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In all OECD member countries, governments collect revenues through taxes and redistribute this public money, often by obligatory spending on social programmes such as education or health care. Their tax systems usually include “tax expenditures” – provisions that allow certain groups of people, such as small businessmen, retired people or working mothers, or those who have undertaken certain activities, such as charitable donations, to pay less in taxes.
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The left-hand side of each country table reflects the tax expenditures as closely as possible to each country’s own intended presentation. Every tax expenditure identified by each country is included. Provisions identified by two countries (Canada and the United Kingdom) as “memorandum items”, which are not considered to be tax expenditures, are listed separately.
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