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Property transaction taxes—also known as stamp duty—are widely viewed as an inefficient form of taxation. In this paper, we examine the welfare implications of removing stamp duty in a general equilibrium overlapping generation model with heterogeneous agents. Our model features an idiosyncratic shock to housing preferences, which may create mismatch or induce households to move. We calibrate the model to the Australian housing market, and conduct counterfactual policy experiments where stamp duty is replaced with recurrent property or consumption taxes. We find that removing stamp duty raises household mobility and reduces the degree of housing mismatch substantially. When examining steady states, we find that newborn households prefer entering an economy with a recurring property tax rather than one with stamp duty. In contrast, when examining the transition we find that existing households prefer replacing stamp duty with a consumption tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper carries out an empirical study to examine the contribution of urban areas in generating tax revenue and growth at 28 Indian state levels. The study is based on the hypothesis that the productivity and agglomeration externality effects present in cities, known as "wider economic benefits", lead to enhanced tax bases of State Governments. The cross-sectional estimation has confirmed that urbanization and state gross domestic product per capita significantly contribute to the tax bases of State Governments, such as sales tax, stamps, registration duty and motor vehicle tax. These three agglomeration taxes (including goods and services tax) are recommended for sharing with urban local bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We identify three interrelated behavioral outcomes of the duration‐dependent seller's stamp duty (SSD) implemented in the Singaporean private housing market and examine how it reduces market liquidity. An SSD lowers lock‐in home sellers' opportunity cost of holding their properties through the lock‐in period thresholds. Consequently, their selling prices are higher than non–lock‐in home sellers. An SSD lowers their probability of home sales; the magnitude of this effect depends on the SSD's tax rate and tax rate deduction across a threshold. Moreover, an SSD drives some lock‐in home sellers to lease out the properties at lowerents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the recent High Court decision in Vanderstock v Victoria, where a 4:3 majority ruled the Victorian electric vehicle (EV) road user charge unconstitutional. Topics include the invalidated EV charge, the redefined concept of excise, and the broader implications for state taxes, potentially affecting areas like motor vehicle duties, registration charges, and climate-related regulations, marking a significant shift in federal-state fiscal balance.

The NSW Government's 2020 proposal to replace stamp duty on all properties with an annual tax based on unimproved land values is estimated to increase home ownership by 6.6%, through changes in purchaser holding periods, a shift of tax burden from investors to owner‐occupiers and a relaxed deposit constraint. The model of home ownership highlights the importance of purchasers' holding periods, with implications for the effects of tax reforms, institutional ownership of rental properties and population growth. The paper provides an easily calibrated model of home purchases that could be used to quantify home ownership effects of various tax reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction For decades in Lithuania, the threat of illicit trade has been used to weaken evidence-based tobacco-control policies and to undermine efforts to reduce smoking prevalence and its attributable burden, while also depriving the government of much-needed tax revenue. The aim of this study is to estimate the size of the illicit cigarette market in Lithuania using data from a nationally representative discarded pack collection. Aims and Methods The study employed a two-stage cluster design by first randomly selecting 65 well-defined population settlements (30 cities and 35 townships), representing both urban and rural areas, in all 10 counties in Lithuania. Next, we randomly selected 358 polling districts within these settlements. Each polling district had one route along which discarded packs were collected between September 2019 and 2020. Results In total, 28.9% (95% CIs = 27.7 to 30.1) of discarded cigarette packs were classified as illicit. The vast majority (90.1%) of illicit packs originated from Belarus with most (86.9%) packs produced in the Grodno Tobacco Factory Neman. Tax stamps were present on 93.6% of legal packs and also on 76% of illegal packs. Conclusions Data from this study suggest that the illicit cigarette trade in Lithuania is more widespread than indicated by other methods and primarily supplied by the neighboring Belarus state-owned tobacco factory in Grodno. This signals the need to adopt Belarus-specific border control and security measures. Implications This study presents data from the first national industry-independent study on illicit tobacco trade in Lithuania using discarded cigarette pack collection method. As customs seizure data show, our results also indicate that the illicit cigarette market is primarily supplied by Belarus state-owned Grodno Tobacco Factory Neman known for filling Europe with cheap cigarettes. An estimate derived from this study is higher than both the industry-independent estimate obtained by the survey method and the estimates offered by the tobacco industry. This adds to the evidence that the difference in estimates obtained by different methods reflects the strengths and weaknesses of each. The study also demonstrates the impact of a rogue neighbor on the illicit market in an adjacent country and offers suggestions on how to address it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several hundred parafiscal charges in Romania, which collectively constitute the parafiscal system. These taxes are not officially designated as such, and they exist in the gray or black areas of the country's financial economy. This form of taxation is not a part of the official tax system and lacks consistent and clear guidelines that would apply to all of its components. It is essentially a hidden tax, masquerading under a new name in the legal jargon, which adds to its enigmatic nature. The realm of parafiscal charges is highly unpredictable, volatile, and precarious. With their sheer number and potential hazards, it wouldn't be far-fetched to liken it to quicksand using a metaphorical lens. The parafiscal charges, despite sharing some similarities with compulsory tax levies, exhibit several differences owing to the various names they go by. Parafiscal charges are akin to taxes and other fiscal duties in that they are imposed by an authoritative body and carry legal obligations. However, they are closer in nature to taxes than they are to fiscal duties in that, often, their payment does not entail direct and immediate consideration. In conceptual terms, parafiscal charges differ from fiscal levies mainly because their objective is not primarily to generate public revenues to cover expenses made for the general welfare - which is the main purpose of taxes and fiscal duties. Rather, parafiscal charges are intended to secure financing and income for specific entities and activities, such as OSIM and the health system or various social and cultural initiatives. They also indirectly provide state aid to private entities or individuals by compelling consumers of products and/or services to make payments for this purpose directly to the beneficiaries, with such payments being concealed in the price of the product/service (e.g. cultural stamp). Parafiscal charges are also distinct from compulsory fiscal levies in that they are not subject to administration and utilization in accordance with fiscal and budgetary laws. To be more precise, parafiscal charges ought not to be managed according to fiscal and budgetary regulations. If they were, they would then be considered taxes or fiscal duties. Moreover, some of these charges are either treated as fiscal claims or are a (incoherent) combination of tax and non-tax aspects.Parafiscal charges have received severe criticism from both the business community and experts. These charges have been described as moldy, abracadabrant, taxation-outclassing, out of control, discretionary, ineffective, and aberrant, among other epithets. However, certain quasi-fiscal charges that have been subject to constitutional scrutiny, such as the clawback tax, cultural stamp, and judicial stamp duties, have been declared constitutional. However, among the numerous parafiscal charges that have not yet undergone constitutional scrutiny, some are unconstitutional or, as the case may be, unlawful (not all of them are established by law, such as the parking fee). It is not, however, possible to make a blanket statement regarding the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of parafiscal charges as a whole. The Romanian authorities have made several attempts to decrease the number of parafiscal charges, some of them successful, although in relation to less important ones that had no major impact on revenues. However, the Romanian legislator does not consider the French model of completely abolishing such charges. The desire to maintain and increase the number of parafiscal charges can be attributed to two factors: firstly, the government’s increasing need for revenue and, secondly, the apprehension of the public's response to an increase in the number and amount of taxes and fiscal duties. There are other explanations for keeping parafiscal charges alive and for instituting new such charges. As such, a number of these charges are concealed within the prices of products and/or services, either to go unnoticed or to shift dissatisfaction onto the supplier of the product or service provider, who collects the price along with the parafiscal charge. This model is similar to that of indirect taxes like VAT and excise duties. Finally, a crucial reason for the persistence of parafiscal charges is that they are not subjected to the strict fiscal and budgetary rules of administration and control. Typically, parafiscal revenues are collected and used by the beneficiaries themselves, outside of the regular budgetary system. This lack of accountability for both the collection and use of these funds absolves both the beneficiaries and the state of the need to justify their methods. As a result, it is impossible to determine the exact proportion of parafiscal revenues in the overall revenue generated by the state and local communities, as well as in the country's gross domestic product. Additionally, it is unclear how much money is spent for such charges by those who are obliged to pay them. Parafiscal charges have a wide variety and are identified by different names: contributions, solidarity contributions, tariffs, taxes, payments, royalties, and more. They can cover various fees, from parking fees and cultural stamps to cadastral fees, fees for services provided by public entities, fees for gambling activities, museum visiting taxes, offset, and clawback taxes. The variety and complexity of parafiscal charges, coupled with their inconsistent regulatory framework and diverse beneficiary types, make it difficult to establish a universally accepted definition of such charges. In this context, it is sufficient to state that all payment obligations that are established by an authoritative body and are not of a strictly fiscal nature fall under the category of parafiscal charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A tax reform introduced by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government in 2012 aimed to ease the barrier of owning a home by replacing stamp duty with a broad-based general rates and land tax. This article assesses on the impact of this reform on the ability of low-income families to buy a house using a microsimulation model. The results show that tax reform has increased property turnover and reduced the amounts paid for stamp duty and rates for most groups of vulnerable families in the ACT. However, extreme increases in house prices may offset this gain for vulnerable families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using transaction‐level data, we study if two popular policies intended to cool an overheated housing market would serve their intended purposes. We found both mortgage tightening and Special Stamp Duties (SSD) actually led to higher starter home prices in Hong Kong. Mortgage tightening shifted the demand for bigger homes to that for smaller ones. The SSD that applies to resales within a specified period of the original purchase lowered turnover across the housing market. The decline in turnover is, as expected, sharpest for small flats, implying a dramatic shrinkage in second‐hand supply of such homes, driving their prices up. We also found transactions bunching as many homes are held till the SSD is no longer applicable, indicating lock‐in effects. Relative to those that are not subject to the SSD, the prices of properties subject to the levy are found to be lower by 6.8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Çalışma ve Toplum is the property of Calisma ve Toplum 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 article focuses on Revenue New South Wales (NSW's) determination that NSW surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax provisions are inconsistent with international tax treaties. It discusses the implications of this determination for citizens of certain treaty countries, highlights the case of Victoria's State Revenue Office, and provides insights into how trustees of discretionary trusts can navigate the foreign surcharge provisions in different states and territories.

The article discusses the importance of strict adherence to trust deed requirements for Binding Death Benefit Nominations (BDBNs) in self-managed super fund. Topics discussed include the significance of trust deed compliance for BDBNs, cases illustrating challenges to BDBN validity, and mentions the practical implications and benefits of using BDBNs.

In this study, the author aims to present the relevant aspects of mediation, as an alternative means of resolving disputes that the parties may use by virtue of availability, highlighting both its advantages and the reasons why the law governing it has become increasingly less applied. In addition, there are situations in which the courts have been called to approve mediation agreements, but also the author's opinion regarding the need to use the optional procedure, except for disputes in the field of family law, which should be analyzed by judges, who are the most able to pronounce solutions that correspond most faithfully to the best interests of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike some areas of crime, participation in illicit tobacco markets is not rare and spans most sociodemographic groups. Measurement of the scale of illicit trade in cigarettes usually is for markets with recently increased (or continually increasing) excise taxes. This study examines survey data from adult cigarette smokers in California at a time when prices and taxes had been fairly stable for many years. Even with no recent price shocks in the market, the results indicate that one-third of cigarette packs may lack a valid tax stamp and that between 18 and 25% of smokers avoided taxes by bringing cigarettes into the state from elsewhere in the past month (36% in the past year). Over 10% of packs were purchased for a suspiciously low price and 24–32% of smokers think they might have bought untaxed cigarettes in the past month. Furthermore, 20% think they may have consumed counterfeit cigarettes in the past month. There is a low incidence of illegal sales of single cigarettes. Men, smokers who roll their own cigarettes, e-cigarette users, younger smokers, and those with more income and education are all more likely to engage in at least some of the suspect market behaviors examined. The results show that many smokers from all segments of society participate in the illicit market for cigarettes—wittingly or not—which complicates efforts to reduce illicit trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 1764 George Grenville announced plans to raise revenues in America for colonial defence with stamp duties. Opinions differ about why Grenville then postponed the Stamp Act until a year hence. Writing in 1950, Edmund S. Morgan found the decision puzzling. Peter D.G. Thomas and John L. Bullion subsequently offered procedural explanations. Grenville envisaged the Stamp Act as a firm precedent for parliament's authority to impose direct taxation ('inland duties') in the colonies – a prospect that terrified Americans schooled in the common law, alert to dangerous precedents, and already prone to slippery‐slope reasoning. With the mundane details of the Stamp Act unavailable until after its passage, however, the postponement also raised imperial debate to a level of abstraction from which it never retreated. Grenville's postponement of the Stamp Act foreclosed prospects for compromise and set British imperial policy on a course that ultimately fomented the American Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement in blockchain technology has enabled smart contracts to automate the execution of tenancy obligations, known as “smart tenancies”. This paper analyses the legal issues on the adoption of smart tenancies within Malaysia using legal doctrinal research method. We seek to answer these questions: (1) whether smart tenancies are enforceable in Malaysia; (2) whether parties to a smart tenancy can apply for an endorsement of tenancy under the National Land Code; (3) whether the legal profession can claim exclusivity in offering and maintaining smart tenancies services; and (4) whether there is room for self-help in resolving tenancy disputes using smart tenancies in Malaysia. The key findings are as follows: (1)(a) smart tenancies can and should be stamped when the user interface stipulates the information required for calculation of stamp duty; (1)(b) smart tenancies service provider have to comply with the Electronic Commerce Act 2006 to ensure that the system is reliable to attribute the electronic signatures to the contracting parties; (2) once the print-out of a smart tenancy is stamped, the tenant and landlord have an option to apply for endorsement of tenancy with the land registry under the National Land Code (Revised 2020); (3) the Legal Profession Act 1976 does not restrict the marketing, operation and maintenance of smart tenancies services to be done by law firms exclusively; and (4) there is no room for self-help eviction of a tenant in Malaysia, and the eviction process ought to be enforced with a court order.

While Illicit Tobacco Trade (ITT) is a serious threat to the effectiveness of tobacco control policies worldwide, to this day tobacco-industry independent estimations of the size of the market for illicit tobacco products in the region are still very scarce. There is evidence that the tobacco industry often manipulates ITT estimates to influence policy-making and hinder tobacco control measures. In this study, we sought to bridge this knowledge gap by generating data on the prevalence of cigarette illicit trade in the city of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. We used an empty tobacco pack survey approach with a simple random cluster sampling design. A total of 4,906 packs were collected. Determination of packs as licit/illicit was conducted by forensic analysis of tax stamps and econometric modelling. Cigarette packs manufactured in country dominated the sample (97%), of which 3.71% (CI 95%:3.18%-4.24%) could be categorized as illicit cigarettes carrying counterfeit stamps. Most illicit packs (96%) belonged to low price brands manufactured by national tobacco companies, which suggests that low-income households may be more affected by ITT products. It is essential to implement an effective track and trace system that incorporates mechanisms to hinder stamp forgery and control stamp authenticity. A combined effort to increase tobacco taxation and reduce ITT is necessary to reduce tobacco consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to depriving governments of revenue from legitimate economic actors, the illicit alcohol trade is a major threat to public health. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2017 guidance on alcohol taxation has been influential in driving policies on this subject, particularly in developing countries. However, their analysis and limited academic literature do not fully account for the distinction between the licit and illicit markets, even though the illicit market leads to serious public health risks. Complementary to the WHO’s concerns, this paper seeks to add an additional perspective by suggesting that high rates of tax cause diversion to the illicit market, and the analysis of that market should include the effects of taxation. Government policies on alcohol and taxation should therefore account for the illicit market and avoid diversion to it, to reduce harm to public health. The paper offers an analysis and recommendations for customs, tax, and public health officials to discourage the illicit market and avoid tax leakage, such as use of tax stamps, coordination with industry and more holistic enforcement measures. Several case studies, using data from an international consultancy that has researched the illicit market, illustrate the themes of the article. The authors call for additional research in the academic community to further define the causal relationship between tax, affordability, and the size of the illicit market and to tailor enforcement strategies that address specific aspects of the illicit market in particular countries. The serious health risks associated with illicit alcohol consumption make such research a necessary and complementary component of WHO efforts to advance public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, there has been a proliferation of non-income levies throughout Latin America designed to stimulate collections. Tax administrators favor them for being easier to enforce as compared to traditional taxes on net income, as well as harder to evade. To make sense of the rather dysfunctional conglomeration of levies, this Article proposes a classification into three broad categories: (1) taxes on revenues; (2) alternative levies on income and assets, whether on a gross or net basis, along with taxes on net equity; and finally (3) transactional-type levies such as stamp taxes, export duties, remittance taxes, and registration assessments, not to mention the wide spectrum of solidarity contributions. Not only are non-income taxes sanctioned at the national or federal level covered, but also those implemented by provincial, state, or municipal governments. Limitations as to the creditability and deductibility of these diverse levies increase the overall tax burden multinationals frequently face. Constitutional challenges raised by taxpayers, especially those surrounding alternative taxes on assets and temporary contributions, provide insight as to why judges often hold that the principles of fiscal equity and/or taxpayers' economic capacity to pay are violated. The Article concludes by calling for an overhaul of tax systems in Latin America by abolishing most of the cumbersome and ineffective levies on revenues, assets, and wealth. In exchange, policymakers should focus on framing a simpler and more robust national corporate income tax regime with less exemptions, deductions, and credits, which fully embraces the financial capability of taxpayers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, real estate markets hold and contribute a fair share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country. The real estate transactions generate revenue in stamp duties, which goes directly into the government kitty. However, this suffers from land document forgery and fraudulent activities due to a lack of an efficient, distributed, and completely digital system. This paper proposes a blockchain-based framework for digitizing property transactions that mitigate the risk of document forgery and other fraudulent activities. Over time, the amount of these transactions can become overwhelming, thus increasing the number of blocks. The proposed framework is based on blockchain technology to decentralize the complete ecosystem. The framework encompasses all major activities for property transactions. The framework uses the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) that is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) swarm network, to integrate different region registry offices in the state/country seamlessly. In order to make it secure, a consensus algorithm is proposed that reduces overhead transmissions for multicasting nodes by about 50%. The message exchange communication overhead also reduces by 54.86%. The time taken for the consensus algorithm is around 53.7% lesser than the Proof-of-Work mechanism in which all nodes participate in consensus and 10% lesser than the existing load-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ankara Barosu Dergileri is the property of Ankara Bar Association 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.)

Starting a civil lawsuit involves the parties incurring expenses that they must bear, expenses that consist of paying stamp duties where required by law, attorney's fees, expert's fees, travel expenses, accommodation, etc. In addition to the role of a procedural sanction of the person who loses the lawsuit, the court costs also have the role of compensating the party who won the lawsuit and who is not guilty of initiating judicial activity. Court costs are granted at the request of the interested party and will be borne by the losing party. The basis for their award by the court being the procedural fault and the full coverage of the damage caused to the winning party. The failure of the party to claim the costs does not lead to the extinction of the right or to cover the damage caused by initiating legal proceedings. The interested party, being entitled to exercise his right by way of a separate action based on tortious civil liability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]