This report examines the role tax intermediaries play in the operation of tax systems and specifically to understand their role in “unacceptable tax minimisation arrangements” as well as to identify strategies for strengthening the relationship betweeen tax intermediaries and revenue bodies.

This report examines the relationship between large business taxpayers and revenue bodies, five years on from the publication of the FTA’s Study into the Role of Tax Intermediaries.

High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) pose significant challenges to tax administrations due to the complexity of their affairs, their revenue contribution, the opportunity for aggressive tax planning, and the impact of their compliance behaviour on ...

This book examines the options for, and obstacles to, successful financial sector tax reform, both in terms of theoretical and practical aspects. Issues discussed include: the design of optimal tax schemes, the role of imperfect information and the links between taxation and saving, inflation, the income tax treatment of intermediary loan-loss reserves, deposit insurance, VAT and financial transactions taxes; as well as current practice in the industrial world and case studies of distorted national systems. This is a co-publication of the World Bank and Oxford University Press.

People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.

In response to a number of large corporate failures, risk management has recently become a major consideration for most organizations. At the same time, taxation has been recognized as an area having its own unique risk profiles. This book provides a practical guide for those working in today's ever-changing corporate environment. It contains an introduction to tax risk management and discussions on the tax control framework that allow corporate tax departments to identify and manage companies' tax-related risks. The book also includes country chapters, which provide practical examples of the development and application of tax control frameworks.

Based on the findings of a commission chaired by James Mirrlees, this volume presents a coherent picture of tax reform whose aim is to identify the characteristics of a good tax system for any open developed economy, assess the extent to which the UK tax system conforms to these ideals, and recommend how it might be reformed in that direction.