9th International DRM Workshop: Tax Expenditures and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation
Event Type
Workshop
Location / Date
Online, 09.11.2021
until
11.11.2021
German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Council on Economic Policies (CEP), Addis Tax Initiative (ATI)
Tax expenditures (TEs) are tax benefits that governments use worldwide to pursue various policy goals such as attracting investment, boosting innovation and fighting poverty. TEs are costly, as they lower government revenue and the tax liability of the beneficiary. The global average of tax revenues forgone over the period 1990-2020 is 3.8 per cent of GDP, or 24.2 per cent of tax revenue. Moreover, TEs are often ineffective in reaching their stated goals, and can be even damaging with regard to equality or sustainability. Yet, the lack of transparency in this area is striking: only 99 out of 218 jurisdictions have reported on TEs at least once since 1990. The quality, regularity and scope of such reports are highly heterogeneous and, in many cases, lag significantly behind minimum standards.
In June 2021, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) and the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) have launched the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED). The GTED (www.GTED.net) is the first database providing timely and consistent information on TEs on a global scale. It is based on official information published by national governments worldwide from 1990 onwards.
The Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) acknowledges the relevance this topic holds for member countries and the international community in general. TEs have a significant impact on countries’ ability to foster domestic revenue mobilisation (DRM) and, ultimately, attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They often endanger the transparency of national budgets and policies if not monitored closely and assessed consistently. In light of its mission to promote development cooperation towards achieving the SDGs, the ATI agreed to apply coherent and coordinated policies that foster DRM. The Commitment 3 of the ATI Declaration 2025 states: “We will improve tax transparency by publishing tax expenditures regularly to facilitate cost-benefit assessments, ultimately helping to reduce wasteful tax expenditures, improving taxpayers’ trust, and creating a more level playing field for all types of businesses. We will improve inter-agency cooperation on tax expenditures and foster the coordination of granting tax concession activities.”
Against this background, this joint DIE-ATI-CEP workshop brings together scholars, government officials, representatives from international organizations and other experts to discuss ongoing research and initiatives and assess the policy implications of tax expenditures.
Programme
Tuesday 09 November | |
13:00– 14:00 | Welcome Introduction to the workshop Opening address |
14:15 – 16:00 | Panel 1: Tax expenditures and development Tax expenditures and development – preliminary findings from the GTED Trends and Patterns of Tax Expenditures on Union Taxes in India Practical challenges and lessons learnt from TE reporting in Rwanda & Uganda Discussant: Jakob Schwab (DIE) |
Wednesday 10 November | |
13:00 – 13:05 | Welcome to the day |
13:05 – 14:35 | Panel 2: Challenges to tax expenditure reform: Country-level experiences Ethiopia: Main barriers for the estimation and reporting of tax expenditures Madagascar: De l’évaluation aux enjeux des dépenses fiscales North Macedonia: tax expenditure report Discussant 1: Agustín Redonda (CEP) Discussant 2: Luisa Dressler (OECD) |
14:45 – 16:00 | Panel 3: Challenges to tax expenditure reform: Regional perspectives ADB support on tax expenditure reform Coordination, evidence and accountability: Reforming the governance of tax expenditures in Latin America Global tax reform and tax expenditures: A prospective analysis Discussant: Amina Ebrahim (UNU-WIDER) |
| Thursday 11 November | |
13:00 – 13:05 | Welcome to the day |
13:05 – 14:45 | Panel 4: Tax competition and international tax reform The international tax reform agenda and its implications on the future of tax incentives The worst form of tax incentives: CIT exemptions Growth effects of tax-incentivized FDI Tax expenditures in West Africa: the need for a regional evaluation Discussant 1: Kyle McNabb (ODI) Discussant 2: Ashima Neb (Platform for Collaboration on Tax) |
14:50 – 15:50 | Roundtable: Approaches to tax expenditure reform Moderator: Participants |
15:50 – 16:00 | Closing remarks |
Hinweis
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Event information
Date09.11.2021 until 11.11.2021
LocationOnline
Registration
Call for Contributions
