A descriptive analysis of tax evasion as a crime in a least developed country: The case of Yemen

This paper measures the perception of Yemeni citizens on the severity of tax evasion relative to other crimes and violations. Perception of tax evasion may somewhat explain the degree of non-compliance with tax laws.Using data from a self-administered survey and a structured interview, the results of mean and comparative analysis show that the three tax evasion offences were ranked as the least serious crimes among 30 listed crimes.Further, tax evasion is categorized the least serious category out of six categories.The results of this study should be useful to policy makers in Yemen and elsewhere, as it is an alarming signal that tax evasion is relatively ranked as the least serious offence, which could lead to an environment where taxpayers may not be afraid of cheating on their tax returns

Characterising derivative-based loan arrangements

The income tax and GST laws contain an array of rules that apply to debt and gains in the nature of interest. The definitions of \u27debt\u27 or \u27loan\u27 and amounts in the nature of \u27interest\u27 vary across the provisions and tax officials, taxpayers and courts must decide whether the terms should be read as applying to debt, loans or interest in a narrow legal sense or should be read more broadly to catch multi-element arrangements that give effect to a debt or loan relationship in an economic or commercial sense but not in conventional single document form. This article reviews the UK, US and Australian approaches to interpreting multi-element transactions and considers whether four tax provisions dealing with debt should be interpreted to apply to multi-element, derivative-based loan arrangements.<br /

Darwinian evolution of the taxation of trusts: a comparative analysis

This article will undertake a comparative analysis of the evolution of trusts in Australia and the United States. While the concept of a trust is well understood in both jurisdictions, it will be shown that the way trusts have been used in a commercial and taxation law context is quite different in the United States as compared with Australia. The article will commence by examining the American and Australian experiences with trusts, including a brief examination of how trusts are used and how many trusts file tax returns. This will provide an important context and backdrop to the ensuing discussion and analysis. In terms of any examination of the evolution of trusts, the British roots to the concept of a trust are important and will be analysed next in the article. Following this, a discussion of trust attributes in the United States will be undertaken. The next part of the article will examine in more detail how and why trusts are used in Australia, focusing specifically on some of the taxation implications of the use of trusts in Australia. A comparative analysis will be undertaken in the United States context, showing how similar tax outcomes can be arrived at without using the technique of a trust. The article will conclude by examining some important tax and public policy implications of the use of trusts in both Australia and the United States

Cash Businesses and Tax Evasion

This Article attempts to provide a qualitative picture of tax evasion in the small business sector. It provides details from almost 275 field study interviews with cash business owners and with tax preparers and bankers who serve cash business clients. Our research suggests answers to the questions of who evades taxes, what taxes they evade, and why and how they evade taxes. This Article proceeds in three additional parts. Part II summarizes the main threads of relevant social science research on small business tax compliance. Part III describes the methodology and results of this interview study. Part IV concludes

Tax complexity and small business: a comparison of the perceptions of tax agents in the United States and Australia

There is ongoing pressure in both the United States and Australia to simplify their respective tax systems, particularly in regard to small business taxpayers. In the case of both regimes, if substantial progress is to be made towards simplification, the areas of greatest need and the necessary reforms will require careful evaluation. The views of tax agents (practitioners) are highly relevant to the implementation of successful reform in that both regimes rely on self-assessment. It was considered that by undertaking a cross-jurisdictional comparison a greater understanding of complexity, from the perspective of tax agents, could be gained and that the consideration of alternate treatments could better inform tax policymakers. That is, what can we learn from each other? The article compares and contrasts the perceptions of practitioners on small business tax complexity based on a questionnaire instrument conducted in the US and an electronic survey and case study conducted in Australia. Tax practitioners in the US consistently rated the areas of partnerships, estate and gift valuations, tax deferred exchanges, frequency of law changes and retirement plans as the most complex and progressive tax rates, estimated taxes, social security/self-employment taxes, corporate capital gain provisions and cash v accrual method as the least complex. In comparison, Australian practitioners found the frequency of change, the volume of legislative material and the effect of change on other aspects of taxation (including reporting) to be the major causes of complexity. Capital gain tax provisions were regarded as complex as were self-managed superannuation funds and trusts, but similar to US tax practitioners, Australian tax agents did not find the use of tax rates or accounting methods to be complex. The policy implications of these findings are discussed for both regimes, including the implications of having small business-specific rules.<div><br></div><div>8(2): 289-327</div

Tax Evasion as a Crime: A Survey of Perception in Yemen

This paper explores the perception of Yemeni citizens of the severity of tax evasion relative to other crimes and violations. Perception of tax evasion may somewhat explain the degree of non-compliance with the tax laws. Using data from a self- administered survey and a personnel structured interview, the results of mean and comparative analysis show that tax evasion items were ranked as the three least crimes of 30 listed crimes. Further, Tax evasion is categorized the least serious category out of six categories. The results of this study should be useful to policy makers in Yemen and elsewhere, as it was found that there is an alarming signal that tax evasion is relatively ranked as the least serious offence, which could lead to an environment where taxpayers may not be afraid of cheating on their tax returns