AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF TAX REFORMS ON BUSINESS CONFIDENCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE EU MEMBER STATES

Bureaucracy is a common problem in most countries, including the Member States of the European Union. This issue impacts all areas of civil services, including the fiscal system through tax collection and tax compliance. This study aims to analyze the impact of tax reforms on the business environment by using different business confidence indicators as an estimation of the expected evolution of the industrial sector, the construction sector, the retail sector and the services sector, as well as the tax burden as a proxy for the tax reforms.Our research is based on quarterly data collected for the 28 European Union Member States, for a period of 30 years. The conclusions were reached following multiple regression estimations, done for each Member State separately, and followed by a detailed analysis of the results obtained. Thus, focusing on each country individually, the study reveals the influence of reforms in the tax systems on business confidence.