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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main aim of this study was to assess the current status, challenges, and existing opportunities of e‐Government in Ethiopia, particularly in Wachemo University. A descriptive survey method was employed. Using simple random and purposive sampling techniques, 258 samples were taken from the academic and administrative staffs. Data were collected using questionnaire, semi‐structured interview, and document analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the current status of e‐Government in Ethiopia and Wachemo University is unsatisfactory due to a repertoire of challenges such as lack of commitment in realizing e‐Government, lack of ICT regulations, inadequate ICT infrastructures, lack of digital literacy and awareness among citizens, and insufficient budget assignment to the University. Consequently, they have impeded to fully harness the benefits of e‐Government. Therefore, the study recommends that the Government and its institutions should be committed, take policy interventions, reap the opportunities, allocate proper budget to ICTs development, increase Internet penetration, and continuously empower citizens on the benefits of ICTs and e‐Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While researchers agree that dividend and interest payments respond to tax treaties, evidence of the magnitude of this response remains scarce. We combine data from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation and the International Monetary Fund in a set of 65,000 annual country‐pair observations for the 2009–2016 period. We estimate dividend flows to be highly elastic in a cross‐country regression and arrive at somewhat lower and less robust estimates for interest income. While our revenue estimates are lower than static estimates which do not reflect elasticities, we show that for some countries the revenue foregone remains non‐negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines game‐theoretic models of tax treaty shopping. An investor can choose a direct or indirect investment route across countries to minimize tax. A tax agency can audit the investor. The audit is costly but it can give additional revenue to the tax agency. In simultaneous‐move games, regardless of whether incomplete information exists and whether a home country allows foreign tax credits, there are mixed‐strategy equilibria where the investor may choose tax‐minimizing indirect routes and the tax agency may audit the investor. This equilibrium random audit strategy helps the tax agency raise revenue and reduce treaty shopping. Comparative statics yields an implication consistent with empirical evidence. However, if the home country has a foreign tax credit system with a high tax rate, or if the tax agency observes the investor's action in a sequential‐move game, the investor always chooses the direct route, and no treaty shopping occurs in equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(12764) Petr Janský Marek Šedivý Tax treaties between countries influence how much tax revenues governments receive from multinational enterprises. These treaties often reduce the withholding tax rates on outgoing dividend and interest payments. We provide illustrative estimates of costs for these two taxes for 14 developing countries in sub‐Saharan Africa and Asia in a first multi‐country comparison of this kind. These might be overestimates because we assume that foreign direct investments are not influenced by the tax treaties. We estimate that the highest potential tax revenue losses are within hundreds of millions US$ and around 0.1% of GDP, with Philippines incurring the highest losses both in US$ and relative to GDP. We also find that around 95% of the losses is due to dividends and that only four investor countries—Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland and Singapore—are together responsible for more than half of the losses. We discuss the limitations of these estimates and how future research could improve their quality as well as coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Developing countries have concluded thousands of bilateral tax treaties, which restrict their ‘taxing rights’ over international investment. Qualitative case studies of these negotiation outcomes emphasize power politics, knowledge asymmetries and negotiating capability in the eventual distribution of taxing rights between signatories, yet such insights are absent from cross‐country quantitative work. This paper bridges the gap by replicating two quantitative studies, introducing new data on countries' ability to mobilize tax revenue and the outcomes of tax treaty negotiations. It provides statistical support for the insights from qualitative research. The size of a government's revenue base, and its reliance on corporate tax, might affect the salience of the revenue sacrifice in policy makers' minds. These variables influence the likelihood of signing a tax treaty and the particular concessions made. Power asymmetries between signatories lead to more unequal distributions of taxing rights away from developing countries, in contrast to the findings of earlier studies. Developing countries also become better negotiators as they gain experience. © 2018 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a 30-year panel of quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) fluctuations from of a broad set of countries, we demonstrate that the signing of a bilateral tax treaty increases the comovement of treaty partners' business cycles by half a standard deviation. This effect of fiscal policy is as large as the effect of trade linkages on comovement and stronger than the effects of several other common financial and investment linkages. We also show that bilateral tax treaties increase comovement in shocks to nations' GDP trends, demonstrating the permanent effects of coordination on fiscal policy rules. We estimate trend and business cycle components of nations' output series using an unobserved-components model in order to measure comovement between countries and then estimate the impact of tax treaties using generalized estimating equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nation states in the Asia Pacific need to increase tax revenues but face many challenges. This article discusses the challenge of taxation in an age of capital mobility and tax competition. It then considers two opportunities that have recently been championed by the G20, which could enable governments to strengthen national tax systems by international cooperation. The first opportunity is the establishment of transnational tax administrative cooperation. The second opportunity is the potential for countries to develop a new multilateral framework for sharing the international capital tax base, which may arise under auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project. As Chair of the G20 in 2014, Australia has a key leadership role to play in supporting countries in the region to grasp these opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) recent Persche judgment poses important questions about the relationship between taxation of gifts and charitable purposes in the light of EC law requirements. This article argues that by applying its established case-law to the matter of donors to foreign recipient bodies, the ECJ takes a position on the social role of both charities and tax deduction. Moreover, the position of the ECJ clearly paves the way for tax authorities to check the objectives and the values pursued by recipient bodies seeking tax-preferred status, a situation that recalls a similar power recognised under specific circumstances of the US Internal Revenue Services. Arguably, the ECJ case-law has more profound consequences on charitable action, since it seems that the power accorded to tax authorities of the Member States to check the purposes of charitable organisations leads to a cosmopolitan apprehension of charitable action while it pushes charities to enhance transparency in their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To increase inward foreign direct investment (FDI), policy makers increasingly resort to the ratification of double taxation treaties (DTTs). However, the effectiveness of DTTs in inducing higher FDI is still open to debate, as the empirical evidence of existing studies is anything but conclusive. In contrast to earlier approaches, we use a largely unpublished dataset on bilateral FDI stocks, covering a much larger and more representative sample of host and source countries. Controlling for standard determinants of FDI and employing various econometric specifications, our results indicate that DTTs do lead to higher FDI stocks and that the effects are substantively important as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the changes in the transfer pricing guidance released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It discusses the several aspects of the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) arbitration of bilateral tax treaties including the implication of the digital economy on tax challenges, adoptation of domestic rules to neutralize hybrid mismatch arrangements, and the concerns for the controlled foreign companies (CFCs).

This paper uses affiliate-level data from Swedish multinationals to examine the impact of tax treaties on both overall affiliate sales and the composition of those sales. In line with previous results, we find little evidence for an effect of treaties on the level of total sales. We do, however, find that a tax treaty increases the probability of investment by a firm in a given country. In addition, we find that a treaty reduces exports to the parent but increases imports of intermediate inputs from the parent. This is consistent with treaties increasing the effective host tax. This suggests that tax treaties impact the behaviour of multinationals along some dimensions but not along others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the efficacy of the Australian imputation tax system in eliminating the double taxation of dividends. Using Australian Taxation Office data, we find that, on average, 67 per cent of distributed imputation credits were used to reduce personal taxes during 1990–2000, but this has increased to 81 per cent over 2001–2004. Overall, the policy shift to an imputation tax system has resulted in a significant elimination of double taxation. Our results are relevant not only to the ongoing policy debate concerning the efficacy of integration tax systems, but also to equilibrium asset pricing models that require an estimate of the value of imputation credits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We compute the growth effects of adopting a revenue-neutral flat tax for both a human capital-based endogenous growth model and a standard neoclassical growth model Long-run growth effects are decomposed into the parts attributable to the flattening of the marginal tax schedule, the full expensing of physical-capital investment, and the elimination of double taxation of business income. The most important element of the reform is the flattening of the marginal tax schedule. Without this element, the combined effects of the other parts of the reform can actually reduce long-run growth. In the years immediately following the reform, the transition dynamics implied by the neoclassical growth model are quite similar to that of the endogenous growth model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model tax treaties do not require tax rate coordination, but do require that either credits or exemptions be applied to repatriated earnings. This contradicts recent models with a single capital exporter where deductions are most efficient. I incorporate the fact that capital flows are typically bilateral. With symmetric countries, credits by both is the unique and efficient treaty equilibrium. This equilibrium weakly dominates the nontreaty equilibrium. With asymmetric countries, the treaty need not offer improvements without tax harmonization. With harmonization, it is always possible to reach efficient capital allocations while increasing both countries' welfares only if neither uses deductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an assessment of the compatibility of the principles upon which existing tax treaties are based with those underlying existing multilateral trade and investment agreements and a comprehensive Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Principal differences between tariffs and other taxes; Applicability of the principles of neutrality or nondiscrimination to taxation under an MAI; Concluding remarks.

The article presents information on printed resources on finance, accounting, and taxation, compiled as of Winter 1971. "Economics of Fiscal Transfer Pricing in Multinational Corporations," is a study of the scope of transfer price manipulation among multinational corporations operating in Canada. Recommendations for tightening regulations are made. "Transfer Pricing Practices in the United States and Japan," by Roger L.W. Tang, is the book in which subjects discussed include pricing policies and methods, sources of authority in policy determination, and the manner in which internal disputes are settled. "Issues in International Taxation. Law and Policy in International Business," is a full issue with articles on allocation of income and expenses among countries, international tax integration, U.S. taxation of foreign governments and international organizations, the non-discrimination article in tax treaties and U. S. and OECD model income tax conventions.

The article offers world news briefs related to economic development. The Southern Africa Development Community has recommended a possible economic rescue package for Zimbabwe. The partnership of Africa and the European Union has offered most countries the same market access conditions and has removed quota and tariff limitations. South Africa has signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates for the protection of investments and the avoidance of double taxation.

Focuses on an article by Joseph White Jr., which dealt with United States' income tax treaties with foreign countries. Distinction between terms 'engaged in trade or business' and 'permanent establishment'; Sustained activity over a given time period; Exemption provided in the Foreign Investors Tax Act in the United States.

This article focuses on the tax system of the U.S. Treasury Department, with regards to its approach to international tax problems as of 1965. While the U.S. took exception to some key aspects of the draft, the treasury department attempted to adopt several aspects of tax treaties, including some to which it initially objected. In the field of foreign income for U.S. businesses, the tax laws put in place in 1962 were kept unchanged. Prompted by the desire to attract more foreign capital to help balance its payments, the department decided to reexamine its tax treatment of foreign companies.

This section offers updates on the economy of Ethiopia as of April 2013, including a loan from the World Bank, a double taxation treaty between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, and an aid from Great Britain to support girls' education projects in Ethiopia.