refers to total AWE of all employees (full-time and part-time) while it is not clear whether the ... more refers to total AWE of all employees (full-time and part-time) while it is not clear whether the New Zealand data refers to total AWE of all employees or full-time employees only.
The article explores the Ralph Review’s assumption that the unfavourable effect of tax reforms on... more The article explores the Ralph Review’s assumption that the unfavourable effect of tax reforms on small business has been adequately counterbalanced by reduced taxation compliance costs. Research suggests that, even after offsetting benefits, compliance costs associated with tax reform continue to be regressive for small business. Further “fine-tuning” of tax legislation will be necessary if effectively simplified and reduced small business compliance costs are to be achieved.
This paper examines the possibility that foreign aid financing for public capital accumulation in... more This paper examines the possibility that foreign aid financing for public capital accumulation in developing countries may lead to excess depreciation of capital. The depreciation rate on public capital is endogenised in a general equilibrium framework in which the government collects a consumption tax to finance maintenance and repair expenditures as well as public investment. Tow simple cases are formulated and analysed to show that excess depreciation of public capital may result from budgetary and international aid and financing distortions that skew allocations to new investment rather than to maintenance of existing capital.
University of New South Wales law journal, Oct 1, 2000
A definition of legal simplicity of taxation is the ease by which a body of a tax law can be read... more A definition of legal simplicity of taxation is the ease by which a body of a tax law can be read and correctly understood and applied to practical situations. Tax simplicity is desirable in isolation but not necessary in conjunction with other objectives of the tax system which has an ambiguous effect on tax revenue because some taxpayers pay more while some pay less, making a decline in total tax collection possible.
The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Malaysia, on 1 April, 2015, was part of... more The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Malaysia, on 1 April, 2015, was part of the Malaysian government's taxation reforms aimed at reducing the country's budget deficit, hence improving the collection of revenue. This article presents findings of some of the major issues and concerns that the Malaysian business taxpayers perceive as key challenges in preparing for the implementation of the GST. Using a survey questionnaire, 1,500 Malaysian business taxpayers 5 were surveyed in June 2013 to investigate their GST implementation readiness. The results confirmed that overall, business taxpayers were poorly prepared for the GST implementation, with only nine percent claiming to be substantially ready. Around 22% of the respondents stated that they were well equipped with computer systems for GST purposes. Over 25% of eligible potential GST registrants stated that they would not register. Over 74% of respondents felt that the GST would place an additional compl...
PurposeThis paper attempts to develop a simple, static model of tax administration that is capabl... more PurposeThis paper attempts to develop a simple, static model of tax administration that is capable of explaining the widespread collusive petty tax administration corruption observed in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes a positivist research framework and adopts a theoretical method of analysis, although secondary data will also be mentioned to support theoretical arguments whenever it is appropriate to do so.FindingsA high rate of collusive tax corruption is inevitable in developing countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is static and needs to be extended into a dynamic model.Practical implicationsTraditional enforcement tools such as higher audits or a higher penalty regime against tax evasion do not work. Tax simplification can lessen the incidence of tax corruption.Social implicationsFighting tax corruption requires significant changes in the attitudes of taxpayers and tax auditors.Originality/valueThis paper combines the literatur...
The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the v... more The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Atax, University of New South Wales, or the Fraser Institute. Information provided by Nick Botfield, Director of Pre-filling of Tax Returns, Australian Taxation Office (ATO), is gratefully acknowledged, as are the comments of an anonymous referee of this chapter.
Velocity estimation is generally under-determined. To obtain a pleasing result we impose some typ... more Velocity estimation is generally under-determined. To obtain a pleasing result we impose some type of regularization criteria such as preconditioning(Harlan, 1996), limiting inversion solutions to large singular values (Rowbotham and Pratt, 1997), or characterizing the model through a small number of spline coefficients (Ji, 1997). These methods all create velocity models that can correctly model the recorded travel times, but are often geologically unrealistic. To create more geologically feasible velocity models and to speed up convergence, Michelena and Harris (1991) suggested using varying sized grid cells. Unfortunately, such a parameterization is prone to error when the wrong size blocks are chosen (Delprat-Jannaud and Lailly, 1992). Other authors have suggested locally clustering grid cells (Carrion, 1991) or characterizing the velocity model as a series of layers (Kosloff et al., 1996). These methods are also susceptible to errors when the wrong parameterization is chosen. An attractive alternative approach is to add an additional model regularization term to the objective function (van Trier, 1990). In theory, this regularization term should be the inverse model covariance matrix (Tarantola, 1987) obtained from some a priori information sources.
Part I: Overview Part II: Doi Moi: Past, Present and Future Development Issues Part III: The Viet... more Part I: Overview Part II: Doi Moi: Past, Present and Future Development Issues Part III: The Vietnamese Economy in a Global Context Part IV: Sectoral Policies and Institutional Reforms Part V: Poverty Alleviation Policy Part VI: Conclusion
Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse... more Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries in the early 1990s have allowed researchers to study tax policy reform in transition economies with changing political and economic systems. This article aims to examine tax policy challenges in Egypt as a result of the revolution in 2011. Egypt has been chosen because of its importance in the Arab world and its interesting tax reform, including a rationalisation of tax incentives. It is found that Egypt has adopted a combination of counter-cyclical government expenditure policy and pro-cyclical tax policy in an era of political transition. This combination is interesting as it is well known that developed countries tend to employ counter-cyclical fiscal policy whereas developing countries tend to utilise pro-cyclical policy. It is proposed that the Egyptian government should consider modernising its tax administration and enhancing its anti-tax avoidance activities as an alternative to increasing tax rates in pursuing its pro-cyclical tax policy.
The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine and evaluate the recommendations of the Henry... more The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine and evaluate the recommendations of the Henry Review as they relate to the simplification of the Australian tax system and its component parts. A subsidiary aim is to consider the Government’s initial response to the recommendations contained in the Review. All of this is done in the third part of this chapter (The Henry Review recommendations and Government response). The analysis in that part is conducted from two distinct perspectives, relating specifically to the simplification of personal taxes and of business taxation. The broader perspective relating to the entire tax and transfer systems, including the rationalisation, integration and coordination of Commonwealth and State taxes, flows indirectly from this analysis of personal and business taxation. Hence general system-wide comments, including some suggestions for the way forward, are made in the concluding part of the chapter.<br><br>Prior to all of this, the ...
European Economics: Political Economy & Public Economics eJournal, 2002
The paper considers the business compliance cost implications that might be expected to arise if ... more The paper considers the business compliance cost implications that might be expected to arise if the Tax Value Method (TVM) were to be introduced. It assesses the magnitude and incidence of the transitional costs that businesses and their advisers might face upon implementation of the TVM. It also identifies and evaluates the longer term, recurrent compliance costs/benefits that would occur, relative to the existing tax system, if the TVM were to be introduced. The paper identifies a number of caveats and constraints that qualify its primary findings, not the least of which is the difficulty in evaluating an incomplete hypothetical. The authors, nonetheless, consider that the paper constitutes as reliable an evaluation of the transitional and recurrent compliance costs of the TVM as is possible at this stage.
Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse... more Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries in the early 1990s have allowed researchers to study tax policy reform in transition economies with changing political and economic systems. This article aims to examine tax policy challenges in Egypt as a result of the revolution in 2011. Egypt has been chosen because of its importance in the Arab world and its interesting tax reform, including a rationalisation of tax incentives. It is found that Egypt has adopted a combination of counter-cyclical government expenditure policy and pro-cyclical tax policy in an era of political transition. This combination is interesting as it is well known that developed countries tend to employ counter-cyclical fiscal policy whereas developing countries tend to utilise pro-cyclical policy. It is proposed that the Egyptian government should consider modernising its tax administration and enhancing its anti-tax avoidance activities as an alternative to increasing tax rates in pursuing its pro-cyclical tax policy
The principal aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the contribution and impact of Professo... more The principal aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the contribution and impact of Professor Cedric Sandford to the discipline of tax compliance costs. It covers, sequentially, four separate but related topics. Initially, it reviews the state of tax compliance cost research prior to his engagement in compliance cost research in the period from the 1970s onwards. The paper then examines Professor Sandford's role in raising tax compliance costs into a scholarly discipline. The third topic is devoted to the current position of tax compliance costs in the fields of tax research and tax policy, especially from an Australian perspective. Finally, the paper provides a summary of aspects of his vision for future directions in tax compliance cost research.
The research project that is the subject of this chapter involved three separate surveys of more ... more The research project that is the subject of this chapter involved three separate surveys of more than 15,000 taxpayers selected from a national database of taxpayers provided by the ATO, targeted at three broad categories of taxpayers: personal (non-business) taxpayers; small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (annual turnover less than or equal to AUD 250 million); and large businesses (annual turnover exceeding AUD 250 million). The surveys focused on the taxation compliance burden imposed by federal (Commonwealth) and State taxes during the year ended 30 June 2012, and were conducted in Australia between November 2012 and February 2013. The surveys were the first independent large-scale surveys of tax compliance costs conducted in Australia since 1996 and since the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST, Australia’s value added tax) in 2000.<br><br>The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows. After a discussion of important conceptual issues (§8.02) and...
This research reports an in‐depth study of the due diligence activities that prospective independ... more This research reports an in‐depth study of the due diligence activities that prospective independent small business operators and franchisees in Australia undertake prior to purchasing or starting up their businesses. Although academic literature and industry publications promote undertaking ‘proper due diligence’, there is a lack of empirical research into the nature of due diligence and its effect on business outcomes. Using a qualitative approach, 60 currently and formerly operating independents and franchisees were personally interviewed, exploring the diversity of approaches to undertaking due diligence prior to entering business. The research revealed that differences occur in both the type and amount of due diligence undertaken by independents and franchisees and highlighted further differences between current and former operators. In general, the due diligence undertaken by participants was relatively unsophisticated with few exceptions of rigour and planning. Where prospect...
refers to total AWE of all employees (full-time and part-time) while it is not clear whether the ... more refers to total AWE of all employees (full-time and part-time) while it is not clear whether the New Zealand data refers to total AWE of all employees or full-time employees only.
The article explores the Ralph Review’s assumption that the unfavourable effect of tax reforms on... more The article explores the Ralph Review’s assumption that the unfavourable effect of tax reforms on small business has been adequately counterbalanced by reduced taxation compliance costs. Research suggests that, even after offsetting benefits, compliance costs associated with tax reform continue to be regressive for small business. Further “fine-tuning” of tax legislation will be necessary if effectively simplified and reduced small business compliance costs are to be achieved.
This paper examines the possibility that foreign aid financing for public capital accumulation in... more This paper examines the possibility that foreign aid financing for public capital accumulation in developing countries may lead to excess depreciation of capital. The depreciation rate on public capital is endogenised in a general equilibrium framework in which the government collects a consumption tax to finance maintenance and repair expenditures as well as public investment. Tow simple cases are formulated and analysed to show that excess depreciation of public capital may result from budgetary and international aid and financing distortions that skew allocations to new investment rather than to maintenance of existing capital.
University of New South Wales law journal, Oct 1, 2000
A definition of legal simplicity of taxation is the ease by which a body of a tax law can be read... more A definition of legal simplicity of taxation is the ease by which a body of a tax law can be read and correctly understood and applied to practical situations. Tax simplicity is desirable in isolation but not necessary in conjunction with other objectives of the tax system which has an ambiguous effect on tax revenue because some taxpayers pay more while some pay less, making a decline in total tax collection possible.
The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Malaysia, on 1 April, 2015, was part of... more The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Malaysia, on 1 April, 2015, was part of the Malaysian government's taxation reforms aimed at reducing the country's budget deficit, hence improving the collection of revenue. This article presents findings of some of the major issues and concerns that the Malaysian business taxpayers perceive as key challenges in preparing for the implementation of the GST. Using a survey questionnaire, 1,500 Malaysian business taxpayers 5 were surveyed in June 2013 to investigate their GST implementation readiness. The results confirmed that overall, business taxpayers were poorly prepared for the GST implementation, with only nine percent claiming to be substantially ready. Around 22% of the respondents stated that they were well equipped with computer systems for GST purposes. Over 25% of eligible potential GST registrants stated that they would not register. Over 74% of respondents felt that the GST would place an additional compl...
PurposeThis paper attempts to develop a simple, static model of tax administration that is capabl... more PurposeThis paper attempts to develop a simple, static model of tax administration that is capable of explaining the widespread collusive petty tax administration corruption observed in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes a positivist research framework and adopts a theoretical method of analysis, although secondary data will also be mentioned to support theoretical arguments whenever it is appropriate to do so.FindingsA high rate of collusive tax corruption is inevitable in developing countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is static and needs to be extended into a dynamic model.Practical implicationsTraditional enforcement tools such as higher audits or a higher penalty regime against tax evasion do not work. Tax simplification can lessen the incidence of tax corruption.Social implicationsFighting tax corruption requires significant changes in the attitudes of taxpayers and tax auditors.Originality/valueThis paper combines the literatur...
The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the v... more The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Atax, University of New South Wales, or the Fraser Institute. Information provided by Nick Botfield, Director of Pre-filling of Tax Returns, Australian Taxation Office (ATO), is gratefully acknowledged, as are the comments of an anonymous referee of this chapter.
Velocity estimation is generally under-determined. To obtain a pleasing result we impose some typ... more Velocity estimation is generally under-determined. To obtain a pleasing result we impose some type of regularization criteria such as preconditioning(Harlan, 1996), limiting inversion solutions to large singular values (Rowbotham and Pratt, 1997), or characterizing the model through a small number of spline coefficients (Ji, 1997). These methods all create velocity models that can correctly model the recorded travel times, but are often geologically unrealistic. To create more geologically feasible velocity models and to speed up convergence, Michelena and Harris (1991) suggested using varying sized grid cells. Unfortunately, such a parameterization is prone to error when the wrong size blocks are chosen (Delprat-Jannaud and Lailly, 1992). Other authors have suggested locally clustering grid cells (Carrion, 1991) or characterizing the velocity model as a series of layers (Kosloff et al., 1996). These methods are also susceptible to errors when the wrong parameterization is chosen. An attractive alternative approach is to add an additional model regularization term to the objective function (van Trier, 1990). In theory, this regularization term should be the inverse model covariance matrix (Tarantola, 1987) obtained from some a priori information sources.
Part I: Overview Part II: Doi Moi: Past, Present and Future Development Issues Part III: The Viet... more Part I: Overview Part II: Doi Moi: Past, Present and Future Development Issues Part III: The Vietnamese Economy in a Global Context Part IV: Sectoral Policies and Institutional Reforms Part V: Poverty Alleviation Policy Part VI: Conclusion
Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse... more Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries in the early 1990s have allowed researchers to study tax policy reform in transition economies with changing political and economic systems. This article aims to examine tax policy challenges in Egypt as a result of the revolution in 2011. Egypt has been chosen because of its importance in the Arab world and its interesting tax reform, including a rationalisation of tax incentives. It is found that Egypt has adopted a combination of counter-cyclical government expenditure policy and pro-cyclical tax policy in an era of political transition. This combination is interesting as it is well known that developed countries tend to employ counter-cyclical fiscal policy whereas developing countries tend to utilise pro-cyclical policy. It is proposed that the Egyptian government should consider modernising its tax administration and enhancing its anti-tax avoidance activities as an alternative to increasing tax rates in pursuing its pro-cyclical tax policy.
The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine and evaluate the recommendations of the Henry... more The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine and evaluate the recommendations of the Henry Review as they relate to the simplification of the Australian tax system and its component parts. A subsidiary aim is to consider the Government’s initial response to the recommendations contained in the Review. All of this is done in the third part of this chapter (The Henry Review recommendations and Government response). The analysis in that part is conducted from two distinct perspectives, relating specifically to the simplification of personal taxes and of business taxation. The broader perspective relating to the entire tax and transfer systems, including the rationalisation, integration and coordination of Commonwealth and State taxes, flows indirectly from this analysis of personal and business taxation. Hence general system-wide comments, including some suggestions for the way forward, are made in the concluding part of the chapter.<br><br>Prior to all of this, the ...
European Economics: Political Economy & Public Economics eJournal, 2002
The paper considers the business compliance cost implications that might be expected to arise if ... more The paper considers the business compliance cost implications that might be expected to arise if the Tax Value Method (TVM) were to be introduced. It assesses the magnitude and incidence of the transitional costs that businesses and their advisers might face upon implementation of the TVM. It also identifies and evaluates the longer term, recurrent compliance costs/benefits that would occur, relative to the existing tax system, if the TVM were to be introduced. The paper identifies a number of caveats and constraints that qualify its primary findings, not the least of which is the difficulty in evaluating an incomplete hypothetical. The authors, nonetheless, consider that the paper constitutes as reliable an evaluation of the transitional and recurrent compliance costs of the TVM as is possible at this stage.
Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse... more Tax policy is normally formulated and implemented during politically stable periods. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries in the early 1990s have allowed researchers to study tax policy reform in transition economies with changing political and economic systems. This article aims to examine tax policy challenges in Egypt as a result of the revolution in 2011. Egypt has been chosen because of its importance in the Arab world and its interesting tax reform, including a rationalisation of tax incentives. It is found that Egypt has adopted a combination of counter-cyclical government expenditure policy and pro-cyclical tax policy in an era of political transition. This combination is interesting as it is well known that developed countries tend to employ counter-cyclical fiscal policy whereas developing countries tend to utilise pro-cyclical policy. It is proposed that the Egyptian government should consider modernising its tax administration and enhancing its anti-tax avoidance activities as an alternative to increasing tax rates in pursuing its pro-cyclical tax policy
The principal aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the contribution and impact of Professo... more The principal aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the contribution and impact of Professor Cedric Sandford to the discipline of tax compliance costs. It covers, sequentially, four separate but related topics. Initially, it reviews the state of tax compliance cost research prior to his engagement in compliance cost research in the period from the 1970s onwards. The paper then examines Professor Sandford's role in raising tax compliance costs into a scholarly discipline. The third topic is devoted to the current position of tax compliance costs in the fields of tax research and tax policy, especially from an Australian perspective. Finally, the paper provides a summary of aspects of his vision for future directions in tax compliance cost research.
The research project that is the subject of this chapter involved three separate surveys of more ... more The research project that is the subject of this chapter involved three separate surveys of more than 15,000 taxpayers selected from a national database of taxpayers provided by the ATO, targeted at three broad categories of taxpayers: personal (non-business) taxpayers; small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (annual turnover less than or equal to AUD 250 million); and large businesses (annual turnover exceeding AUD 250 million). The surveys focused on the taxation compliance burden imposed by federal (Commonwealth) and State taxes during the year ended 30 June 2012, and were conducted in Australia between November 2012 and February 2013. The surveys were the first independent large-scale surveys of tax compliance costs conducted in Australia since 1996 and since the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST, Australia’s value added tax) in 2000.<br><br>The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows. After a discussion of important conceptual issues (§8.02) and...
This research reports an in‐depth study of the due diligence activities that prospective independ... more This research reports an in‐depth study of the due diligence activities that prospective independent small business operators and franchisees in Australia undertake prior to purchasing or starting up their businesses. Although academic literature and industry publications promote undertaking ‘proper due diligence’, there is a lack of empirical research into the nature of due diligence and its effect on business outcomes. Using a qualitative approach, 60 currently and formerly operating independents and franchisees were personally interviewed, exploring the diversity of approaches to undertaking due diligence prior to entering business. The research revealed that differences occur in both the type and amount of due diligence undertaken by independents and franchisees and highlighted further differences between current and former operators. In general, the due diligence undertaken by participants was relatively unsophisticated with few exceptions of rigour and planning. Where prospect...
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