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Islands in the Public Sector: Tax Collectors

Alasdair Roberts

in The Logic of Discipline: Global Capitalism and the Architecture of Government

This chapter focuses on the problem of tax collection faced by developing countries in the era of liberalization. The 1980s and 1990s constituted a decade of “radical reform” in tax administration ... More

This chapter focuses on the problem of tax collection faced by developing countries in the era of liberalization. The 1980s and 1990s constituted a decade of “radical reform” in tax administration within the developing world, again built on the logic of discipline. But the naïve-institutionalist approach to reform proved vulnerable to counterattacks by well-entrenched bureaucratic, political, and social forces.Less

Comparative Taxation Procedure and Tax Enforcement

Paul B. Stephan

in International Investment Law and Comparative Public Law

This chapter reviews international practice in the administration of tax regimes and the implementation of tax collection. It analyses claims by investors that particular state actions in tax ... More

This chapter reviews international practice in the administration of tax regimes and the implementation of tax collection. It analyses claims by investors that particular state actions in tax administration and enforcement have violated various treaty rights, including the guarantee of fair and equitable treatment, restrictions on expropriation, and the violation of particular commitments covered by treaty umbrellas clauses. It surveys general patterns in state practice to suggest a baseline of acceptable actions against which investor claims can be assessed.Less

Tax Administration and Tax Equity

Hiromitsu Ishi

in The Japanese Tax System

Attempts an in‐depth analysis on major issues of tax administration and practices in view of tax equity. Stress is made to the importance of using the withholding collection.

Contextualising the Nineteenth Century

M. Safa Saraçoglu

in Nineteenth-Century Local Governance in Ottoman Bulgaria: Politics in Provincial Councils

This chapter focuses on the Ottoman imperial transformation during the long 19th century (1789-1922) and provides a context for the politics of local administration in Vidin. The conventional ... More

This chapter focuses on the Ottoman imperial transformation during the long 19th century (1789-1922) and provides a context for the politics of local administration in Vidin. The conventional historiography emphasizes the Tanzimat era (1839–76) in setting the chronological boundaries for Ottoman imperial transformation in the 19th century. This chapter argues that the long 19th century, including but not limited to the Tanzimat era, was part of a larger transformation that began with the crisis of the traditional social formation (starting in the seventeenth century) and culminated in a liberal-capitalist social formation. This chapter focuses on the broader changes in Ottoman political economy with an emphasis on control over the means of production as it explores the transformation of property regimes and tax collection methods. After outlining this larger transformation at the imperial and provincial level, the chapter analyses its reflection in the Ottoman official print by examining yearbooks (Salnames) and legal corpora (Düstur).Less

The Wider Realm

P. R. Cavill

in The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504

Chapter 6 considers how decisions taken in parliament affected everyday life. It first discusses the publicizing of statute law examining the roles of proclamations and of statute books, and the rise ... More

Chapter 6 considers how decisions taken in parliament affected everyday life. It first discusses the publicizing of statute law examining the roles of proclamations and of statute books, and the rise of printing is addressed. Next it discusses the interaction between national legislation and local regulations, exploring the reception of statute law in local courts through jury presentments and borough ordinances. Then tax collection is discussed as a central means by which parliament impinged upon the lives of ordinary people. The efficiency of tax collection is considered. The popular protests that demands for taxation sometimes provoked are also analysed. Particular attention is paid to the Yorkshire rising of 1489 and to the Western rebellion of 1497.Less

Public service

Chŏng Yagyong

in Admonitions on Governing the People: Manual for All Administrators

This section includes the English translation of the chapters in Book III of Mongmin simsŏ on administration for district magistrates. The chapters discuss the following: edification of the people, ... More

This section includes the English translation of the chapters in Book III of Mongmin simsŏ on administration for district magistrates. The chapters discuss the following: edification of the people, observing the law, proper manners toward superiors and subordinates, making official reports, collecting taxes and tribute, and responding to a requisition order for service.Less

Introduction

Kaushik Basu

in Prelude to Political Economy: A Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics

This introductory chapter opens with an anecdote from the author about a road tax collection incident in Grand Trunk Road in eastern India, to illustrate the need for a better understanding of the ... More

This introductory chapter opens with an anecdote from the author about a road tax collection incident in Grand Trunk Road in eastern India, to illustrate the need for a better understanding of the state, law, social norms, and the role of policy advise. It then discusses the emergence of the “positive political economy”. It presents the rationale behind this volume followed by an overview of the chapters in the book.Less

Bring the States Along

Michael J. Graetz

in 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States

This chapter argues that in the U.S. federalist system, in which many traditional government functions are carried out not by the government in Washington but by states and localities, any durable ... More

This chapter argues that in the U.S. federalist system, in which many traditional government functions are carried out not by the government in Washington but by states and localities, any durable reform of the federal system should take into account its effects on the tax collections and budgets of states. It presents the Competitive Tax Plan for the U.S. federal system. The chapter admits that the plan has certain drawbacks for the states, in that it will pressure them to eliminate their income taxes for families making less than $100,000; however, it also has a number of possible benefits for states, especially if they were to adopt similar consumption taxes themselves. The chapter also discusses the consequences of fundamental reforms for the states.Less

About the collection of jizya

Petra M. Sijpesteijn

in Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

This chapter presents a letter written by Jarīd b. Asʽad to ʽAbd Allāh b. Asʽad concerning the collection of jizya. Jarīd writes that the jizya should only be paid over the harvest and that ʽAbd ... More

This chapter presents a letter written by Jarīd b. Asʽad to ʽAbd Allāh b. Asʽad concerning the collection of jizya. Jarīd writes that the jizya should only be paid over the harvest and that ʽAbd Allāh should only start the tax collection once the harvest has taken place.Less

Taxes That Support Entrepreneurship and Growth

Anders Åslund and Simeon Djankov

in Europe's Growth Challenge

Europe’s large public expenditures require high taxes for their financing. High taxes on labor have increased income inequality in European countries in the past quarter-century, since labor is much ... More

Europe’s large public expenditures require high taxes for their financing. High taxes on labor have increased income inequality in European countries in the past quarter-century, since labor is much more heavily taxed than capital income. To encourage entrepreneurship and growth, taxes should be few in number, low, and relatively flat. The example of Estonia, Bulgaria, and Slovakia can be followed as has been the case in a number of other European countries. Labor is subject to excessive taxation through income taxes and high payroll taxes, which hamper innovation and discourage official work, preventing job-seekers from finding their first employment. Personal income tax and payroll tax need to be trimmed. Marginal income taxes are too high causing high tax wedges on labor, and these should be reduced. The value-added taxes have been harmonized and appear the least distortionary and most collectible taxes.Less

Taxation and Human Rights: A Delicate Balance

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah and Gianluca Mazzoni

in Tax, Inequality, and Human Rights

This chapter assesses the appropriate balance between strengthening tax revenue collection tools to ensure states have adequate resources to meet their human rights obligations, and protecting ... More

This chapter assesses the appropriate balance between strengthening tax revenue collection tools to ensure states have adequate resources to meet their human rights obligations, and protecting taxpayer rights to privacy and data security. On the one hand, the ability of rich residents of developing countries and multinational corporations operating in those countries to evade or avoid taxation is directly linked to violations of human rights in those countries, especially from the perspective of social and economic rights like health and education. Providing such countries with the means to fight back and collect adequate revenues is essential in advancing such rights. On the other hand, some of the techniques used to achieve adequate revenue collection, like automatic exchange of information (AEoI) and country-by-country reporting (CbCR), risk violating other human rights like privacy and the legitimate protection of trade secrets.Less

Organization of the delivery of oil

Petra M. Sijpesteijn

in Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

This chapter presents a letter where Na Nājid b. Muslim informs ʽAbd All Nāh b. Asʽad that he sent him a symmachos (Ar. simm Nāk) by the name of Peter to collect what the people of his district owe ... More

This chapter presents a letter where Na Nājid b. Muslim informs ʽAbd All Nāh b. Asʽad that he sent him a symmachos (Ar. simm Nāk) by the name of Peter to collect what the people of his district owe in oil taxes and money taxes or which are paid partially in coin. N Nājid further instructs ʽAbd All Nāh to send some of his own symmachoi and his k Nātib to help Peter with the collection and transportation of the oil.Less

Teso Society through the Twentieth Century

Ben Jones

in Beyond the State in Rural Uganda

This chapter discusses the history of the Teso region and shows that the marginal nature of things in the present was a departure from the past. Teso's significance as a cotton-producing region in ... More

This chapter discusses the history of the Teso region and shows that the marginal nature of things in the present was a departure from the past. Teso's significance as a cotton-producing region in the first half of the twentieth century linked it into international markets, while tax collection and local government administration brought the state down to the village. The chapter also discusses the Teso Insurgency – the most important event of recent years – a time when the social and economic fabric of Teso society broke down.Less

Unravelling of the State in Manipur

M. Sajjad Hassan

in Building Legitimacy: Exploring State-Society Relations in Northeast India

This chapter looks at how agencies of the state in Manipur perform in terms of their basic functions. In Manipur, the state's failure to dominate the rule system and provide secure property rights ... More

This chapter looks at how agencies of the state in Manipur perform in terms of their basic functions. In Manipur, the state's failure to dominate the rule system and provide secure property rights has undermined its centrality in the lives of its citizens. Community-specific ‘tribal’ organizations have obtained de facto authority in society, undermining state leaders' social control. Quality of revenue governance, including poor performance of tax collection machinery and a poor tax structure, are some of the reasons contributing to poor revenue extraction in Manipur. Rising unemployment sets up the issue of conflicts over opportunities, resources, and power that fuelled the breakdown in Manipur. A variety of factors have led to the reduced ability of state agencies to monopolize security in Manipur and provide protection to its citizens. Paralysis of state agencies, their weaknesses, and poor authority have undermined the state's role in resolving intercommunity conflicts.Less

Deliveries of oil from some villages

Petra M. Sijpesteijn

in Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

This chapter presents a letter that deals with the collection of oil and wheat taxes. Nājid writes to ʽAbd Allāh that an unnamed symmachos came to him and he was the person to whom he had wanted to ... More

This chapter presents a letter that deals with the collection of oil and wheat taxes. Nājid writes to ʽAbd Allāh that an unnamed symmachos came to him and he was the person to whom he had wanted to assign the tax collection (of oil and wheat) from a specified group of people.Less

Restoring tax‐collecting rights

Petra M. Sijpesteijn

in Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

This chapter presents a letter from Nājid b. Muslim to fulān b. ʽUlayṭ, seemingly a lower official at the same level as ʽAbd Allāh, that the deliverer of his letter is assigned to collect the ... More

This chapter presents a letter from Nājid b. Muslim to fulān b. ʽUlayṭ, seemingly a lower official at the same level as ʽAbd Allāh, that the deliverer of his letter is assigned to collect the land-tax and other tax over the produce of the land cultivated in his district. Nājid asks the official to hand over the taxes to the letter bearer.Less

The Political Economy of Moroccan Hunger

Stacy E. Holden

in The Politics of Food in Modern Morocco

The socioeconomic connotations conveyed by the term “famine” changed dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The epicenter of starvation shifted from the city (its location ... More

The socioeconomic connotations conveyed by the term “famine” changed dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The epicenter of starvation shifted from the city (its location in previous centuries) to the countryside, and rural migrants flocked to Fez when famine loomed. Such food crises, however, revealed a growing gap between the rich and the poor. The sultan ensured equitable distribution of wheat through tax collection, and his royal officials oversaw the price and quality of foodstuffs in the marketplace. Further, the sultan counted on the elite to sustain informal networks of patronage supplying food to the poor. Religious affiliation often defined the membership of these groupings, but food provisioning was their primary mission. This chapter demonstrates that the Alaouites forestalled unrest by providing the urban poor with wheat, even if it meant redistributing the wealth of influential Moroccans.Less