Wartime Taxes Are Waging War on Sound Policy Choices
Spain’s central government is considering making its windfall taxes on energy companies and the banking sector permanent.
6 min readCristina Enache writes on the economics of tax policy and is the author of the Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index. She was formerly the Director of Research at Civismo, an economic research organization based in Spain. She also served as head of research at Institución Futuro, a regional think tank based in Navarra in northern Spain. She is also currently Secretary-General at the World Taxpayers Associations and General Manager of the Spanish Taxpayers Union, which she joined in 2016.
Cristina has a degree in economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Navarra.
Spain’s central government is considering making its windfall taxes on energy companies and the banking sector permanent.
6 min readThe 2024 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index allows policymakers and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare.
7 min readThe flawed design of these windfall profits taxes has created problems in countries that implemented them.
4 min readRather than pursuing temporary policies, policymakers should implement long-term, pro-growth tax reforms that stimulate economic activity and incentivize energy diversification by supporting private investment through full expensing.
19 min readMany developed countries have repealed their wealth taxes in recent years for a variety of reasons. They raise little revenue, create high administrative costs, and induce an outflow of wealthy individuals and their money. Many policymakers have also recognized that high taxes on capital and wealth damage economic growth.
30 min readTo make the taxation of labor more efficient, policymakers should understand the inputs into the tax wedge, and taxpayers should understand how their tax burden funds government services.
4 min readGovernments often justify higher tax burdens with more extensive public services. However, the cost of these services can be more than half of an average worker’s salary.
16 min readAbout half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented a DST. Because these taxes mainly impact U.S. companies and are thus perceived as discriminatory, the United States responded to the policies with retaliatory tariff threats, urging countries to abandon unilateral measures.
4 min readThe outcome of the digital tax debate will likely shape domestic and international taxation for decades to come. Designing these policies based on sound principles will be essential in ensuring they can withstand challenges arising in the rapidly changing economic and technological environment of the 21st century.
58 min readAs tempting as inheritance, estate, and gift taxes might look—especially when the OECD notes them as a way to reduce wealth inequality—their limited capacity to collect revenue and their negative impact on entrepreneurial activity, saving, and work should make policymakers consider their repeal instead of boosting them.
2 min readOnly three European countries levy a net wealth tax—Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. France and Italy levy wealth taxes on selected assets.
4 min readTax-preferred private retirement accounts often have complex rules and limitations. Universal savings accounts could be a simpler alternative—or addition—to many countries’ current system of private retirement savings accounts.
19 min readLike most regions around the world, European countries have experienced a decline in corporate income tax rates over the past four decades, but the average corporate income tax rate has leveled off in recent years.
2 min readSpain’s central government could learn some valuable lessons from its regional governments about sound tax policy.
7 min readOf the 225 jurisdictions around the world, only six have increased their top corporate income tax rate in 2023, a trend that might be reversed in the coming years as more countries agree to implement the global minimum tax.
16 min readWhile the European Commission focuses on improving VAT compliance, policy is a major contributor to VAT revenue losses. The VAT actionable policy gap is 15.65 percent, more than triple the compliance gap.
5 min readThe 2023 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index allows policymakers and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare.
6 min readIn recent years, European countries have undertaken a series of tax reforms designed to maintain tax revenue levels while protecting households and businesses from high inflation.
8 min readThe Spanish election results are moving the country away from pro-growth tax reforms while launching the government’s tax agenda, and the agenda of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, into uncertainty.
7 min readFor many Italian banks, there hasn’t been a significant “windfall” to tax. The profit margins of Italian banks have been lower compared to other industries for the past two decades.
5 min read