Sector and size effects on effective corporate taxation

The current debate in corporate taxation is focussing on leveling the tax playing field within the European Union in order to allow companies incorporated in different countries to face the same competitive conditions. However, various elements of corporate tax rules may discriminate against companies registered in the same country but having different sizes or operating in different sectors. Using the micro backward-looking approach to compute effective tax rates for eleven European countries, the US, and Japan, this paper shows that there could be some concerns regarding domestic tax discrimination since some sectors and sizes enjoy significantly more favorable tax burdens.taxation, corporate taxation, effective taxation, tax discrimination, Nicod�me

Sector and size effects on effective corporate taxation

The current debate in corporate taxation is focussing on leveling the tax playing field within the European Union in order to allow companies incorporated in different countries to face the same competitive conditions. However, various elements of corporate tax rules may discriminate against companies registered in the same country but having different sizes or operating in different sectors. Using the micro backward-looking approach to compute effective tax rates for eleven European countries, the US, and Japan, this paper shows that there could be some concerns regarding domestic tax discrimination since some sectors and sizes enjoy significantly more favorable tax burdens.Taxation; corporate taxation; effective taxation

Appendix 2 : Taxation in Europe : Towards more competition or more co-ordination ?

Taxation is high in EU countries. Tax-to-GDP ratios stand at around 40% compared with 25% in Japan and the US. This high level of taxation provides the funding of the European social model characterised by a high level of public expenditure and transfers. Apart from governing powers (armed forces, police, justice), the State provides free services to households (education, health); finances public infrastructures, research, culture; pays significant social transfers (family policy, minimum income) and social insurance (pensions, unemployment). Ageing populations imply higher pensions and health spending; technical progress leads to higher education and research spending; rising social exclusion implies higher assistance benefits. People ask for more public infrastructure and higher security spending. Military spending as well as aid to developing countries seem to be required if countries wish to play a major role internationally. All these elements make the rising trend in public spending difficult to resist. Besides, European countries think that public spending should be on a contributory basis. It makes sense to have people on highest incomes or wealth pay more for collective spending, as they benefit most from the way the social system is organised. Taxes must reduce income inequalities. It is hence crucial for European countries to remain entitled to collect tax revenues, according to democratically agreed rules. Section 2 discusses how the European social model is at risk in a global world; it discusses several strategies for European taxation: competition, unification, coordination. Section 3 provides a descriptive analysis of tax structures and trends in Europe. Section 4 deals with income tax coordination. Section 5 addresses social contributions coordination. Section 6 deals with corporate taxation. Section 7 concludes with a strategy for tax co-ordination

Social status in economic theory: a review.

Social distinction or status is an important motivation of human behaviour. This paper provides a selective survey of recent advances in the economic analysis of the origins and consequences of social status. First, a selection of empirical research from a variety of scientific disciplines is discussed to underpin the further theoretical analysis. I then consider the origins and determinants of tastes for status, discuss the endogenous derivation of such a preferences for relative standing and assess the different formalisations these preferences. Subsequently, the consequences of preferences for status are studied for a variety of problems and settings. The last section discusses a number of implications of status concerns for normative economics and public policy.

Urban Morphology, Social Geography and the Economics of Local Government: Kilkenny City, 1861-1922

This thesis examines the urban morphology, social geography and the economics of local government in Kilkenny city between 1861 and 1922. It is essentially an urban history told from multiple perspectives. It uses cartographic, topographic, documentary and archaeological records to tell the story of a city in decline in the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Key research questions include, but are not limited to, whether or not the medieval form and layout of the city, particularly the burgage cycle, had an impact on the city during the study period and if the corporation fulfilled a role in acting as an agent of change. It begins with a limited plan analysis of Kilkenny city, that outlines its origins, before examining the long-term impact of the Kilkenny Markets Act and the morphology of two of the city 's milling complexes whose decline in the study period mirrors that of the city in general. The social geography of two of Kilkenny's suburbs is presented. This shows how they developed and subsequently declined and how the urban poor were housed. This also illustrates the importance of the burgage cycle to the city's development. It then examines if the corporation, the body that had the greatest capacity to act as an agent of change, acted to improve the city over the study period. It does this by an analysis of its finances and is followed by a case study of its role in managing the city's sanitation and water supply. The final chapter is a limited plan analysis at the end of the study period. It uses some nontraditional sources in the form of photographs in order to show how the city had essentially stagnated and declined over the course of the study period

Tax Policy in the European Union: A Review of Issues and Options

As economic integration within the European Union (EU) progresses, the interactions between the tax systems of the Member States are of growing importance. Member State tax policies can have spillover effects on other Member States and differing abilities to provide net fiscal benefits to residents may impair the efficient allocation of productive factors across the EU. These considerations have important implications for the design and coordination of tax systems in the EU. Following a survey of tax developments and a review of the criteria that should govern the tax relationships between the Member States, this paper analyzes the issues and options that Member States face when levying and coordinating their taxes on consumption, labor and capital.

Irish GDP between the Famine and the First World War : Estimates Based on a Dynamic Factor Model

A major issue in Irish economic history is the lack of historical national accounts before the interwar period. This paper addresses the gap with new annual estimates of real GDP between 1842 and 1913 using an indirect estimation technique based on a set of macroeconomic variables and a dynamic factor model. Three major results emerge from the data. First, per capita growth was faster in this period than anywhere in Europe. Second, aggregate output contracted by more than a third during the Great Famine of the 1840s, but had recovered its level and closed the output gap by the end of the decade. Third, the volatility of the business cycle fell by nearly three quarters in the second half of the sample

A question of political will: corruption and public administration in Ireland

The paper provides the reader with a transversal analysis of the issue of corruption in Ireland – including the Irish legislation against corruption and the economical shortcomings of corruption

Special Purpose Vehicle Institutions: Their Business Natures and Accounting Implications

Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is an instrumental institution used for specific purposes by firms. The SPV is useful for tax planning, risk management, project financing and company restructuring. SPVs have benefits for economy and business, and involve usually large size of projects that vary from about US$100 to US$500 million per project. However, SPVs have also some bad records. Huge business, finance, and accounting scandals involve the use of SPVs. The drawbacks of SPVs are due to lack of regulatory measures relating the application of SPVs, so that SPVs are used for hiding identities, debts and hiding non-productive assets. SPVs are used to deceive investors so that they can not judge the value and risks of the firms and investments correctly.The huge financial and accounting scandals such as Enron involved the use of SPVs for not reporting or undervaluing debt and overvaluing net worth. In Indonesia, there are some transactions that are under public scrutiny that use SPVs, such as the sales of the government stocks of BCA Bank, and PT Indosat. There are also many successful and beneficial uses of SPVs in Indonesia as well, such as those in energy development, oil refinery, and telecommunication projects