The Return to Corporate Tax Evasion in the Presence of an Income Tax on Shareholders

The paper will proceed in the following stages: Section II will describe a theoretical model of the incentive structure surrounding corporate tax evasion and the implications that the model suggests for the behavior of corporate managers. Section III will analyze how the personal income tax might change the returns to evasion and how this effect could be expected to influence the behaviour of the corporation\u27s managers. Section IV will describe the principal interaction mechanisms between the corporate tax and personal income tax employed in practice. Section V will analyze the effects of each of the interaction mechanisms described. Section VI will consider how the personal tax and interaction mechanisms might be constructed or improved to deter evasion more effectively. By the time the analysis is complete, the paper will argue that it is possible in theory at least, to construct the interaction mechanism between the corporate tax and personal income tax so as to eliminate many of the benefits of successful evasion and probably far more effectively and at less cost than the strategies usually suggested. In practice, however, it will be seen that few of the interaction mechanisms currently employed deliver this result. Consequently, in so far as the revenue authority relies on the interaction mechanism to assist in reducing corporate tax evasion, the full benefits of the interaction mechanism have yet to be exploited

Does the Tax Value Method increase ‘certainty’ in dealing with tax? An experimental approach

This paper details the design and findings of a study commissioned by the Australian Board of Taxation. The study tried to test empirically the claim, made in the Review of Business Taxation, that the proposed Tax Value Method (TVM) of defining the tax base would increase ‘certainty’ for taxpayers and administrators. The study investigated this proposition under controlled experimental conditions, covering a number of possible meanings of the concept of certainty. University students were chosen as participants as they had presumably little experience with, and little prior knowledge about, either the current legislation or the proposed legislation following TVM. The participants were instructed in TVM or, as a control group, in the current legislation. They then were asked to solve twenty tax problems and rate their confidence in their answers. Overall, the findings suggest that: -TVM will lead to less consistency or consensus on the answers to tax problems, particularly in some areas of tax law; -TVM will lead to less confidence in the correctness of answers taxpayers reach to their tax problems, -TVM will lead to less confidence that taxpayers are correctly following the steps which the law requires to determine answers to their tax problems, and -TVM will lead taxpayers to reach less accurate answers to their tax problems, at least in some areas of tax law. The study thus does not support the claim that TVM would lead to greater certainty in the tax system. On the contrary, the empirical evidence suggests TVM could lead to less certainty, less confidence and less accuracy. Limitations of the study are discussed in detail

Declaring and Diagnosing Research Designs.

Researchers need to select high-quality research designs and communicate those designs clearly to readers. Both tasks are difficult. We provide a framework for formally "declaring" the analytically relevant features of a research design in a demonstrably complete manner, with applications to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. The approach to design declaration we describe requires defining a model of the world (M), an inquiry (I), adatastrategy(D), andananswerstrategy(A). Declaration of these features in code provides sufficient information for researchers and readers to use Monte Carlo techniques to diagnose properties such as power, bias, accuracy of qualitative causal inferences, and other "diagnosands." Ex ante declarations can be used to improve designs and facilitate preregistration, analysis, and reconciliation of intended and actual analyses. Ex post declarations are useful for describing, sharing, reanalyzing, and critiquing existing designs. We provide open-source software, DeclareDesign, to implement the proposed approach

Design and field trials of water-mist based venturi systems for dust mitigation on longwall faces

Dust generation from longwall chock movement and the Beam Stage Loader/crusher (BSL) is a major source of air contamination on modern longwall faces. If not controlled effectively, much of these respirable dust particles would disperse quickly into the longwall due to high face ventilation velocities, contributing significantly to higher dust levels. A new water mist based venturi system has been developed for the purpose of suppressing respirable dust from longwall chock movements close to the maingate (MG). The unit is powered by compressed air and water using an ultrasonic nozzle embedded in a venturi body. The ultrasonic nozzle is capable of producing ultra fine water mist with droplet sizes ranging from 1 to 100 μm. Laboratory tests indicate that the ultrasonic nozzle (MAL-1300-B), when combined with a 70 mm (diameter) x 143 mm (length) venturi body, was can produce an optimum spray covering a distance over 10 m. Further tests show that a combination of air supply at 6 bar and water at 4 bar produces the optimum water mist thrust with inducted air velocity over 8 m/s. The venturi system was built as a stand alone unit using fire resistant and antistatic materials and can be easily hooked under the chock canopy with a magnetic base. The system can be powered by compressed air and water supplied to the longwall face and adjusted with the spray angle to achieve the droplet size and velocity needed for dust suppression and diversion. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling was undertaken to gain a better understanding of face ventilation and dust flow patterns to optimise the spray orientation of the venturi system for field trial installation. CFD modelling results show that the operating conditions of sprays with the best mitigation performance vary according to the source of dust, a better dust mitigation effect can be achieved when the venturi units on longwall chock are installed at 20o down towards the floor and tilted 45o along the face. Field trials were conducted at two underground longwall mines in QLD and NSW. Three venturi units were installed on Chock No 6 on the longwall with an additional unit trialled at the BSL to mitigate dust from longwall outbye. Dust measurements with real time monitoring Personal Dust Monitor (PDM) and gravimetric samplers indicate dust mitigation efficiency up to 30% has been achieved in both trials

The Relationship Between Infrastructure and Inclusive Economic Growth : Evidence Review

The purpose of this report is to review the evidence on the relationship between infrastructure investment and inclusive economic growth. Inclusive growth lies at the heart of the Scottish Government's approach to the economy. The government defines inclusive growth as – 'growth that combines increased prosperity with greater equity; that creates opportunities for all and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity fairly'. Inclusive growth is fast becoming a new mantra in economic policy across many countries. But the relatively 'new' nature of the terminology means that there is little in the way of formal studies that have explicitly sought to capture the links between infrastructure and inclusive growth. We therefore also review the evidence for any links between infrastructure investment and key components of 'inclusive growth'. Given the timescales involved, the nature of this review is relatively high-level, focussing upon key trends and sources of debate in the literature. We do however highlight where further evidence can be obtained. The aim is to help inform the work of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland (ICfS). The Commission has been established to provide independent advice on the long-term strategy for infrastructure in Scotland