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Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Russia and the other countries which were members of the USSR have adopted value-added taxes. The value-added tax now provides a very significant portion of total tax revenue in all of these countries. Ideally, the value-added tax will serve as a relatively efficient, neutral, revenue source at the national level. The Russian value-added tax, however, contains a number of unique provisions, reflected in the laws of many of the other transition countries, which cause it to fall short of this standard. These countries also must decide how their value-added taxes are to apply to trade among themselves. This paper describes several of the provisions unique to the Russian value-added tax and analyzes their probable effects. It then discusses the development of arrangements which have evolved to date with respect to applying the value-added tax to trade among the transition countries, and suggests possible answers to the vexing questions raised by this issue.
Starting in the early 1990s, the Baltics, Russia, and other (BRO) countries of the former Soviet Union initiated tax reforms that varied widely at the later stages. Recently, some of the BRO countries, basing decisions on the proposition that lowering of the top marginal income tax rate would significantly benefit economic development and increase tax compliance, have initiated a new stage of tax reforms. This paper reviews country experiences and suggests that (i) overall, there seems to be little evidence of a substantial improvement in income tax revenues resulting simply from a reduction in the top marginal tax rates, and (ii) in the BRO countries, the elasticity of the behavior of economic agents, in terms of labor supply, saving, and investment, with respect to income tax rates is not large, and a reduction of the existing income tax rates is unlikely to lead to a notable expansion of economic activity.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought enormous political, economic, and social challenges. Since 1991 fiscal reform has been a pillar of Russia's reform agenda. This book analyzes the effort to adopt a modern tax code where previously there were few recognizable taxes, establish an efficient tax administration where taxpayers had never paid taxes directly, and decentralize the system of governance where power had been centralized and dictatorial. Despite the remarkable achievements, many old and new challenges remain. The authors bring an analytical approach to fiscal reform in Russia, providing a detailed analysis of the tax system and estimates of tax compliance and evasion. The book offers a careful examination of the fiscal architecture of Russia and concludes with a presentation of remaining reform needs and options for Russia. Based on Russia's reform experience, the authors also draw lessons for fiscal reform in other developing and transitional countries. Given the dynamic nature of Russia's economic development, this book will prove a timely and informative resource for academics in economics, public finance, political science and public administration as well as for policy makers. Its lessons will also be useful for officials involved with finance in transition and developing countries.
This book integrates legal, economic, and administrative materials about value added tax. Its principal purpose is to provide comprehensive teaching tools - laws, cases, analytical exercises, and questions drawn from the experience of countries and organizations from all areas of the world. It also serves as a resource for tax practitioners and government officials that must grapple with issues under their VAT or their prospective VAT. The comparative presentation of this volume offers an analysis of policy issues relating to tax structure and tax base as well as insights into how cases arising out of VAT disputes have been resolved. The authors have expanded the coverage to include new VAT related developments in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. A chapter on financial services has been added as well as an analysis of significant new cases.
This paper presents an analysis of the quality of VAT administration in OECD countries and Russia. Econometric analysis of the factors which influence the quality of VAT administration, demonstrate a positive effect of the level of institutional development on the efficiency of tax collection. However this tendency takes place only when there are no additional tax exemptions being implemented alongside the economic development where exemptions, in addition to causing a direct loss, complicate the taxation system and lower the quality of its administration.
This paper discusses the current state of taxation and public finance in the Russian Federation and compares some aspects of Russian public finance to other CIS and Eastern European countries and to selected OECD countries. The paper begins with a discussion of the present tax system and structure in Russia, then places the Russian system in perspective by comparing certain aspects of the Russian system to those of other countries. Comparisons of tax burden as a percentage of GDP are made with other former Soviet republics as well as selected OECD countries. A ranking is done to determine where Russia fits on a relative scale. Percentage breakdowns are also given by major tax category. Several comparisons are also made using the Tax Misery Index statistics. Interestingly, Russia does not fare too badly compared to some other countries in terms of tax burden and tax misery, although there is room for improvement.
This book provides a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the similarities and differences between consumption taxes and direct taxes. Fifty contributions are included, written by academics, practitioners and representatives from several international tax administrations and institutions.
This study offers a comparative evaluation of the main features of the VAT systems between the ten countries of Central and Eastern Europue and provides a commentary on the development of the VAT systems in line with the VAT legislation of the EU.
Value-added tax, or VAT, first introduced less than 50 years ago, is now a pivotal component of tax systems around the world. The rapid and seemingly irresistible rise of the VAT is probably the most important tax development of the latter twentieth century, and certainly the most breathtaking. Written by a team of experts from the IMF, this book examines the remarkable spread and current reach of the innovative tax and draws lessons about the design and implementation of the VAT, as experienced by different countries around the world. How efficient is it as a tax, is it fair, and is it suitable for all countries? These are among the questions raised. This highly informative and well-researched book also looks at the likely future of the tax.