Tax expenditures: the case of occupational pensions

Abstract

There are many areas of the tax system in which substantial concessions are made, or appear to be made, to certain forms of activity. Such concessions, or reliefs, can cost the government money in just the same way as direct public expenditure programmes. The recognition of this fact is important, but we argue in this paper that measuring the revenue forgone as a result of a given tax treatment is not straightforward. In some cases the figures published are easily and frequently misinterpreted, or may be flawed in themselves.