Tax Resources Research Articles

The Impact of Modality on Mind Wandering during Comprehension

SummaryThe executive resource hypothesis assumes a positive relationship between resource availability and mind wandering. Under the assumption that different modalities of information delivery differentially tax resources, we compared mind wandering across different modalities during the presentation of The Red Headed League (Experiment 1 and 2) and Walden (Experiment 3). An Audio only condition produced the most mind wandering. Two conditions that presumably consumed more executive resources than the Audio Only condition (i.e. Audio + Text and Self‐paced Reading) produced equivalent amounts of mind wandering during Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiment 3 the reading time of the Self‐paced readers moderated the effect of mind wandering in that the fast readers mind wandered more than those in the Audio + Text condition. Results are discussed in the context of the demands of different modes of information delivery methods and mind wandering as well as the potential effects of material type. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Propensity to Tax Competition: The Case of Implementation Local Tax Policy by Polish Local Governments

The study is dedicated to identify the main factors determining the propensity of local authorities to compete for the access to the limited as well as mobile sources of local tax revenue. The success of such an activity should be discussed in relation to the stabilization of local budget revenues; hence it seems that the barriers of leaving tax jurisdiction could be better index to evaluate of the efficiency of local tax policy. The theoretical approach is based on the assumption that, if central government provides limitations of the right to improve local tax policy means (the scope of local tax jurisdiction), the local governments should focus on both the efficient acquiring the sources of tax revenues, and the stabilization of tax revenues in the future, in particular by the implementation of the barriers of leaving tax jurisdiction. The paper suggests studying a propensity to tax competition. The article formulates desideratum of the efficiency of spending on acquiring the sources of tax revenue, in particular, the need to identify the barriers to leave tax jurisdiction is suggested. The first and foremost way to build the barrier to leave tax jurisdiction could be reducing tax liabilities by local tax authorities, in particular by introducing local tax reliefs and local tax exemptions, as well as lowering local tax rates. Hence, the model of local authorities’ competition for local tax resources could be proposed. The empirical studies are dedicated to identify the actual propensity of Polish local government to execute the legal ability to impose tax policy instruments. The inquiry is based on comparing the fiscal consequences of implementing local tax policy within two groups of local authorities: small towns and countries (gminas) and medium-size towns and big cities (cities with powiat status). The period under investigation contains 14 fiscal years, started 2000 and finished in 2013. The method is based on the analysis of the structure and tendency of fiscal consequences of the decisions of local tax authorities.

Taxation, Inequality, and the Illusion of the Social Contract in Brazil

Brazil combines high inequality and high tax yield as percentage of the GDP. This situation contradicts the predictions of two central theories of taxation and democratic politics. The first theory predicts that, within a democratic context, high levels of income inequality should lead governments to carry out significant redistribution. The second theory sees the government’s ability to raise tax revenue as dependent on a social contract between the state and its citizens, and predicts a negative relationship between taxation and social polarization. In this paper, we propose that the theory of fiscal illusion (Puviani 1 903; Buchanan 1967) can account for this double puzzle Brazil presents us. We argue that, by heavily relying on the exploitation of fiscal illusion, the Brazilian state has been able to mobilize a huge amount of tax resources without the need of a broad social contract that could lead to more redistribution, effective public services, and growth-enhancing policies. The paper provides some evidence that supports our argument. First, using recent household surveys and a tax-benefit microssimulation model, we show that redistribution by the state is small, and that even the poorest 20% of the households are, on average, net contributors to the fiscal system.Second, we describe some main features of the Brazilian tax system that tend to induce voters-taxpayers to underestimate the cost of government’ activities. For instance, in the past, the inflation tax and debt financing were major instruments and, nowadays, complex and cascading indirect taxation plays a major role as a source of illusion. We then emphasize that the relationship between inequality and redistribution cannot be predicted without an understanding of the way inequality influences state financing: the institutions of taxation matters.

BEPS and Aggressive Tax Planning: Are the BEPS-OECD Measures to Tackle Aggressive Tax Planning Feasible for Countries in South America and the Sub-Saharan African Region?

The aim of this paper is to assess the feasibility to introduce the OECD-BEPS measures to deal with aggressive tax planning in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The BEPS and its Action Plan have been developed by the OECD following the G20 mandate and it provides new international tax standards to be applicable to all countries including OECD and non-OECD countries.This paper will provide a comparative analysis of the South America and the Sub-Saharan African region taking into account the country’s economic development, tax administration capacity and resources, and the use (or not) of domestic laws and tax treaty rules to tackle aggressive tax planning. The South American and Sub-Saharan African regions have been chosen since they consist mostly of developing (non-OECD) countries. The comparative analysis of the exchange of best practices and challenges in these two regions will be useful for the OECD-BEPS Project and for the BEPS Multilateral Instrument that will be open for adoption by developing and developed countries.This paper is structured as follows: Section 1 contains a short introduction to the BEPS Actions dealing with aggressive tax planning and the discussions at OECD and UN level. Section 2 will provide the assessment of feasibility of the BEPS in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, in Section 3, conclusions and recommendations will be presented.

La reforma tributaria de 1935 y el fortalecimiento de la tributación directa en Colombia

En este artículo se estudian los elementos más relevantes de la reforma tributaria propuesta y puesta en práctica por el presidente Alfonso López Pumarejo en 1935, durante su primera gestión de gobierno. La reforma fue implementada fundamentalmente mediante la Ley 78 de 1935 y complementada por medio de la Ley 63 de 1936. Se trata de uno de los importantes cambios realizados durante el período de la denominada “revolución en marcha”. Uno de los elementos más relevantes de la reforma fue la consolidación y fortalecimiento de los impuestos directos en Colombia utilizando como instrumentos principales el incremento del impuesto a la renta y la creación de los impuestos al exceso de utilidades y al patrimonio. Los nuevos recursos fiscales obtenidos constituyeron una importante fuente de financiamiento del programa integral de reformas y políticas propuestas por el Gobierno lopista.

Rethinking the Origins of British India: State Formation and Military-fiscal Undertakings in an Eighteenth Century World Region

AbstractThis paper discusses the rise of the East India Company in the contested political world of eighteenth century India, with reference to the manner in which economic power was deployed to enhance military power. It is shown that there was only one successful model of military-fiscal strategy during this time, and that the Company's success was due to interactions between three factors—taxable resources, the strategies of its rivals, and institutional choices.

Understanding public debt dynamics

A brief account on the dynamics of public debt is given with the intent of explaining to high school students this crucial aspect in today's economic crisis. A simple model is proposed to argue that only for high enough values of an assumed constant rate ρ of increase of taxable resources there might exist a finite number of periods (years) for repaying an initial debt b0 contracted by a government with its reference national bank.

The Challenge of Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Prevention in Hemodialysis Therapy

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections have challenged care process and resource utilization in the acute hospital care setting for nearly 30 years. These infections have become important causes of morbidity, mortality, and a source of concern in the primary and emergency care context over the past decade. As individuals receiving recurrent therapy with features of both ambulatory care and acute care, hemodialysis patients are exposed to numerous opportunities for MRSA acquisition. Surprisingly, high prevalence rates for MRSA colonization have been demonstrated for both hemodialysis patients and their care providers. The necessity of vascular access and the persistent high prevalence of endovascular catheter use among patients repeatedly exposed to healthcare settings provide the perfect milieu for the troubling rates of MRSA infection, particularly bloodstream infections, in outpatient dialysis care. Dialysis industry shifts, including increased requirements for compliance and reporting in other areas of dialysis care, tax resources for infection prevention processes. Multifaceted strategies that include reassessment of vascular access care, attention to the interruption of MRSA transmission dynamics, and emphasis on organizational learning processes are needed to accomplish a meaningful reduction in the morbidity, mortality, and cost associated with MRSA infections in dialysis care.

Fiscal Federalism in Germany: Stabilization and Redistribution Before and After Unification

We provide estimates of the risk-sharing and redistributive properties of the German federal fiscal system based on data from 1970 to 2006, with special attention to the effects of German unification. Tax revenue sharing between the states and the federal government and the fiscal equalization mechanism (Landerfinanzausgleich) together reduce differences in per-capita state incomes by almost 40 percent. The federal fiscal system offsets 47 percent of an asymmetric shock to state per-capita incomes. This effect has significantly decreased after the inclusion of the East German states in 1995. Furthermore, we find that the German fiscal system provides almost perfect insurance for state government budgets against asymmetric revenue shocks; also, its redistributive effect with regard to the tax resources available to state governments is very strong.

Economic Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Waste Vegetable Oil in Mexicali, Baja California

Mexicali, capital of Baja California, Mexico, has a motor vehicle fleet of diesel estimated at 14,000 units and cargo transport. The transport cargo sector with 11,861 units, consumes about 169 million liters of diesel. The diesel used in Baja California comes from southern Mexico and is one of the causes of CO2 emissions that affect air quality in Mexicali, it is therefore important to explore options for replacing it with biodiesel, which produces less CO2 and can be obtained from waste material. Thus, in the analysis, was considered the use of waste vegetable oil from the Mexicali restaurant industry as a raw material for the production of 4.78 million liters of biodiesel energy equivalent to 4.45 million liters of diesel. The environmental benefit involving the replacement of such a volume of diesel with biodiesel is to reduce emissions by about 9,700 tons of CO2, 22 tons of SOx and 11 tons of PM10. To determine the economic feasibility of producing biodiesel, were applied the methodologies of net present value and internal rate of return. The results indicate that the production of biodiesel is profitable. However, the recovery time of investment, coupled with the uncertainty presented by the biofuels market, make necessary a policy that implements local tax resources to support the promotion, production and use of biodiesel for the transport sector. Therefore, under the circumstances considered in this analysis, the production of biodiesel is feasible if it is developed a synergy among the productive sectors, education and government. Key words: Biodiesel; Economic analysis; Waste vegetable oil; Transport cargo sector

Capacidad tributaria y finanzas públicas metropolitanas en México / Fiscal Capacity and Metropolitan Public Finances in Mexico

En este artículo se examinan los factores determinantes de la capacidad tributaria del Distrito Federal y 25 municipios en tres zonas metropolitanas de México. Se presentan algunos modelos que han sido formulados en la literatura internacional de frontera para cuantificar el potencial de obtención de recursos tributarios. Su principal contribución consiste en aplicar un modelo econométrico robusto, el Modelo de Frontera Estocástica, para medir la capacidad de obtención de recursos fiscales en tres zonas metropolitanas de México y cuantificar el grado de esfuerzo fiscal desplegado por 25 municipios y el Distrito Federal durante el periodo 1992-2007. AbstractThis article examines the factors that determine the tax capacity of the Federal District and 25 municipalities in three metropolitan zones in Mexico. The author presents models that have been formulated in international frontier literature to determine the potential for obtaining tax resources. His main contribution involves implementing a robust econometric model, the Stochastic Frontier Model to measure the capacity for obtaining resources in three metropolitan zones in Mexico and determine the degree of fiscal effort made by 25 municipalities and the Federal District during the period from 1992 to 2007.

Federal Disaster Relief in the U.S.: The Role of Political Partisanship and Preference in Presidential Disaster Declarations and Turndowns

Federal disaster declarations are authorized by the president under the provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 (the Stafford Act). Previous studies pertaining to presidential disaster declarations have found varying levels of political influence associated with the declaration process. Factors including electoral votes, reelection years, congressional committee appointments, geographic location, and party favoritism have been implicated in the selective approval capacity that is designated to the president in issuing federal disaster declarations.This article aims to provide a comparative analysis of emergency and major disaster declaration requests under the Stafford Act from 1989-2005 with attention directed towards political partisanship, biased vote-seeking, and the potential for a state to be overwhelmed by a disaster event. Our study reveals a higher success rate in acquiring major disaster declarations for states with lower total taxable resources and during presidential reelection years. The same findings were not evident in the analysis of emergency disaster declarations where statistically significant observations were limited to events in which recent multiple disasters had occurred and/or senatorial and presidential party similarity existed. There was no statistical evidence to suggest that gubernatorial and presidential party similarity, U.S. House of Representatives and presidential party similarity, FEMA congressional oversight committee membership, electoral votes, or FEMA regional office location influenced success in securing emergency or major disaster declarations. Several aspects of our results differ from prior studies and provide new findings regarding the role of political influence in the disaster declaration process.

우리나라 정부간 재정관계의 실증분석

본 연구는 우리나라 정부간 재정관계가 어떤 상태에 있는지, 그리고 우리나라 정부간 재정관계에 대한 적실성 있는 이론이나 모형을 모색하고자 하였다. 정부간 재정관계 모형을 집권모형, 관리 분권모형, 협력 분권모형, 경쟁 분권모형으로 분류하고, 우리나라 정부간 재정관계를 정부간 권력관계, 중앙/지방간 역할분담, 재원배분이라는 기준을 통해 실증 분석하였다. 분석 결과 우리나라 정부간 재정관계는 전반적으로 관리 분권모형에 해당한다고 볼 수 있으며, 점차 협력 분권모형으로 옮겨가고 있는 추세이다. We are facing that we promptly meet the needs of the times which demand a local decentralization. We must consider, above all, the relations between central government and local government to carry out local decentralization or devolution successfully. In this respect, it is needed to enter into a relationship of intergovernmental function allocation. On this basis of this regard, we have to come up with right intergovernmental financial relations. Given this fact, this study will produce intergovernmental relation model, and then analyze our intergovernmental financial relation positively based on three criteria, such as intergovernmental power relations, role distribution between central government and local government, and the allocation of tax resources. Analysis shows that our intergovernmental financial relation belongs to a management.decentralization model generally.

The Politics of Decentralized Federalism, National Diversification, and Regionalism in Brazil

Federalism has increasingly shaped Brazilian politics in the 1990s. Because the military regime of 1964 to 1985 heavily centralized government in Brasilia, civilian political forces since 1985, in reaction, have expanded decentralization in the name of representation and participation. Institutional reforms, free-market (neoliberal) policies, and privatizations since 1990 have moved the country away from the legacy of statist authoritarian rule. The executive has lost power to the legislative and judicial branches, the union to states and municipalities, and the state to society, private enterprise, and market forces. The Constitution of 1988 recognized the local government units called municipios (loosely, municipalities) as component parts of the federation and shifted considerable political power and tax resources from the federal government to the states and municipalities (Selcher 1989). By the mid-1990s, however, defects and deadlocks in the functioning of the federal system, including its regional aspects, raised issues of representativeness, accountability, governance, distribution of resources, and fiscal soundness that began to stifle progress toward modernization, greater democratization, and solution of social problems. Brazil has become a federal state that is increasingly difficult to manage. A fragmentation of localized interests characterizes its political process, seriously hindering the building of broader coalitions necessary for a national perspective or sense of national interest in the political class and for a truly national politics. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze some of these problematical features, tendencies, and issues in Brazilian federalism today, and to trace the essence of the national debate on its future. Brazil is a very large and complex country that, in the 1990s, has been dealing simultaneously with several powerful centrifugal forces of change. Brusque and rapid trade liberalization, free-market reforms, economic

Rethinking Negotiation and Coercion in an Imperial State

Abstract By reinterpreting the recent literature on the fiscal history of Spain and Spanish America during the long span of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, Irigoin and Grafe have written a major revisionist essay that will probably change the way historians think about intra-imperial fiscal relations and that raises many important issues regarding the strategies of local elites within the imperial structure. They also demonstrate that the analysis of the internal dynamics of the Spanish empire can contribute forcefully to contemporary debates on the comparative study of eighteenth-century empires. Nonetheless, numerous facets of the essay run counter to the findings of many historians who have laboriously reconstructed the Bourbon tax system in Spanish America. A reading of the historical literature produced over the last two decades suggests that while political negotiations between the Spanish monarchy and privileged corporations and urban governments were of great importance, it would be a mistake to discount the importance of coercion and censorship as essential and frequently used instruments of the crown and the powerful to maintain the status quo. These were common instruments in the metropolis but were not infrequently applied with singular severity in the colonies. In the case of Spanish America in the second half of the eighteenth century, the nature of coercion and the brutal response to popular protests (particularly tax revolts) have been analyzed by numerous historians but are downplayed in the essay under discussion. Similarly, it is important to note that most recent historical studies demonstrate that the fiscal reforms carried out by the Bourbon regime throughout Spanish America were much more homogeneous and successful in extracting a rapidly rising level of tax resources from the colonial population than the authors would appear to suggest.

Exploring Boundaries in Governance: Intergovernmental Boundary Agreements

edge of American cities has spawned a debate over the proper allocation of power to and between local units of gov ernment. At issue is determining the optimal method for reducing the fiscal, social, and environmental disparities found in today's metropolis. In recent years, a contrast has been drawn between solutions involving formal hierarchical structures (a government mod el) and those that link organizations horizon tally through cooperation, eschewing govern ment entities with jurisdiction over an entire metropolitan area (a governance model). The rules concerning municipal boundary expansion play a central role in this larger de bate. For example, Rusk (1999; 2003) argues that state laws should enable aggressive annex ation (elastic boundaries) and governmental consolidation (big boxes rather than little boxes) to allow central cities to better regulate land use and redistribute tax resources. The

Biotech: The Countercultural Origins of an Industry

There are many ways to tell the story of the origins of the biotechnology industry. The approach Eric J. Vettel takes in his new book is an interesting one. Beginning at three Bay Area universities—University of California, Berkeley (ucb); Stanford; and University of California, San Francisco (ucsf)—in the wake of World War II, Vettel explores how a deep commitment to basic research and a few strong personalities shaped early developments in the biological sciences on the West Coast and across the globe. Vettel suggests that from an unreflective commitment to fundamental discovery in the postwar era, public support for providing tax money to allow scientists to follow their curiosity soured in the 1960s. According to Vettel, elected officials responded by directing tax resources to research that sought to meet social needs. That environment, Vettel tells us, created the context for the birth of the biotechnology industry. Scientists saw opportunities to frame their work as relevant to public concerns, even as they sought to unlock the secrets of life at the molecular level. Then too, ambitious Bay Area entrepreneurs observed the developments at the region's universities and imagined ways to make fortunes.

Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries: A Synoptic View

This paper presents a broad overview of fiscal issues confronting developing countries. Three of these are (i) developing countries have low tax/GDP and expenditure/GDP ratios compared to developed countries, even though developing countries need more public expenditure; (ii) developing country fiscal stance is often pro-cyclical; (iii) developing country tax resources are more volatile than those of developed countries. I also consider the issue of budgetary deficits and problems arising there from in developing countries. I then discuss some widely accepted norms for tax and expenditure reforms as also some issues of intergovernmental transfers in federal developing countries.

Child Poverty in the American States: The Impact of Welfare Reform, Economics, and Demographics

This article identifies the predictors of child poverty rates at the state level before and after the adoption and implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The analysis shows that the most important state‐level factors that influence child poverty rates are demographics, the health and viability of the state economy, and often the generosity, inclusiveness, and quality of state welfare programs. States with large numbers of black citizens, and those that score highest on infant mortality, teen births, births to unmarried women, children living with a parent without a high school degree, and children living with a single parent have the highest rates of child poverty. Child poverty rates are lowest in states that suffer less unemployment, and in wealthier states. States that score higher on per capita personal income, tax revenues, and taxable resources have lower child poverty rates. While specific “tough” welfare policies adopted by some states seem to have no impact on child poverty rates, we tested for the first time a sophisticated measure of the overall quality of state welfare programs. The analysis reveals that the global quality of a state's welfare programs is often an independent predictor of child poverty. States with the most generous, inclusive, and supportive welfare programs have done the best job of lowering and containing child poverty.

Changing State Fiscal Capacity and Tax Effort in an Era of Devolving Government, 1981–2003

The American system of fiscal federalism requires that state and local governments finance the bulk of their budgets from own-source revenues, not transfers. This article analyzes state total taxable resources from 1981 to 2003 to evaluate how state fiscal capacity has changed in that time and how it has been affected by national recessions, to examine the extent to which fiscal capacity differs among states and whether capacity has converged, and to consider whether states have responded to service demands by changing tax effort and whether tax effort has converged in the face of interstate competition and other harmonizing forces. Because the capacity measure employed here can be compared across years, something impossible with major alternative indices, the analysis provides insights important to the analysis of fiscal federalism and of the implications of revenue devolution not previously possible.