The economic psychology of value added tax compliance

VAT is a tax on consumer expenditure, collected on business transactions and assessed on the value added to goods and services. It applies, with some exceptions (for example, to young children’s clothes and shoes in the UK), to all goods and services that are bought and sold. VAT is a general tax (as it applies, in principle, to all commercial activities) and a consumption tax (as it is paid ultimately by the final consumer). It is not actually a tax on business, though some business owners do see it that way. In fact, whilst VAT is paid to the tax authorities by the seller of the goods or services, the tax is paid by the buyer to the seller as part of the tax and so, in essence, businesses are acting as unpaid tax collectors. VAT was first introduced in France in 1954, and subsequently has been extended, through a series of directives, to cover the whole of the European Union (EU). The system in the EU is now reasonably standardized, although different rates of VAT apply in different EU member states. The minimum standard rate in the EU is 15 percent, though lower rates are applied to certain services. Some goods and services are exempt from VAT throughout the EU (e.g., postal services, insurance, betting). In addition to spreading throughout Europe (member states are required to introduce VAT, so the increase in membership of the EU has inevitably increased the number of countries that use this system), VAT has also been introduced in a large number of other countries, notably China (Yeh, 1997), and India (after many delays) in 2005, so that now over 130 countries world-wide operate VAT. In the Caribbean, for example, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, and Antigua have all introduced VAT in the past two years. Other countries have introduced taxes that are classified as value added taxes, such as Australia, which now operates a General Sales Tax (GST). The introduction of VAT has been the major tax reform around the world in the past 25 years, and VAT is now of global significance and impact (Ebrill et al., 2001)

Save now, save later? Linkages between saving behaviour in adolescence and adulthood

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the variety of definitions, concepts, and theories of psychological resilience. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first considers how resilience has been defined in the psychology research literature. Despite the construct being operationalized in a variety of ways, most definitions are based around two core concepts: adversity and positive adaptation. A substantial body of evidence suggests that resilience is required in response to different adversities, ranging from ongoing daily hassles to major life events, and that positive adaptation must be conceptually appropriate to the adversity examined in terms of the domains assessed and the stringency of criteria used. The second section examines the conceptualization of resilience as either a trait or a process, and explores how it is distinct from a number of related terms. Resilience is conceptualized as the interactive influence of psychological characteristics within the context of the stress process. The final section reviews the theories of resilience and critically examines one theory in particular that is commonly cited in the resilience literature. Future theories in this area should take into account the multiple demands individuals encounter, the meta-cognitive and -emotive processes that affect the resilience-stress relationship, and the conceptual distinction between resilience and coping. The review concludes with implications for policy, practice, and research including the need to carefully manage individuals’ immediate environment, and to develop the protective and promotive factors that individuals can proactively use to build resilience

Adsorption Processes for CO2 Capture: An Overview

Adsorption processes for CO2 capture have gained significant attention in the last decade with hundreds of reports on new adsorbents and processes for capture and removal of carbon dioxide from a range of gas streams. To date, the only commercial examples are removal of trace carbon dioxide in gas streams such as LNG and ASU upstream molecular sieve units. There are no commercial examples of the use of adsorbents to capture carbon dioxide by adsorption processes and deliver a stream of high purity carbon dioxide for sequestration or further processing. In this study, we present the range of processing options available for CO2 capture using adsorbents and show how these processes must be adapted to the condition of the feed stream. We also show how these processes make requirements of the adsorbents (or adsorbent systems) and highlight what features new adsorbent should have to help advance adsorption technology. Specific examples of near commercial adsorption processes will be discussed, eg vacuum swing adsorption, high temperature dry regenerable fluidized bed systems, and rapid temperature swing systems

VAT compliance in the United Kingdom

This study aimed to uncover the factors that influence Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance. Small businesses from the catering and flooring/furnishing trades in the United Kingdom were sent a questionnaire designed to elicit their views on VAT and related issues. Responses were obtained from 359 businesses. Results showed that VAT compliance in small businesses shares a number of similarities with private income tax compliance: Social norms, equity, economic factors and personality are all important in predicting compliance

Two Accounts for Why Adolescent Savings Is Predictive of Young Adult Savings: An Economic Socialization Perspective and an Institutional Perspective

Economic socialization and the institutional theory of saving offer different accounts for why adolescents\u27 savings predicts savings in young adulthood. Economic socialization theory emphasizes the role that the family plays in whether or not youth develop a future time orientation and a habit of saving. Conversely, an institutional theory is built on the premise that acquisition of financial knowledge and resources are strongly influenced by structural failures related to social class and race. Using longitudinal data (N = 694) from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its supplements, this paper asks whether having savings as an adolescent (ages 13 to 17) predicts having savings as a young adult (ages 18 to 22). Policy implications are discussed using both approaches and conclusions are drawn about how the approaches can be combined to create a saving intervention for adolescents

Effect of flue gas impurities on CO2 capture performance from flue gas at coal-fired power stations by vacuum swing adsorption

AbstractCO2 capture from major stationary emission sites has been studied widely with the increasing realization of the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change. In terms of capture technology, solvent scrubbing, membrane processes and adsorption processes are the major contenders with the latter making significant progress over the last decade due to both improved adsorbent and process design and operation. As is well known, capturing CO2 from flue gases at coal-fired power stations by pressure/vacuum swing adsorption is complicated by the existence of significant amounts of water, SOx, NOx and other impurities, which are detrimental to most commercial CO2 selective-adsorbents. Conventional adsorption-based CO2 capture processes rely on using a pre-treatment stage to remove water, SOx and NOx, which adds considerably to the overall cost. In contrast, we report here an adsorption process developed in our laboratory which directly tackles the untreated flue gas without a separate pre-treatment stage by using a propriety multiple-layered bed comprising different adsorbents. The species CO2, H2O, SOx and NOx are processed in the same column within different function layers optimized according to adsorption properties and process conditions. A fully programmable logic controller (PLC) automated three-column pilot plant was built to perform the study with real-time control and data acquisition conducted through Human Machine Interface/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (HMI/SCADA) system. Through running continuous experiments, the effects of impurities on process performance such as CO2 purity, recovery and process power are investigated and reported. This is the first in-depth report of the performance of adsorption based capture plants in the presence of impurities found in real flue gas streams

Novel adsorption processes for carbon dioxide capture within a IGCC process

AbstractThere is considerable interest in identifying carbon dioxide capture processes that can be incorporated within Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems. In this paper, two novel adsorption based process configurations are proposed to operate in the temperature window (250–500 ∘C) suitable for an IGCC process after the water gas shift reactor. These process configurations are numerically simulated with an in-house simulator MINSA (Monash Integrated Numerical Simulator for Adsorption), and the simulation results indicate that good performance can be achieved with low operating cost. Carbon dioxide purity of greater than 95% and carbon dioxide recovery of greater than 90% can be obtained by both process options