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Two types of indirect taxes prevail, first, on selected commodities called selective excises on ‘demerit’ goods like alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, on non-renewable resources like petroleum products, and luxuries like furs and yachts. Collected at the factory gate, they are called production taxes. Excises are narrowly based, and their rates are higher than for widely based consumption taxes including retail sales tax (RST), value-added tax (VAT), and goods and services tax (GST). The United States, one among few, uses RST at the state level. Collected exclusively at the retail level, RST is prone to evasion. The GST or VAT collects tax at every stage of production and distribution including retail while giving input tax credit for taxes paid in earlier stages. This eradicates ‘tax on tax’ or cascading. Thus, if the retail stage is missed, tax is nevertheless collected at earlier stages. Some developing countries have VAT on the supply of goods though not on services. However, VAT or GST should include goods and services in the base. Only then cascading is eliminated comprehensively from the supply chain, though some cascading remains in most structures due to exemptions. Exemptions also erode the base. Production and consumption taxes are studied in this chapter.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century brought little relief to advanced economies in terms of poverty, inequality, disruptive technological change, and precarious employment. There were only limited reforms to the welfare state, although promising initiatives to integrate social assistance benefits with greater financial incentives to work occurred in France and the U.K., albeit with a continuation of work conditions. Basic income pilot projects have proliferated but appear to lack the focus and documentation that scientific experimentation would require. Research on optimal taxation has led to proposals for a negative income tax in the form of a refundable tax credit that would mirror the Universal Credit implemented in the U.K. but with greater work incentives and no work conditions. Emerging microsimulation modelling provides a promising alternative strategy to evaluate basic income policies.

This chapter purposes a global tax on data capital supplemented by “data as fiscal” for regulating data capital, by rethinking Thomas Piketty’s “global tax on capital” and Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s “tax paid in data.” This regulation involves a starting point of flatting tax as much as possible, an idea on progressive tax treaties, a basis of recognizing the identity of data sovereign for data producers, and a recommendation that is to implement “data as a tax credit” in the production of public data products or services. By finding out how profit-sharing works between data producers and data providers, the regulation can collect the relevant data of a global tax on data capital for future use.

The collection of tax at source prevents foreign businesses from evading tax on revenues in the source country. This is particularly relevant for inland cases of restricted tax liability. Moreover, withholding tax at the source makes it possible to enforce legal obligations across the board. Types of revenue that are typically subject to withholding tax are investment income and royalties. Very wide variations exist worldwide for national withholding tax rates on investment income and royalties. Therefore, double taxation treaties and the EU regulatory framework seek to restrict any excessive national taxation at source. In practice, however, the initial deduction often exceeds the provisions in the double taxation treaty or EU regulations. Therefore, as a first step, it is necessary to compare the conditions of the treaties and regulations with national tax relief rules. As a second step, any remaining double taxation of royalties by both the countries of residence and source is recovered, either by exemption (exemption method) or by imputation (tax credit method). The detailed practical examples in this chapter describe this two-stage procedure and conflicts of qualification that frequently occur in practice with the interpretation of the treaties.

With 2017, National Energy Strategy, Italy introduced a definition of energy poverty, combining three elements: the presence of a high level of energy expenditure, an amount of total expenditure below the relative poverty threshold and a null value for the purchase of heating products. The Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate adopts the same definition, provides an estimation on the evolution of energy poverty in 2030 and lists the tax deduction scheme for energy renovation of the existing building stock (Ecobonus) among the specific measures dedicated to energy poverty. Implemented as an alternative measure under Article 7 of EED (European Energy Efficiency Directive), Ecobonus enables the households in the no-tax area—which are likely to be energy poor—to transfer their tax credits to financial institutions, work suppliers or other private entities, reducing the investment cost for energy/efficiency interventions. Based on information at the regional level, namely ENEA microdata on Ecobonus, this paper examines the possible relationship between indicators such as household income and the access to Ecobonus. Additionally, the study analyzes if this relationship changes for the different categories of interventions incentivized by Ecobonus, such as the replacement of windows and shutters or of heating systems. The hypothesis is that the incentive measure, with its current approach, has a regressive distributive effect on households, and it does not effectively support energy-poverty eradication. To our knowledge, the relationship between income and interventions incentivized by Ecobonus has not been investigated before, neither at the regional level nor in an energy-poverty framework.

Reflecting the constitution’s tax assignment, India’s indirect tax history began with state-level sales taxes on goods and a handful of services and central level excises on manufacturing. Both suffered from rate dispersion and cascading. In 1985–1986, the central government—centre—allowed input tax credit (ITC) in its excise structure though not comprehensively, calling it Modified VAT (MODVAT). In 1994, the centre introduced a tax on three services—insurance, telecommunications and stockbroking—at 5%. Gradually, more services were taxed, and the rate increased to 15% by 2017. Services as a category were not mentioned in the constitution; the centre used an assigned ‘residual’ category to tax services. In 2005, states introduced their own VAT on goods with the centre providing financial compensation for 3 years. The state VAT slashed the number of rates and had the same VAT base for all states with few exemptions. Using a constitutional amendment, India consolidated its indirect tax structure with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017 covering central and state governments and including both goods and services. Though somewhat flawed in structure, it was an achievement for a fiscally federal country. India’s experience before the GST comprises this chapter.

In December 2015, US removed the prohibition of crude oil exports. That was a deal, a political compromise, which was made between the Obama administration and the Republicans on Capitol Hill. Among other items, the renewable energy tax credit was extended for 5 years. Hence, it was part of a larger political compromise; nevertheless, the fact that America could export light and sweet shale, and at the same time import heavier makes considerably sense in both economic and business terms. This kind of an especially important political action took place under the Obama administration, not the Trump administration.

The final chapter treats what might be considered a “new” or unconventional resource: global climate, which obviously affects the environment and also underlies the productivity of renewable resources and agriculture. The starting point is a brief discussion of a perceived disconnect between natural scientists and economists on the importance of climate change, with the former believing it to be perhaps the most important environmental problem of the century, requiring prompt and dramatic action and the latter seeing it in less compelling terms—though not all economists are in agreement here. Recent projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are given, with a discussion suggesting these are likely to be conservative in a variety of ways, including neglect of methane feedback, and for a variety of reasons, including the need for consensus among the parties. A discussion of potential impacts focuses on some often neglected and potentially catastrophic, due to tipping points and extreme events, which can in turn lead to major loss of capital (ports, buildings, coastal agriculture, and so on) not well captured in policy models. Given the time scales involved, discounting is of course key. As considered here, the issue boils down to the choice of how the pure (social) rate of time preference in the Ramsey equation should be specified. Two schools of thought are identified. One argues that it is an ethical choice, reflecting relative weights of different generations, and thus exogenous to the economic problem (though this is consistent, in the equation, with a positive discount rate even if the pure rate of time preference is zero). The other school argues that the rate of time preference must be consistent with observed rates of return on investment in private capital markets. Closely related to discounting is the topic of irreversibility, since the world will be locked into a changed climate and its consequences, such as rising sea levels, essentially forever on human time scales. Again there is a split between (some) economists and climate scientists, with the former pointing out that investment in new energy sources and facilities is also irreversible, and might dominate under certain circumstances. The discussion here focuses on a comparison of time scales associated with the two types of irreversibility. Finally, implications for policy are briefly discussed, including the advantages of a carbon tax, but also a potential problem: to achieve a desired objective the tax might have to be unrealistically high. In this case it might be supplemented by a negative tax in the form of a tax credit on energy conservation and renewables, though this can be distortionary (favors one energy source or technology over another). Some attention is also given to the role of public investment in basic research into innovative technologies that do not involve the emission of greenhouse gases.

This chapter examines how objectives, choices of mechanisms and tools available to policy makers are used to organize media and communications markets, to regulate behavior and to create operating requirements. It explores the use of incentives, disincentives, standards and regulation and the purposes served by different policy tools. It addresses tools such as tax credits, subsidies, regulation, regulatory exemption, public provision and consumer protective tools.

In the year 2017, about 89% of the total energy consumed in the US was produced using non-renewable energy sources and about 44% of tenant households were cost burdened. There is currently limited research on holistic approaches to housing policy that integrate housing affordability and environmental considerations. The objective of the current study is to utilize data and empirical analyses to explain green building policy content, adoption, and determinants in the context of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. We employ 2010–2016 data to test a conceptual model of state innovative capacity and explore the magnitude of associations between state characteristics and the incorporation of green building incentives into the LIHTC program in 50 US states. With a clear focus on savings from increased energy-efficiency, states increasingly adopted green building incentives between 2006–2010 but lost the initial momentum and started to fluctuate since 2010. The magnitude of governments’ financial resources, a holistic approach to green building, and citizens’ liberal ideology are among the strongest correlates of adoption controlling for income and population. To shift toward a sustainable future, policymakers should take a holistic, steady, and evolutionary approach to green building with an emphasis on simultaneous diversification, decentralization, and decarbonization of energy generation and seek complementary policies that raise the cost of carbon-intensive technologies in affordable housing. To facilitate the integration of green building with affordable housing policy, researchers should explore innovations in the policy process and measure the effectiveness of green building policies.

United States of America is of a special interest in academic studies due to its size, population, resources, and the development quotient. The country has organically advanced in the paradigm of research and innovation through advanced, diverse and strong IUGPs, which resulted in the creation of knowledge-intensive business opportunities and jobs. This chapter provides a comprehensive account on the development of IUGPs in the US. First, we explore the history of the IUGPs in the US—how it evolved and who supported it? Second, we discuss the legislation around the IUGPs, such as the Bayh-Dole Act which is one of the widely credited acts for improving university-industry collaboration and technology transfer in the US national innovation system. Third, we take account of the intermediary structures in the US which support the translation of research results into commercialized products/services, such as the Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRCs), Engineering Research Centers (ERC), research parks, and industrial innovation centers. Finally, we review the national policies that encourage the collaboration between universities, industries, and government, such as the public procurement of integrated circuit chips, research and experimentation tax credit program, and small business innovation research program.

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a novelist and philosopher. She produced several successful libertarian-themed novels and created a philosophy called Objectivism. Her educational writings stressed that, as a state enterprise, public education was ill-equipped to teach the kind of individualism and rational thinking on which a free society depends. Private markets in education were preferred, among other reasons, because they were thought more likely to equip individuals for a free and rational society. Rand supported a role for government in education limited to giving tax credits to individuals for the purchase of education.

This chapter provides a brief overview of our theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the dominant role of the religious factor in private education in the United States. Private, fee-paying education today accounts for 8% of enrollment in primary and secondary schools in the United States, down from a high of 14%, 50 years ago (Fig. 12.1); and about 80% of these private school students attend religious schools, down from almost 90%, 30 years ago (Broughman and Swaim 2013; Fig. 12.2). The low overall rate of private education is largely a consequence of the historically dominant role of local school districts in funding public education in the United States, coupled with socio-economic geographic segregation, which allows for substantial variation in the quality of public schools, and the general absence of tax credits for private school tuition. The further recent decline in private enrollment likely reflects the growth of publicly funded charter schools, as well as court-mandated funding reforms that increased state support for poorer school districts, and a decline in demand for Catholic education.

In this chapter, we discuss the concept of financial feasibility introduced by the late James Graaskamp. We also review two commonly used techniques in feasibility studies, the front-door analysis, and the back-door analysis. These concepts and techniques will be used in subsequent chapters to assess the impact of location and financial subsidies, such as Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Tax Increment Financing, on the feasibility of an affordable housing development project.

This study correlates the provisions of CRD IV with the application of IFRS in banks operating in Greece. The accounting losses allow the creation of additional DTA which are transferred in claims against the state (tax credit). Thus, in 2017 conversion rights (warrants) may be issued which represent common shares of total market value equal to 100% of these tax credits. Then, equivalent special reserve is formed, and the equity capital of banks is increased, since the DTA are not deducted from the common equity tier 1 (CET 1) ratio.

This chapter introduces Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) in a financial feasibility model with heterogenous locations. We show that both TIF and LIHTC effectively allow landlords to charge lower rents and make housing more affordable.

There were and are only a few support policies focusing directly on consumer (co-)ownership. California Senate Bill 1 of 2006 set a renewable distributed generation target of 12 GW installed capacity by 2020, which included 3 GW for self-generation to be realized through the California Solar Initiative. California is one of 17 US states with a virtual net metering policy which, however, is restricted to adjacent or contiguous properties, unlike other states that allow aggregation within a utility territory. CCAs there is no opportunity for consumer ownership, no sharing of tax credits, no consumer involvement in pricing, governance or project-related decisions. California’s Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) model adopted in 2002 empowered municipalities and other units of government, that is, counties, and associations of cities, counties and other public entities, to take control of the procurement of electricity supply in their territory. CCAs can also incentivise consumer-owned RES with enhanced NEM and/or FITs and have the potential to offer additional financing options. All California’s operating CCAs state the goal of progressively increasing their ownership of RE plants to meet their customers' requirements for renewable electricity supply. More general, participation in RE projects is possible via any available type of corporation, partnership or individual business activity, similar to those in other countries. Cooperatives as a legal vehicle are available but not common. Investments in solar collectors and photovoltaic installations on private buildings, often facilitated by municipalities making use of state financing programs, are gaining in popularity.

This chapter discusses the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program from the perspectives of the developer and the state housing authority responsible for distributing the tax credits. First, we describe the LIHTC program, how projects are financed with it, why investors are interested in LIHTC projects, and the details of the two main tax credit programs: 9% and 4% credits. Then, we discuss the perspective of the state housing authority. We consider the nature and duties of the housing authorities. We then move on to examine the mechanics of LIHTCs, how they work, and why they work for both the housing authority and the developers. We use Wisconsin’s state housing authority, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), as an example of how states distribute tax credits. We examine the nature of WHEDA’s scoring system, what a developer can expect in this process, and how to prepare for a WHEDA application. In the third part of the chapter, we consider the perspective of the developer. We examine the process of establishing site control, the benefits of working with a small firm for these projects, the basics of the program from the perspective of a successful developer, including which tax credits they prefer to apply for and why, and some of the challenges associated with the LIHTC program.

The purpose of this chapter is to assess the effectiveness of current policy to mitigate segregation. The research of Massey and Denton (1993), Dreier, Mollenkopf, and Swanstrom (2001), Sharkey (2013), Desmond (2017) and Rothstein (2017) inform this focus group agenda. There was a consensus in the conversation that the goal of the 1968 Fair Housing Act of eliminating segregation in America had not been even remotely achieved. The continuation of racially biased real estate and banking practices, unchecked suburban growth, and the use of low income tax credits were reinforcing de jure pre-1968 segregationist policies further entrenching segregation. The participants argued the development of affordable housing in high opportunity areas with easy access to employment, education and other basic services was necessary to break the cycle of segregation. In the accompanying essay, “Separate and Unequal: The Lasting Legacy of Segregation and the Problem with Integration,” Daffney Moore mantains that the alleged embracing of integration as a policy objective has only excused white America from adopting policies and programs that would address the social and economic disparities that segregation has produced. She argues that city, state, and federal governments need to make a fiscal commitment to ensure equity for black Americans.

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to study modern Russian practice to grant tax holidays for entrepreneurship, substantiate the practicability of application as a tool of tax incentive for business renewal in modern Russia, reveal barriers and develop recommendations for its successful introduction in Russian tax practice. Methodology In the study we employed a complex of general scientific methods and the method of trend analysis. With their help we investigated trend data of Russian business renewal in 2007–2018. Information and analytical background of the study was a statistical data of Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation (Rosstat), INSEAD, Cornell University, World Intellectual Property Organization and Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation. Results It is revealed that since 2008 tax preferences have been applied for the purposes of tax incentive to upgrade entrepreneurship. However, they become a tax credit that is much less incentive than tax holidays. Recommendations To overcome the barrier on the way of tax holidays for tax incentive of Russian business renewal (related to tax evasion), we developed a proprietary algorithm.

This chapter builds on the concept of social impact bonds to fund the nonprofit sector by developing a new financial funding instrument: social impact credits. We begin by reviewing how social impact bonds have been used and suggest possible ways to issue certificates that could be redeemable as tax credits. Using the public library system as a case for social profit credit candidates, we apply data to demonstrate the entire process of how a modified social impact bond framework can be created including the development of a trusted performance measurement and the actual selling of the instrument that act as credits. Potential outcomes and risks to individual libraries, the industry, investors, and the government are also discussed. Social impact credits as a way to fund social profit entities and provide tax incentives to investors introduces an environment of competition and has the potential to change the way the nonprofit sector operates.

This chapter describes the dynamics and implications of government funding of the film industry of the United States. It first contextualizes the overall development and structure of public arts funding in the United States, followed by a discussion of how public monies impact on both commercial and nonprofit profit film industry players. Research focused on subnational cultural policies given the proportionally larger role that subnational governments have upon direct spending for the arts. We found that state-level public incentive schemes intended to lure film production have mixed results and, arguably, create more costs than benefits for states providing them. We conducted deeper analysis on the population of nonprofit film organizations using the theory of organizational ecology and data obtained from Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research. Results of the data analysis found California and New York to be centers for nonprofit film organizations, although 58% of nonprofit film organizations are based elsewhere. Population patterns also appeared to correspond with the emergence of state-level public funding programs, suggesting that public support for films can stimulate the birth of nonprofit film organizations.

This chapter describes the delayed emergence of an indigenous film production sector in Ireland and, as a direct consequence, the late emergence of support mechanisms for film production there. It discusses the establishment of the Irish Film Board in 1981 and the creation of a tax incentive scheme (Section 35) for investment in film-making from 1987. However, although both supports were initially largely focused on indigenous production, the chapter traces how they have gradually been reoriented to facilitate overseas (i.e. mainly Hollywood) productions reflecting Ireland’s status as a competitor in the International Division of Cultural Labour.

There are specific rules for the accounting of tax refunds, as well as revenue charged through a tax amnesty, tax credits, and deferred tax assets. The sale of a financial asset (either directly or indirectly) is treated as a financial operation, with no impact on the deficit. The direct sale of a nonfinancial asset has impact on the deficit. In the case of indirect sales, these will only have an impact on the deficit if the selling entity distribute dividends. There are specific rules for revenues from leasing, licences, and concessions, as well as from leaseback operations.

This chapter explores key issues in tax incentives for film production in international comparison. It reviews the historical origins and some selected issues of film incentives in the United States and Europe and presents some current challenges in the context of their economic impact and efficacy. The rationale behind film production incentives and other different types of incentives offered in the United States and Europe will be described and important parameters being used in film production incentive schemes will be explained in more detail. It shows the difficulties in evaluating the effectiveness of the film production incentives and argues that these incentives, on both sides of the Atlantic, will keep up with their promises.

In this chapter, we provide an overview on the interlinked problems of high tax rates, tax evasion, tax havens, global tax competition, the enforcement costs of a tax system, and their relationship with economic growth. Reviewing the related literature, it becomes clear that the current state of high tax evasion and high tax rates are detrimental to both the workings of the tax system and economic growth. There is a clear regulatory failure in attempting to battle tax evasion with either higher tax rates or higher enforcement costs—a conclusion that is supported by empirical data from several OECD countries. In addressing this problem, our review and empirical analysis clearly points toward a solution that is based in providing appropriate motives for taxpayers to pay their taxes while not distorting their plans for economic activity. Optimal allocation of resources in an environment of low economic growth and fiscal restraint can easily be achieved by lowering tax rates—it is then, and only then, that other issues of public policy such as equity and redistribution considerations can be meaningfully discussed.

The problems and opportunities for renewable development in Coachella Valley are discussed. Findings are compared to the model of Integrated Policy assessment of Local and Regional Renewable Development (IPALRED). Following a section that reviews prior studies of the future of renewable energy, an evaluation indicates the IPALRED model is largely applicable to the Coachella Valley, albeit based only on the single case of Coachella Valley. The prospects and opportunities are summarized which include, for example, the stimulus of California’s ambitious Renewables Portfolio Standard, Coachella Valley education initiatives in renewables, Valley nonprofit organizations’ support for renewables initiatives, and federal tax credits. On the other hand, problems and barriers are examined, for instance barriers in California of extending transmission lines, inconsistent city regulations, limited entrepreneurial financing for renewable energy manufacturing, and resistance by major utilities. For the future success of Valley renewables development, leadership in local government and businesses may be the key.

This paper theoretically investigates the role of the tax system in sustaining the public debt. The paper explicitly derives the critical level of the public debt-to-GDP ratio that is compatible with a balanced growth path. If the ratio exceeds this critical level at time 0, then it diverges to + ∞ as time passes. Analyzing a situation where the government marginally increases the consumption tax rate, the paper reveals the extent to which the government can then cut the income tax rate while maintaining the sustainability of public debt. Tax rates that are compatible with the balanced growth are also derived as a function of the initial level of debt-to-GDP ratio.

Although the Czech Republic does not have a territorial tax regime, its participation exemption allows deferral of tax on income of certain foreign subsidiaries. With EU approval, the Czech Republic provides incentives to attract investment. These incentives support manufacturing, job creation, and employee training in the Czech Republic. There is special high withholding tax on dividends, interest, and royalties paid to off-shore tax haven jurisdictions. The Czech Republic is committed to information exchange and the latest standard of information exchange.

This chapter examines tax evasion as a widespread phenomenon. We investigate tax evasion in relation to both the shadow economy related to tax corruption and entrepreneurship. Further, we study the determinants of tax evasion and then we look at the role of tax ethics because the tax ethics is related to tax rates. Low tax rates lead to high compliance, which in turn leads to higher tax ethics and thus low tax evasion and ultimately growth.

A central role into the European Union in the field of taxation can be certainly attributed to the principle of non-discrimination.

Value-Added Tax or VAT plays an important role in the Indonesian state revenue. Despite its importance, it requires a complex administration process to be done properly. The complexity of the tax administration creates loopholes that can be exploited by dishonest taxpayers to minimize the tax paid to the government. The current system does not prevent the dishonest taxpayers to forge tax invoices which bring tax loss for the government. We utilize the blockchain technology to create a novel approach of implementing the distributed ledger in taxation area. Our proposed protocol creates a transparent and secure VAT system as well as simplifies the process of administering the VAT. The system increases the tax compliance by reducing the risk of tax fraud and increasing the monitoring capability of the tax authority.

In 2003, Israel’s international income tax regime undergone a transformation from territorial to one of worldwide taxation. This shift was viewed as a timely one reconciling forces of economic globalization with commonly accepted distributional principles. Under this system, individuals are taxed where they reside and corporations are taxed where incorporated or in the country from which management and control are exercised. A credit is allowed against Israeli tax liability for foreign taxes paid by residents on foreign source income. Since 2003, this is true even when income is produced in a country with which Israel does not have a treaty. As in the case of most countries, the credit is limited to the size of the Israeli tax on foreign source income. While residents are taxed world-wide, nonresidents are taxed only on income earned or produced in Israel. This places considerable importance on the determination of the source of a nonresident’s income.Israel is signatory to 53 bilateral treaties with foreign countries. Most of the treaties follow the OECD Model Convention. These treaties provide Israel a valuable tool in an effort to enhance taxpayer compliance, ease tax collection and advance trade. Although the scope of information exchange, one of the primary benefits derived from treaties, varies from treaty to treaty, Israel commonly provides for information upon request of the other contracting state. Importantly, in view of recent global trends and pressures, the Israeli Tax Authority currently works to amend the Income Tax Ordinance to allow and to exercise ratification of international information-sharing agreements, regardless of whether a bilateral or multilateral treaty exists. Over the long run, this is expected to drastically change the scope and quality of information that the Israeli Tax Authority shares and receives.Israel has retained the remnants of a territorial regime in the income tax exemption for foreign source income for immigrants and returning Israeli residents. It also exempts these taxpayers from key filing requirements, including income tax returns and capital statements. The exemption is available for a 10–20 year period. The efforts of fellow OECD member countries to force repeal these provisions (designed to attract investments to Israel, but viewed as unfairly competitive by trading partners) have been largely unsuccessful. A long standing Investment Law, providing government grants and lucrative tax benefits to eligible corporations, was significantly modified in 2010. At that time, incentives failed to provide economic development in targeted areas and often exceeded the benefit obtained by the Israeli government. In the post-2010 Investment Law, qualification for benefits is tied to proven measures of industry competitiveness and the demonstration of an impact on exports and on Israel’s GDP. Only time will tell whether and the extent to which these revisions are successful.

This chapter proposes a broad range of strategies and measures for global tax cooperation in order to finance public goods and services in a sufficient and just manner. Public property, including taxes, should not be protected less than private property. For this purpose, all incomes should be reported to the fiscal authorities compulsorily and automatically. Financial assets should be included in a global register similar to real estate assets. Cross-border movement of capital should only be free in the case of full cooperation in tax policy between countries. This would end the existence of tax havens—inside and outside the US and the EU. Finally, a set of measures is proposed regarding how corporations can be properly taxed: They have to publicly report where they carry out which kind of operation and pay what amount of taxes. Then, they are taxed globally according to their real activities. If tax rates differ from country to country, the imputation method in bilateral tax cooperation treaties could remedy tax competition and avoidance.

The goal of this chapter is to present the reforms of family policies in Poland and to analytically assess their direction and possible gendered effects. In particular, I will focus on three policy fields: parental leave reforms, childcare services and support in cash including child allowances and tax credits. My main argument is that the reforms of family policies extending financial family support might signal transformative change of the policy model from implicit to explicit familialism, as increase in monetary support is accompanied by only weak development of care services. Although Poland went quite smoothly through the economic crisis, the country did not invest so much in care services, but rather in financial support for the families, with stronger maternalist direction in public discourse on childbearing, especially during the right-wing coalition in office since November 2015.

There is no standard structure for foreign real estate investments in Germany. The different investment vehicles may have various advantages and disadvantages for different investors. Obviously, tax consequences must also be taken into consideration when an investor considers the investment vehicle that best fits his individual circumstances and special needs.

The focus of this chapter is on providing a policy background to and an examination of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, a unique piece of US tax legislation that has no precedent in the history of international tax law. As detailed in Chapter 3, the exchange of information (EOI) upon request standard in use between 2002 and 2016 is flawed, but that is not the only weakness in the OECD’s efforts to combat tax evasion. As explained in Chapter 8, the US FATCA initiative has been a driving force and an impetus for the G20 and OECD’s launch of automatic exchange of information (Automatic Exchange). While the goal behind FATCA, noted below, of curbing the use of tax havens to hide income of US taxpayers residing in the United States is consistent with the principles of equity in international tax policy, discussed in Chapter 2, the same cannot be said of FATCA’s application to millions of individuals in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union who are US nationals but not tax evaders. The new regime acts to drive these people into the enforcement cannons of the IRS, which, as described in Chapter 10, can be financially and psychologically traumatizing. As explained in Chapter 11, refocusing American enforcement on residence rather than nationality would make the administration and enforcement of the data collected through FATCA more consistent with the principles of equity in international tax policy.

While the main objective of a tax system is to raise revenue, when a governmental entity chooses to accomplish an economic or social objective or to encourage a certain behavior or activity, it often uses tax law to accomplish that purpose. Tax law has traditionally and increasingly been used to manipulate the economy. In many ways that is a good thing because in our current green economy, tax law is being used to encourage sustainability and to address other environmental concerns at all governmental levels. Unfortunately, tax professionals may not be optimizing the application of these laws for the benefit of their clients. This chapter provides a brief summary of current and proposed tax incentives that are available to most businesses and individuals. It also describes how public accounting firms are tooling their service options to address the evolving public expectation that businesses will be environmentally responsible world citizens.

The purpose of this article is to describe the effort to create a sales promotion using a customer purchase frequency card for a retailer operating in Lviv, Ukraine. The anticipated pitfalls were thought to be convincing both the retailer to implement the program and the lack of acceptance by consumers of this type of sales promotion activity. In reality, the greatest problems came from the implementation of promotional activities under Ukraine’s value added tax (VAT) system. Results of the implementation of the frequency program are presented along with managerial implications.

Local governments serve a pivotal role in the delivery of public services. However, since the late 1970s, their ability to deliver essential public services has been curtailed by widespread adoption of limits on taxing and/or spending authority. Studies show these limits fundamentally altered the fiscal landscape of municipal governments. Using data on county governments for the period 1970–2004, this analysis shows TELs had a negative impact on unrestricted cash reserves. This has wide-ranging implications on fiscal performance including the government’s ability to cope with negative revenue and expenditure shocks and their ability to retain resources for strategic purposes.

Is tax a means of extracting money from the people by the government, or is it a fee we pay for the privilege of living in an organised society? The trite point at issue is that taxes represent a payment imposed by governments to raise funds. Tax evasion is a form of resistance to mandatory taxation.

One of the main goals of every tax administration is safeguarding tax justice. For that matter, accurate taxpayers’ auditing selection plays an important role. Current scenario of economic recession, budget cuts and tax professionals’ hiring difficulty combined with growth of both population and number of enterprises presents the necessity of a more efficiently approach from tax administration in order to meet its objectives. The present work intends to show how data mining techniques usage helps better understand the profile of non compliant tax payers who claim for tax refunds. Moreover, we present results on the adoption of predictive models towards selection improvement of those who claims that are more likely to be rejected in Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB). Preliminary results shows that this approach is an efficient way for selecting tax payers rather than not using it.

Up to now, we have deliberated on the various aspects of the local property tax (LPT) in theories of public finance and on the practice of this tax in two pilot metropolitans in China. In this brief final chapter we summarize our key points as policy recommendations for the Chinese government to consider in its next round of policy formulation and implementation. In a nutshell, we believe that the LPT should be installed not merely as a tax to increase government revenue or as a means to control housing price; it should be fully employed as a fiscal and budgetary institution that will contribute to mitigating multifarious socioeconomic problems in the processes of high economic growth, fast urbanization, and widening income disparity, which have been increasingly apparent in China in the past two decades.

Here we deliberate on the rationales for the real property tax (RPT) as the administrative tool and fiscal institution that has the potential to solve multiple problems China now faces. We first define the RPT, then explain how the tax is a fiscal and budgetary institution and how it can reshape the relationship between the higher and local governments. Finally, we discuss how this tax can raise the efficiency of public service provision. With all these deliberated, we complete the circle of why China now needs a local property tax.

Greece should be bailed out because that is in the interest of her trading partners just as it is in her own. The issue is only: how. In this lecture it is explained that, in order to build industrial and commercial, in short, productive capacity, a system of tax credits and incentive taxation should be tried, since a transfer union should be avoided.