Browse by: "2021"

This report aims at assisting tax authorities in designing and implementing an effective Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) policy response to the growth of the sharing and gig economy. The rise of this phenomenon, powered by digital platforms, has transformed a number of industries within just a few short years. It involves large numbers of new economic operators (often private individuals), who monetise (often) underutilised goods and services by offering these, via digital platforms, for temporary (“shared”) use by primarily private consumers. Questions have been raised whether existing VAT/GST policy and administration frameworks are sufficiently capable of dealing with this new economic reality notably with a view to protecting VAT/GST revenue and minimising economic distortions. This report sets out the core components of a comprehensive VAT/GST policy strategy for tax authorities to consider in response. It analyses the key features of the sharing and gig economy and its main business models; identifies the associated VAT/GST challenges and opportunities; and presents a wide range of possible measures and approaches to support an effective policy response. This includes detailed guidance on the possible role of digital platforms in facilitating and enhancing VAT/GST compliance in the sharing and gig economy.

The report provides an overview of the tax measures introduced during the COVID-19 crisis across almost 70 jurisdictions, including all OECD and G20 countries and 21 additional members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. It examines how tax policy responses have varied across countries and evolved over the last year. It also offers some guidance as to how tax policy responses could be adapted to address the short-term challenges countries face and outlines future work that the OECD will be undertaking to help countries reassess their tax and spending policies in the longer run.

A key part of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project is addressing the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. In October 2021, over 135 jurisdictions joined a ground-breaking plan to update key elements of the international tax system which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised economy. The Global Anti-Base Erosion Rules (GloBE) are a key component of this plan and ensure large multinational enterprise pay a minimum level of tax on the income arising in each of the jurisdictions where they operate. More specifically, the GloBE Rules provide for a co-ordinated system of taxation that imposes a top-up tax on profits arising in a jurisdiction whenever the effective tax rate, determined on a jurisdictional basis, is below the minimum rate. This report delineates the scope and sets out the operative provisions and definitions of the GloBE Rules. These rules are intended to be implemented as part of a common approach and to be brought into domestic legislation as from 2022.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2021 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.

Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific is jointly produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTP) and the OECD Development Centre (DEV) with the co-operation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Pacific Island Tax Administrators Association (PITAA), and the Pacific Community (SPC) and financial support from the governments of Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This edition includes a special feature on the emerging challenges for the Asia-Pacific region in the COVID-19 era and ways to address them. It compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for Australia, Bhutan, People’s Republic of China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam ; and comparable non tax revenue statistics for Bhutan, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nauru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Thailand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Asian and Pacific economies enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Asian and Pacific economies and with OECD, Latin American and Caribbean and African averages.

Data on government sector receipts, and on taxes in particular, are basic inputs to most structural economic descriptions and economic analyses and are increasingly used in economic comparisons. This annual publication gives a conceptual framework to define which government receipts should be regarded as taxes. It presents a unique set of detailed and internationally comparable tax data in a common format for all OECD countries from 1965 onwards.

The BEPS Action 6 minimum standard on preventing the granting of treaty benefits in inappropriate circumstances, is one of the four BEPS minimum standards that all members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (Inclusive Framework) have committed to implement. This report reflects the outcome of the third peer review of the implementation of the Action 6 minimum standard on treaty shopping as approved by the Inclusive Framework. It includes the aggregate results of the review and data on tax treaties concluded by each of the 137 members of the Inclusive Framework on 30 June 2020 and it contains the jurisdictional section for each member. The data compiled for this peer review demonstrate that the MLI has been the tool used by the vast majority of jurisdictions that have begun to implement the minimum standard and that the MLI has started to impact tax treaties of jurisdictions that have ratified it.

Since its first edition in 2010, the OECD Development Centre's Perspectives on Global Development report has tracked development trends and policy priorities in developing countries. This new report examines the phenomenon of discontent. Between the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, discontent surged around the world. It was especially evident in middle-income countries and was often most acute amongst the middle classes that have emerged in developing countries over recent decades. The report explores the economic, political and sociological drivers of discontent and argues that building back better from the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries will require approaches that simultaneously improve citizens' well-being, promote productive transformation and strengthen social cohesion. The report concludes by examining the international dimension of discontent and demonstrates how weaknesses and imbalances in the present multilateral system are eroding humankind's capacity for collective action in the face of global threats, notably the climate crisis. The rise in discontent has exposed failings in prevailing economic, social and political models at all levels: addressing discontent means fixing these systems, and doing so in an inclusive and sustainable manner.

This report draws on more than 1 300 government budgetary transfers and tax expenditures providing preferential treatment for the production and consumption of fossil fuels as documented in the 2020 OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels to track progress in reform of support. It sets out principal trends across 50 OECD, G20 and European Union (EU) Eastern Partnership (EaP) economies, including as resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and novel sectoral decomposition of Inventory data. It reports on developments in tracking and monitoring fossil fuel support in the context of the G20 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and with respect to enhancing the interpretation of tax expenditure data. Finally, the report offers a sequential framework to assist governments assess and address the effects of fossil-fuel support measures and their reform, given ongoing challenges in gaining traction for reform.

This report looks at crucial elements of reforms to growth-friendly recurrent taxes on immovable property. Tax design practices in place in OECD and partner countries are compared and analysed through the lenses of economic theory and empirical analysis. A set of good principles and options for reforming recurrent taxes on immovable property based on the latest experience of property tax reforms around the world are presented that are particularly relevant to the Chinese context, where broader use of recurrent taxes on residential properties is needed to make local public finances more sustainable. Challenges and practices related to the administration of property taxes are explored as well as their interplay with different tax designs. In addition, the main political and administrative hurdles in approving and implementing property tax reforms are discussed, and the approaches commonly employed in successfully dealing with them are examined. Although there are major challenges in designing, reforming and managing a recurrent property tax system, it is possible to overcome these in a manner that allows society to reap benefits in terms of a better allocation of resources, more stable house prices and a fairer income distribution.

Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by Turkey.

Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by The Slovak Republic.