managers aiming to maximize net profit, heavy emphasis on price, etc. Another particularity, namely the construction companies' vulnerability for work-related crime, does not receive sufficient attention in the project management literature. In order to study how two major Norwegian contractors managed to safeguard their reputation in the aftermath of the discovery of tax crime and money laundering within their projects, this paper investigates the following research questions: 1) What are the main challenges regarding work-related crime? and 2) How do contractors manage their professional reputation and public image in the aftermath of exposed work-related crime?This is an exploratory study starting with a literature review, followed by a case study consisting of a document study and 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives on the strategic level. Work-related crime could have a devastating effect on a contractor's reputation. Reputation is perceived to be a vital catalyst for contractors that want to continue in business and conduct projects for reputable clients. Therefore, the most important measure will be to deliver projects according to the agreed price and quality, within the scheduled time, while not compromising either the contract, all the legal jurisdictions aspects or ethical standards. In these particular cases, the contractors perceived their reputation as remaining untarnished due to their successful ad-hoc reputation management. However, the contractors have to do more than just distancing themselves. They must actively prevent criminal actors from entering their projects. This paper is a revised version of the paper (study) published earlier in the proceedings of the Creative Construction Conference 2018 (Engebø et al., 2018).

Resilience and Robustness of Composite Steel and Precast Concrete Track Slabs Exposed to Train Derailments

Sydney Harbour Bridge (SHB) is an iconic structure constructed in 1923 in Sydney, connecting North Sydney and Sydney CBD. It is a steel-arch structure that caries 8 road lines and 2 rail tracks. Rail tracks of the bridge presently use conventional timber transoms (or sleepers) as track support structure. Replacement of aging and failing timber transoms annually cost public tax money significantly as a result of the high turnover rate of components caused by salt spray, electrolysis, humidity, aggressive dynamic condition and so on. Steel-concrete composite transoms have been found to be a feasible alternative to timber transoms, which enable systems compatibility with the structural configuration of Sydney Harbour Bridge. However, critical literature review on composite transoms reveals that their impact failures due to train derailments have not yet been considered. In fact, the derailment impacts can cause progressive failure to the bridge structure system. This paper therefore investigates the unprecedented impact damage and failure modes of composite transoms during train derailments. The derailment loads was considered in accordance with Australian Bridge Standard AS5100. The train derailment load was simulated using three dimensional non-linear finite element modelling by ABAQUS. The damage and failure behaviour of the precast concrete-steel composite transoms was then analysed. The ductility of composite slabs can be observed from the yielding of both reinforcements and steel sheets during the impact loading. The dynamic finite element analysis is found to be capable of making reasonable predictions by determining the possible failure modes of steel-concrete composite track slabs subjected to impact loads.

Non-employee individual taxpayer compliance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine what factors may affect taxpayer (TP) compliance. Design/methodology/approach This research uses five independent variables such as income, TP’s perception on tax penalties, law and enforcement, fair tax treatment and the use of tax money in a transparent and accountable way. The dependent variable is the compliance of individual TPs non-employees. The data used are primary data obtained from questionnaires on KPP Surabaya Rungkut and processed using a multiple linear regression method with SPSS 21.0 Software for Windows. Findings The results show that partially income does not affect the compliance of individual TP non-employees; however, four other independent variables on the TP’s perception of penalties, law enforcement, tax treatment and the use of tax money simultaneously had a positive effect. Originality/value All independent variables had a positive effect on compliance by individual TP non-employees on KPP Surabaya Rungkut.

MENGAPA WAJIB PAJAK MENGIKUTI TAX AMNESTY (STUDI KASUS DI SOLO)

Tax amnesty program was obtain to apply Republic Indonesia government regulation number 11 year 2016. The present study aims at providing why do tax payers take tax amnesty. This study used Case Study Research approach. A single case study approach was choosen because one data was enough to achieve the research objective. Data were gathered by questionnaire and semi-structured interview with tax payers in Solo Raya. The finding shows that comprehension of tax amnesty only can be understood three of tax payers, they take tax amnesty program by working together with tax consultant, and the problems are for arranging technical and minim for socialization become obstruction of tax amnesty realization. The limitation of this research is not using comparative case study. In addition, this research timming is limited. However this research raises the higher of leader or personal commitment to do tax amnesty program with the hope by increasing regular tax amnesty socialization, simplification of procedure tax amnesty for small business tax payers, also if tax amnesty results, the tax money, actually were used for public wealthy.

MODERN CRYPTOECONOMICS: INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGULATION

Due to increasing interest around the world about crypto-currency there is a growing need among authorities for understanding the approaches to regulate the new phenomenon. Analysis of international experience in the regulation of crypto-currencies and other cryptoactive assets shows that regulators are now trying to reduce the risks associated with the violation of public interests - the risks of erosion of the tax base and money laundering and terrorist financing. The article provides information on the approaches of the EU, the US and other OECD countries to the regulation of crypto-currencies and other crypto assets, as well as possible proposals for regulators in Russia.

Participatory Budgeting: The Knowledge Premises and the Application to Thai Local Governance

The objectives of this research were, to Meta-synthesize the knowledge premises of the participatory budgeting; to investigate elements reinforcing the success of people participation same, and thirdly to recommend approaches appropriating the concept of the participatory budgeting to be implemented in organizing the Thai local governance. A qualitative method was applied to synthesize research works, methodologies, theories, data and field work from five local government organizations. Interviews were also conducted with the central administration personnel the local government specialists and 32 key informants, three focus groups and non-participatory observations. The results revealed the knowledge premises of the participatory budgeting originated in Brazil - a concept offering opportunities for people to participate in decision-making and spending monetary resources. Secondly, the elements reinforcing the success of people participation were the geographic contexts, attributes of people, opportunities offered by laws, the local leaders, common ownership creation, auditability, good governance approach, public relations, information provisions, trust of people, confidence and faith in the management of the local government organization, gaining utilities, responsive to problems, having diverse stages and channels to access information and the vigor of the civil sector. Thirdly, the approaches in appropriating the concept of participatory budgeting to be implemented in organizing the Thai local government involve, the government enacting either laws or rules or ministerial announcements, the local government organizations should orchestrate facilities and monitor ways to welcome people participation, the civil sector has to be enthusiastic, tax money should be spent with efficiency, the NGOs mediate between the local government and the people, and finally, the civil societies (CSOs) should avail opportunities to create networks both from social and political supporters.

The State of Play of Beneficial Ownership Registration: A Visual Overview

Beneficial ownership transparency has become one of the leading tools to tackle illicit financial flows related to tax evasion, money laundering, corruption and terrorism finance. It involves identifying the “beneficial owners”, who are the individuals (natural persons) who ultimately own or control legal vehicles such as companies, partnerships, trusts or foundations that operate in the economy by opening bank accounts, holding real estate, or providing goods and services. Without beneficial ownership transparency, criminals are able to engage in illegal activities by hiding behind legal vehicles or nominees. Beneficial ownership transparency reveals who is behind an entity. This report, based on the Financial Secrecy Index, describes the state of play of both legal and beneficial ownership registration in more than 112 jurisdictions for four types of legal vehicles (companies, partnerships, trusts and private foundations). It describes the registration level in each country, and it also weighs the risks based on the number of registered vehicles. For example, if both country A and country B offer secretive companies, but one million companies have been created in country A while none have been created in country B, then the risk posed by country A is much worse in practice than that of country B.

A high resolution agent-based model to support walk-bicycle infrastructure investment decisions: A case study with New York City

Active transportation modes–walk and bicycle–are central for low carbon transport, healthy living, and complete streets initiative. Building a community with amenable walk and bicycle facilities asks for smart planning and investments. It is critical to investigate the impact of infrastructure building or expansion on the overall walk and bicycle mode usage prior to making investment choices utilizing public tax money. This research developed a high performance agent-based model to support investment decisions that allows to assess the impact of changes in walk-bike infrastructures at a fine spatial resolution (e.g., block group level). We built the agent-based model (ABM) in Repast-HPC platform and calibrated the model using Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Simulation (SPSA) technique. The ABM utilizes data from a synthetic population simulator that generates agents with corresponding socio-demographic characteristics, and integrates facility attributes regarding walking and bicycling such as sidewalk width and total length bike lane into the mode choice decision making process. Moreover, the ABM accounts for the effect of social interactions among agents who share identical home and work geographic locations. Finally, GIS-based maps are developed at block group resolution that allows examining the effect of walk-bike infrastructure related investments. The results from New York City case study indicate that infrastructure investments such as widening sidewalk and increasing bike lane network can positively influence the active transportation mode choices. Also, the impact varies with geographic locations–different boroughs of New York City will have different impacts. Our ABM simulation results also indicate that social promotions foucsing on active transportation can positively reinforce the impacts of infrastructure changes.

Can “harmonization” antidote tax avoidance and other financial crimes globally?

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to underscore that harmonization of laws, much as it might not offer a lasting cure of tax avoidance and other forms of financial crimes, can enhance the fight against it and subsequently help to forestall it. Tax avoidance has remained an intractable challenge and costs governments astronomical sums of money, largely because taxation is a sensitive issue in the realm of sovereign national jurisdictions. The first part of this paper involves a review of empirical data on tax avoidance to create a context for evaluating theoretical issues on tax avoidance and how they are manifested in practice. It draws examples in a cross-jurisdictional perspective given the global character of tax avoidance and evasion as financial crimes. The last part of this paper discusses possible recommendations that could be implemented to tackle tax avoidance and its attendant challenges on economies.Design/methodology/approachThe author has carried out a scoping review of the literature on tax avoidance and myriad of ways used to commit it globally. There was a wealth of data on tax avoidance, evasion, money laundering and harmonization of laws, which was reviewed and applied in undertaking this study. These data were sourced from published academic books, journal articles and online data sources/websites. This paper reflects on and internalizes most recent empirical data on tax avoidance and evasion such as unprecedented leak of millions of files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca – the so-called “Panama papers”, which has revealed the extent of tax avoidance globally. It also goes an extra length (literally speaking) to underscore important measures that ought to be introduced to address tax avoidance, evasion and money laundering once and for all.FindingsThe findings of this paper confirm that while harmonization of law has its inherent shortcomings, it is necessary to enhance individual state’s ability to deal with overlapping interstate challenges such as tax avoidance. This paper proffers a thorough analysis of tax avoidance, the varied context in which it is manifested with a view to evaluate measures that could be adopted by states to minimize or forestall it globally.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has used data on tax avoidance and cognate areas in underscoring inherent challenges in current measures against tax avoidance globally. There were not many studies carried out on the role of harmonization in bolstering states’ efforts against tax avoidance and other financial crimes.Practical implicationsPaying taxes or avoiding paying it has a direct bearing on people, societies and national governments. It is therefore important that states adopt measures to curtail tax avoidance – because it costs governments a lot of revenue.Originality/valueThough studies have been conducted on tax avoidance and cognate areas, this paper articulates that harmonization could greatly enhance the fight against it globally. This paper will appeal to tax authorities, banks, governments, policy makers, oversight financial institutions and those who have a vested interest in regulation of financial crimes globally.

Policies for forest landscape management – A conceptual approach with an empirical application for Swedish conditions

Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are major factors leading to forest biodiversity decline. This paper discusses landscape planning as strategy to improve connectivity in a landscape with a heterogeneous distribution of ecologically valuable areas across land owners. A tax-fund system is proposed, that following the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, tries to spread the burden of conservation equally across land owners while optimizing the environmental outcome. Design options of such a tax-fund system are discussed along the lines of a simple theoretical model. Financial effects of a tax-fund system are computed for a small model landscape set in Sweden. Two design questions stand out as particularly important. The first is whether the policy is intended to be self-sustained among the land owners or if the budget can be supplemented by general tax money. The second is whether the land owners or the relevant authority select the stands for conservation set-aside.