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The threat generated by obesity is increasing in terms of health of both individuals and society day by day. States are using different tools in fighting against this threat. One of these tools is taxing obesity. In fighting against obesity, in order to protect health, while there are tax proposals and practices in different names and subjects, Obesity Tax" is used as a generic name. We conducted a field questionnaire study applied all around Turkey, in order to measure the public opinion related with "Obesity Tax" that probably would be applied in Turkey. In this paper it is determined that public believe the necessity of fighting obesity; however, this struggle must be based on non-tax instruments because they have concern the tax might be applied for the fiscal purposes. According to results of the study, we offer specifically to the policy makers that regulative, public supported, efficient and unique “Obesity Tax” must be implemented, but, such tax revenues must be spent for fighting against obesity or subsidies for healthy products.

It is known that in 2010, the art. 11 para. 2 of the Tax Code was amended as to extend the application of regulations concerning transfer pricing on the transactions between the Romanian affiliated persons. As a consequence, a significant increase in the number of tax inspections has been observed between 2010-2011, that has aimed to investigate the transfer pricing charged by companies in the relations with the affiliated persons, both non- resident and Romanian persons.It has been found out of these tax inspections that it is difficult to put into practice the set of regulations regarding the transfer pricing, both taxpayers and tax inspectors being inexperienced in this field.

Este artículo presenta un modelo que supone la racionalidad de los políticos y gobernantes cuando fijan las tasas de impuestos de renta y de consumo de cada contribuyente, y sugiere que esas decisiones dependen del tamaño y la movilidad política de los grupos de votantes y de sus expectativas sobre las condiciones económicas, entre otros factores, lo que ayuda a explicar las reformas regresivas adoptadas en América Latina durante las crisis económicas desde los años ochenta. Además, contrasta el modelo con un panel de datos no balanceado de 18 países para el periodo 1980-2010. This paper develops a model that assumes politicians´ rationality when fixing tax rates applied on revenue and consumption of each taxpayer. The paper also suggests some factors to consider are political mobility of voters and economic expectations, which can explain regressive tax reforms adopted in Latin America since the economic crises of the 80s. Additionally, it contrasts the model with an unbalanced data panel (18 countries from 1980 to 2010).

The purpose of this paper is to offer a primer on certain important features and issues concerning Internet and taxation in the European Union. After a general introduction concerning the origins of the matter, the paper discusses why a tax on the huge profits made by the big US digital MNEs in Europe was not substantially reflected in the tax policy of EU members, notwithstanding the large tax gap among EU countries resulting from the shift in profits by the (US digital) MNE towards lower or no taxation countries. Then the main directives on Internet and taxation introduced by the EU (and also by the OECD) since the late 1990s are discussed: the EU especially focusses on establishing the due place of taxation on electronic commerce, while the OECD (more recently together with the G20) has placed the emphasis on regulating Transfer Prices and contrasting Base Erosion and Profits’ Shifting (BEPS).

In the aftermath of the financial crisis most European countries are continuing to face employment problems. In a number of Member States government intervention has further resulted in increasing debt levels and high tax burdens overall and in particular on labour. Therefore well-targeted tax reforms seem to be in order to improve the labour market outcomes. It is often implicitly assumed that a decrease on the employee side, i.e. in the personal income tax rate or the employee part of social security contribution, leads to a higher labour supply. Similarly, a decrease in the employer labour taxes is often assumed to raise the demand of labour. However, the economic literature argues that in the presence of labour market imperfection economic incidence of a tax change is often different from the legal incidence. In this case the impact of a tax change on labour market outcomes depends on the interaction of the demand and the supply side of the market. This interaction is determined by the behaviou al responses of economic operators, measured by elasticities. Higher (demand or supply) elasticities will cause larger responses to tax changes, with the relatively less elastic side bearing a higher tax burden. Against this background four main goals of this study emerge. First, is to identify from the literature which labour market imperfections result in employment problems and to attribute them to the labour supply or on the labour demand side. Given the heterogeneity in the labour market situation of different groups, we also set out to identify which socioeconomic groups are most vulnerable to employment problems. The next step is to review the literature which assesses the short-run and long-run economic incidence of labour taxation. To further break down the incidence into its underlying determinants we also review the literature on the (tax) elasticities of labour supply and labour demand. Then the literature on the influence of the economic environment on the tax incidence outcome, most notably the wage setting mechanisms and the institutional background, is reviewed. Finally the findings of the literature review are brought together in a framework of indicators to identify the potential of tax reforms to reduce tax related employment problems.

Investment in research and innovation plays a critical role in kick-starting smart growth and upgrading the competitiveness of European companies. In the post-crisis world, Europe needs innovation more than ever before to keep up with the rapid technology advances and growing global competition. R&D tax incentives are an important innovation policy tool widely used in Europe. In some countries, during the crisis, tax instruments have become increasingly important for stimulating private R&D than direct funding. The recent study conducted jointly by DG TAXUD and DG GROW finds fiscal incentives for R&D expenses to be effective in stimulating investment in R&D. The size of the effect varies across countries which can be linked to country specific features, but, crucially, also to differences in the design and organisational practices of the fiscal schemes. The study identifies what are good designs for R&D tax incentives and which features are to be avoided. To answer this question, the study benchmarks the 80 existing R&D tax incentives in 33 countries (including all EU Member States) based on a number of identified good practices in design and administration.

English Abstract: Automatic stabilizers as a factor of cyclical fluctuations stabilization attract economists' attention for several decades. This paper deals with the mechanisms through which automatic stabilizers influence economy and positive and negative effects on aggregate demand they can produce. It is common when discussing automatic stabilizers to put the accent on certain tax categories, such as personal income tax and corporate income tax, оr some public expenditures, such as unemployment benefits and social protection. Given that, here only fiscal stabilizers will be discussed, although some nonfiscal categories also demonstrate stabilizing impact.Serbian Abstract: Аутоматски стабилизатори као фактор стабилизације цикличних флуктуација привлаче пажњу економиста већ неколико деценија. Овај рад се бави механизмима путем којих аутоматски стабилизатори утичу на економска кретања и позитивним и негативним ефектима на агрегатну тражњу које они могу да произведу. Уобичајено је, када се расправља о аутоматским стабилизаторима, да се нагласак стави на одређене порезе, као што су порез на доходак физичких лица и порез на добит корпорација, или неке јавне расходе, као што су накнаде за незапосленост и социјална заштита. Сходно томе, у раду се разматрају само фискални стабилизатори, иако и неке нефискалне категорије такође остварују аутоматске стабилизационе ефекте.

This study reviews, assesses and compares twelve methodologies which can be used for measuring compliance costs of taxation. These methodologies are: the Standard Cost Model (SCM), Paying Taxes, the Taxpayer/Business Burden Model, the Total Cost of Regulation to Business (TCR), the Scanning Instrument Regulations of Other Compliance Costs (SIROCCO), the Regulatory Check-up Model (RCM), Guidelines on the Identification and Presentation of Compliance Costs in Legislative Proposals by the Federal Government (GIPCC), the Cost-Driven Approach to Regulatory Burden (CAR), the Complexity Index of the UK Office of Tax Simplification, the Total Cost to Serve (TCS), the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN), and the Bureaucracy Cost Index (BKI).

The design of a tax system is a daunting task. Economies have become increasingly complex, which makes the design of taxes has to take into account behavioral taxpayers' responses - including mobility -, but also tax planning issues. Additionally, increasing inequality trends put more pressure on design. This complex framework increases the need of complete and constantly updated information about the functioning of the system to carry out welfare-enhancing reforms and having stable sources of public funding. It seems now the moment the Spanish tax system takes advantage of all sources of information to undertake a necessary reform. For this ambitious purpose, we aim at providing a novel source of information: the (objective) opinion of tax professionals. From a survey all over Spain, tax professionals unanimously conclude the current tax system is unfair, while the main inefficiencies, rather than due to traditional responses, come out as a consequence of tax planning and tax mobility. We hope the complete results of the survey are a useful source of information.

In many public policy problems, we need to estimate the way in which policy changes affect people's behavior. In the analysis of tax and subsidy reform—the topic of this article—we need to know how tax-induced price changes affect the amounts that people buy of the taxed goods. We present various economic and statistical approaches to obtaining the required estimates. We consider the standard structural methods in economics, where the behavior and welfare of individual agents are captured simultaneously by the specification of utility functions whose parameters are to be estimated. We argue that these methods are less useful than alternatives that directly consider the derivatives of the regression function of average behavior. We consider both parametric and nonparametric estimators of these derivatives in the context of price reform for foods in Pakistan, focussing on the advantages and disadvantages of “average derivative estimation” (ADE). ADE is attractive in principle, because it directly e...

This article discusses the tax policy making process in Australia. It outlines the role of key agencies in this process and highlights some of the key developments in governance and consultation arrangements that have occurred over the past decade.

During the transformation process, the reform of public finances (in particular the tax system) is crucial for Georgia. There are a lot of proposals and suggestions in the financial literature concerning the introduction of tax systems in transition countries. Individual taxes or the entire tax system should be elaborated regarding certain criteria. This paper analyzes the tax reform procedures during the transition of Georgia to the free-market economy as well as the existing tax system. Concerning the taxes, the current tax system is more or less duplicated from the Western European countries. It becomes obvious that the chance of developing a rational, sustainable and adjusted tax system for transition countries was missed.

During the transformation process, the reform of public finances (in particular the tax system) is crucial for Georgia. There are a lot of proposals and suggestions in the financial literature concerning the introduction of tax systems in transition countries. Individual taxes or the entire tax system should be elaborated regarding certain criteria. This paper analyzes the tax reform procedures during the transition of Georgia to the free-market economy as well as the existing tax system. Concerning the taxes, the current tax system is more or less duplicated from the Western European countries. It becomes obvious that the chance of developing a rational, sustainable and adjusted tax system for transition countries was missed.

Simplicity is an important attribute for a tax system and there have been many attempts at simplification in different countries including, of course, Australia. However these attempts have not been very successful. The main reason is that there are, of course, important factors that cause tax systems to be complex and not all of them are bad. Another important matter is that it is not always clear what is meant by tax simplification. A further difficulty has been that attempts at simplification have often been made on an ad hoc basis and, once the enthusiasm has exhausted itself, the trend towards greater complexity continues. It is therefore suggested that what is needed is a strategy for simplification. This should involve establishing the relative importance of simplification compared to other aspects of the tax system. Progress towards simplification should then be monitored and evaluated on a permanent basis. To ensure a balance between tax simplification and other goals it is proposed that a body be established to monitor on a permanent basis the tax system, the environment in which it operates and proposed tax reforms.

Untersuchungsziel dieser finanzwissenschaftlichen Arbeit ist die Wirkung einer Tobin-Steuer als spezielle Transaktionssteuer auf das Devisen-Handelsvolumen und die Wechselkursvolatilität. Ausgangspunkt bildet das mikroökonomische Investitionsverhalten der Marktteilnehmer, das wir mit Hilfe von Portfolioselektionsmodellen abbilden. Ergebnis ist, dass die Tobin-Steuer nicht zwangsläufig das Handelsvolumen und die Volatilität senkt sondern sogar erhöhen könnte. Dies wird anhand von Zwei-Länder-Modellen mit repräsentativen Marktteilnehmern, Lock-in Effekt und Risikodiversifikation als auch mit Hilfe eines geschlossenen Modells mit heterogenen Marktteilnehmern (Investoren und Noise-Tradern) gezeigt.

This paper is part of a wider research on South-East Asia countries' taxation carried on under the supervision of. V. Tanzi. India is a federal republic and a big, highly populated and poor country, which however since some years has entered the catching up stage of development and shows impressive rates of GDP growth. General Government budget is structurally imbalanced and public debt stays high. Public spending (about 25 percent of GDP) is mainly devoted to general services, defense, and the support of economic activities, rather than to public health and welfare programs. Total fiscal pressure (about 17 percent of GDP) is in line with per capita GDP and is shared evenly enough between central and states governments. The structure of the tax system is not much beyond the Musgravian "early stage". A complex structure of taxes on goods and services is largely the main heading of the tax system and it is difficultly moving towards a VAT-kind structure. Direct taxes still are in an infant state, both as weight as well as structure. Import duties remain at not negligible levels. Social contributions are entirely lacking. A tax system of a country like India unavoidably raises more than one problem: foremost among these problems appear to be a too large dominance of a complex and obsolete indirect taxation and the fiscal relations among government layers. The road to updating and improving the Indian tax system has been entered since the early 1990s, but the reform is still largely to be accomplished. Introducing VAT ( so successfully adopted in other developing countries ) is the most striking but not the only example.

Tra le proposte di riforma fiscale avanzate nel secondo dopoguerra assumono particolare enfasi quelle presenti nelle posizioni di Visentini e Cosciani, espresse nel 1948 in seno alla Commissione Vanoni; posizioni intorno alle quali ruoterà tutto il dibattito relativo alle ipotesi di riforma fiscale anche degli anni ’60. Se una prima innovazione alla struttura dell’ordinamento tributario è da attribuire alle norme sulla perequazione tributaria (Vanoni nel 1951), la seconda legge di perequazione tributaria, da una lato, e la costituzione della Commissione di riforma tributaria Cosciani all’inizio degli anni ’60, dall’altro, indicano il percorso di riferimento del processo in cui ha trovato esplicitazione la costruzione del sistema tributario italiano con la riforma degli anni ’70.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we survey the way in which the tax burden on labour has been proxied for in recent multi-country macro-economic studies. Second, we critically evaluate these proxies. Finally, we examine to what extent the conclusions of some studies change if some alternative indicator for the tax burden on labour is employed. We conclude that the widely used tax ratios as developed by Mendoza et al. (1994) may not be very reliable. The choice of the indicator for the tax burden on labour is also shown to affect the conclusions of some well-known empirical models.