World Tax Reform

This book presents 15 original papers and commentaries by a distinguished group of tax policy and tax administration experts. Using international examples, they highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, present new thinking about the issue, and analyze useful policy options. The book’s general goal is to examine the current and emerging challenges facing tax reformers and to assess possible directions future reforms are likely to take. More specific themes include distributional issues, how to tax capital income, how to design specific taxes (e.g., the income tax, the value-added tax, the property tax), how to consider the politics and administrative aspects of tax reform, and how to combine the separate insights into comprehensive tax reform.

The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.

This volume presents the work of experts on the tax reform in several developing countries, from the restructuring of the economy of post-war Japan to the 1986 reforms in Jamaica. This study is based on the conference convened by the Center for International Development Research of the Institute of Policy Sciences at Duke University in April 1988.

Tax Reform in Developing Countries carefully examines the experience of eight developing countries that have undergone -- and in some instances are still undergoing -- significant and comprehensive tax reform. The countries are Bolivia, Colombia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, and Turkey. It draws on their experiences to find lessons learned and to see how they may be applied to other countries on the road to tax reform. Equal attention is given to the process of tax reform, how it is implemented, and the substance or results of reform efforts. Throughout, the focus is on the practical rather than the theoretical aspects of tax reform.

A review of current thinking on taxation which examines the changes in tax structure occurring in 11 countries, ranging from Indonesia and Mexico to Sweden and the United States. The book coincides with a trend towards tax reform which has taken hold in many developed and developing countries.

Series on International Taxation #81 The tax landscape today looks dramatically different from how it appeared even a generation ago. Ongoing sweeping changes in information technologies, massive economic downturns, unforeseen catastrophes such as the global pandemic that hit the world in 2020, and ever more sophisticated methods of tax evasion and avoidance are only some of the factors that have perplexed and even confounded tax authorities. This important book provides a comprehensive overview of the global tax challenges confronting tax policy today, with insightful contributions by both well-known tax experts and fresh new voices in the field. The authors address such critical issues as the following: international tax reform initiatives; effects of climate change; tax justice in times of crisis; international tax cooperation; taxing multinationals; role of tax havens; participation and collaboration of developing countries; the growing presence of artificial intelligence and robots; prospects for a green economic recovery; and tax ethics and social inclusiveness. The contributions originated with the groundbreaking tax summit TaxCOOP2020, held online at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020. At a time when tax policy seems poised at the dawn of a fundamental transformation, this inestimable volume will be welcomed by tax practitioners and academics, concerned government officials, businesspeople, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), all of whom will here have access to a variety of points of view and innovative approaches to the future direction of taxation.