Capital Income Taxation in the Netherlands
Authors: Alexander D Klemm, Shafik Hebous & Christophe J Waerzeggers
This paper looks at capital income taxation in the Netherlands from an international and domestic perpective. The Netherlands is a major conduit country for FDI. Recent reforms taken by the Dutch authorities as well as public statements represent a strong move to address international tax avoidance, but it is too early to be able to detect the impact in the data, and measuring tax avoidance even in the past is fraught with difficulties. Domestically, the unique system, which for many financial assets effectively taxes wealth rather than capital income, leads to inequities and distortions. Owner-occupied housing is strongly tax-favored and in many cases effectively subsidized. Various reforms, not necessarily of a fundamental nature, would improve efficiency and equity.
Regional Disparities and Fiscal Federalism in Russia
Authors: Oksana Dynnikova, Annette J Kyobe & Slavi T Slavov
This paper examines how regional disparities have evolved in Russia and how Russia’s system of intergovernmental fiscal relations is managing these disparities. Regional disparities have fallen over the past two decades but remain relatively high. Socioeconomic outcomes remain worse in lagging regions despite faster growth and convergence in income levels. The twin shocks of COVID-19 and lower oil prices appear to have impacted richer regions disproportionately. Compared to other large countries with federal systems of government, Russia stands out with its high reliance on direct taxes as a revenue source for its regions. Transfers from the federal budget to the regions provide some redistribution by reducing the dispersion in real per capita fiscal spending, but also tend to be associated with lower growth. The Russian fiscal system offers degrees of redistribution and risk sharing of around 26 and 18 percent, respectively—with in-kind social transfers contributing the most. Finally, federal transfers in the aggregate tend to be procyclical and are also fairly unresponsive to shocks to regions’ own revenues.
A Firm Lower Bound: Characteristics and Impact of Corporate Minimum Taxation
Authors: Aqib Aslam & Maria Delgado Coelho
This paper examines the role of minimum taxes and attempts to quantify their impact on economic activity. Minimum taxes can be effective at shoring up the corporate tax base and enhancing the perceived equity of the tax system, potentially motivating broader taxpayer compliance. Where political and administrative constraints prevent reforms to the standard corporate income tax, a minimum tax can help mitigate base erosion from excessive tax incentives and avoidance. Using a new panel dataset that catalogues changes in minimum tax regimes over time around the world, firm-level analysis suggests that the introduction or reform of a minimum tax is associated with an increase in the average effective tax rate of just over 1.5 percentage points with respect to turnover and of around 10 percent with respect to operating income. Minimum taxes based on modified corporate income lead to the largest increases in effective tax rates, followed by those based on assets and turnover.
Electric Vehicles, Tax incentives and Emissions: Evidence from Norway
Authors: Youssouf Camara, Bjart Holtsmark & Florian Misch
This paper empirically estimates the effects of electric vehicles (EVs) on passenger car emissions to inform the design of policies that encourage EV purchases in Norway. We use exceptionally rich data on the universe of cars and households from Norway, which has a very high share of EVs, thanks to generous tax incentives and other policies. Our estimates suggest that household-level emission savings from the purchase of additional EVs are limited, resulting in high implicit abatement costs of Norway’s tax incentives relative to emission savings. However, the estimated emission savings are much larger if EVs replace the dirtiest cars. Norway’s experience may also help inform similar policies in other countries as they ramp up their own national climate mitigation strategies.
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