While 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 read
The 2023 version of the International Tax Competitiveness Index is the 10th edition of the report. Let’s take a look back and see how country ranks have changed over time.
5 min read
The variety of approaches to taxation among European countries creates a need to evaluate these systems relative to each other. For that purpose, we have developed the European Tax Policy Scorecard—a relative comparison of European countries’ tax systems.
52 min read
While there are many factors that affect a country’s economic performance, taxes play an important role. A well-structured tax code is easy for taxpayers to comply with and can promote economic development while raising sufficient revenue for a government’s priorities.
88 min read
If tax increases are included in a package, international experience points toward raising consumption taxes, rationalizing tax expenditures, and broadening the tax base—not hiking income taxes.
6 min read
Income taxes impose steeper economic costs, and often steeper administrative and compliance costs, than consumption taxes. Moving to a consumption tax would end the tax bias against saving and investment and provide an opportunity to greatly simplify anti-poverty programs embedded in the tax code.
45 min read
In 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 read
As Oktoberfest celebrations kick off around the world, let’s look at how much tax European Union (EU) countries add to the world’s favorite alcoholic beverage.
2 min read
The 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 read
The EU’s recent VAT reform is an example of a win for governments, consumers, and companies. Charting a new path toward a more successful tax system.
4 min read
As the EU pursues massive changes in public policy as part of its green transition, expect fuel taxes to be central to any policy discussions.
4 min read
The European Commission proposed a new source of revenue as part of its second basket of own resources: a “temporary statistical own resource based on company profits.” This is an attempt to bolster the EU’s budget as it repays its debt.
5 min read
Lawmakers should focus on simplifying the federal tax code, creating stability, and broadly improving economic incentives. There are incremental steps that can be made on the path to fundamental tax reform.
26 min read
When a country has a broad base with a simple and transparent tax code, small rate changes have little influence. Therefore, policymakers shouldn’t only focus on rate changes when it comes to increasing tax competitiveness.
4 min read
When it comes to EU-level tax policy ideas, competitiveness seems to be less of a priority than raising revenue or pursuing social objectives.
4 min read
While some temporary policies can help in a crisis, policymakers should focus their efforts on sustainable policies that support growth and the resilience of businesses (and government coffers) over the long term.
5 min read
Our recent policy conference brought together academics and political leaders to present research on some of the most pressing issues in global tax policy and to discuss solutions that can unlock genuine global growth.
9 min read
Scandinavian countries are well known for their broad social safety net and their public funding of services such as universal health care, higher education, parental leave, and child and elderly care. So how do Scandinavian countries raise their tax revenues?
7 min read
The Portuguese government has introduced plans to exempt “essential” food items from its value-added tax (VAT) in response to the recent inflation spike. While this may sound like a reasonable measure on the surface, it comes with numerous unintended consequences that compromise its effectiveness.
4 min read