Loss carryover provisions are an essential part of corporate tax systems. Economic theory suggests that perfect intertemporal loss offsets are a necessary condition for the neutrality of corporate taxation across investment projects with different...

This paper presents statutory tax rates on several forms of capital income, including dividends, interest on bonds and bank accounts, and capital gains on shares and real property, including integration between the corporate and personal levels. It...

This paper argues that, in situations where choices are made between mutually exclusive investment projects and where there are economic rents, free allocation of tradable emission permits in emissions trading systems can weaken incentives for firms...

This paper examines the role of businesses in the tax system. In addition to being taxed directly, businesses act as withholding agents and remitters of tax on behalf of others. Yet the share of tax revenue that businesses remit to governments...

In a bold policy effort, Mexico recently moved away from subsidies to transport fuels, increased tax rates on these fuels and introduced a carbon tax. This paper analyses these reforms using a broad set of criteria that consider the main practical...

Energy affordability can be defined as a household’s ability to pay for necessary levels of energy use within normal spending patterns. This paper uses three indicators to measure energy affordability risk in 20 OECD countries. Energy affordability...

This paper examines the impact of tax and benefit systems on the incentives for second earners to enter formal employment. The paper highlights how various tax design features create greater participation disincentives for second earners than for...

This paper explores the practical challenges tax policy analysts face when trying to apply differential taxation to “normal” and “excess” returns. The distinction between these two elements is being increasingly used in tax policy. The problem is...

Public policy has an important role to play in promoting research and development (R&D) the development, diffusion, and use of new knowledge and innovations. Fiscal incentives, including tax policies, should be directed at specific barriers,...

This paper examines how the design features of countries’ tax systems can be strengthened to support inclusive economic growth. In the context of the OECD’s New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) initiative, this paper seeks to re-assess the...

Côte d’Ivoire aims at reaching emerging country status by 2020. However, Côte d'Ivoire's tax revenues are not sufficient to finance its growing needs for public investment in infrastructure, education and health. Tax policy is not just a question of...

This paper extends the tax analysis of knowledge-based capital (KBC) in several dimensions. The paper analyses non-R&D KBC: computer software, architectural and engineering designs, and economic competencies which account for over 70% of total KBC....

New evidence for 21 OECD countries shows that the distributional effects of energy taxes differ by energy carrier. On an expenditure basis, taxes on transport fuels are not regressive on average, as households in lower expenditure deciles spend a...

The Slovak Republic was among the fastest growing OECD economies in the last decade. It is broadly recognised that the 2004 tax reform contributed to this success. Ten years after this fundamental reform, however, the time has come to re-evaluate...

Diesel and gasoline account for around 95% of energy used for road transport in the OECD and for the largest share of revenue from taxes on energy. In 33 out of 34 OECD countries, diesel fuel is taxed at lower rates than gasoline both in terms of...

Company cars form a large proportion of the car fleet in many OECD countries and are also influential in determining the composition of the wider vehicle fleet. When employees provided with a company car use that car for personal purposes, personal...

This paper provides an overview of the differing ways in which capital income is taxed across the OECD. It provides an analytical framework which summarises the statutory tax treatment of dividend income, interest income and capital gains on shares...

This paper compares the tax system in China with the tax system in OECD countries and the tax reforms China and OECD countries have implemented in the past. The analysis focuses on those taxes and tax issues which are currently on China’s reform...

The height of the economic and financial crisis is now well past, but its aftermath remains wide-ranging, with many OECD countries still some way from restoring strong and sustainable economic growth. Even before the Great Recession OECD economies...

This paper presents a new methodology to calculate effective tax rates on the marginal return on an investment in skills within a discounted cash-flow investment framework. This approach takes into account costs including forgone labour earnings and...