1 Resume in english Fight against tax evasion from a procedural viewpoint This diploma thesis is about fighting against tax evasion from the point of view of procedural tools, which are regulated by Act No. 280/2009 Coll., The Tax Code. The tesis is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter defines basic concepts, essential for understanding the examined topic, particularly the term "tax" and "tax law". The second part of the thesis defines tax administration in general and basic principles of tax administration, which the tax administrator is obliged to follow in detection of tax evasion. The second part of the thesis also defines the concept of tax evasion for the purposes of this thesis. On one hand, it defines it as a crime regulated by the Criminal Code. But also as a conduct under the law, which pursues a purpose, which the legislature did not presume during preparation of the legislation and on the basis of such conduct, the tax is not set correctly, ie. in accordance with the Tax Code. The third part analyzes and examines the individual procedures for tax administration, regulated by the Tax Code. The detection activity of the tax administrator is analyzed in this part of the thesis, as well as local investigation activity carried out by the tax administrator, and effectiveness of these...

Orientador: Julio Cesar Torres / Resumo: Esta tese investiga as políticas de Permanência Estudantil com abrangência nacional e institucional, no Câmpus Medianeira da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), instituição pública federal, a partir da expansão do Ensino Superior, no contexto atual. Face à importância dessas políticas aos estudantes de diferentes cursos de graduação, definiu-se, como objetivo geral, a demonstração de programas, projetos e ações implementadas, direcionadas à permanência do aluno, até a conclusão do curso, com a finalidade de averiguar se tais políticas são suficientes para assegurar a permanência dos alunos na instituição, evitando a evasão. A investigação foi desenvolvida pela abordagem metodológica qualitativa e quantitativa, por meio de análise da conjuntura atual da instituição parceira da pesquisa e envolveu consulta ao sistema acadêmico, documentos e dados estatísticos, durante o período de 2010 a 2018. Os resultados das análises empreendidas indicam que as políticas ainda não são eficazes para proporcionar mínimas condições para a permanência do aluno na instituição investigada e, por essa razão, precisam ser reelaboradas e articuladas com todos os segmentos da universidade, principalmente gestores, professores, profissionais da educação e alunos. / Abstract: This thesis aims at investigate the Policies for the Student Permanence in a national scenario and institutional of The Federal University of Technology – UTFPR at Campus Medianeira, a federal and public institution, from the Higher Education expansian, in current context. Due to the importance of these policies directed to the students of different undergraduate courses, it was defined as the main object to demonstrate the programs, projects and actions implemented and headed to the student permanence until the course conclusion. The purpose is find out if these policies are able to maintain the students at the researched institution, avoiding evasion. The investigation was developed by the qualitative and quantitative methodological approach, by analyzing the current conjuncture of the institution, involving consultation to the academic system, documents and statistic data, during the period from 2010 to 2018. The results of the the undertaken analyzes indicate the policies are unable to provide the minimum conditions for the student permanence at the institution and for that reason they need to be reelaborated and articulated with all the segments of the university, mainly regarding to the managers, professors, education profissionals and students. / Doutor

Governments play a key role in modern economies. However, modern-day governments face several challenges that limit their functioning. Some examples include inadequate conduct of elections, tax evasion, and market failures. Each chapter in this thesis explores a key challenge faced by government and policy intervention that helps address it. Chapter 1 explores the poor turnout of women in India and tests whether increasing security at the polling booths increases women's representation. Chapter 2 explores the role of tax evasion by firms in low revenue collection under a Value Added Tax (VAT) in India. Chapter 3 examines the current housing crisis in major cities across the United States and evaluates the effects of tax incentives designed to encourage new residential investment. To provide robust causal evidence, I use natural experiments combined with novel microdata. Chapter 1 uses a regression discontinuity design arising from the rule used to assign security measures to polling booths during a major state election in India. In particular, polling booths which received more than 75% of votes in favor of one candidate in the previous election received security measures with a higher probability. I use the regression discontinuity design to estimate effects on women's share in total turnout and political outcomes. Chapter 2 uses the staggered roll-out of VAT across states in India to estimate the effect of VAT adoption on vertical integration in firms. Chapter 3 uses a natural experiment in New York City where a delayed implementation of the property tax increase on new construction led to a short-term boom in residential investment as developers rushed to claim expiring tax benefits. I estimate effects on nearby rents, demographics, businesses. The end result is a set of robust policy conclusions. Chapter 1 finds that strengthening security at the polling booths increased women's turnout, which in turn had consequences for political outcomes. For instance, suggestive evidence indicates that non-incumbent and educated candidates received more votes whereas corrupt candidates received fewer votes. Chapter 2 finds that firms integrated vertically to evade taxes under a Value Added Tax. This suggests that low revenue collection in developing countries is possibly a combination of both evasion and real production response of firms. Chapter 3 finds that new tax-exempt residential investment increased rents in existing buildings within 150 meters. This happened because new building attracted high-income residents who increased demand for local businesses, reflected in the entry of businesses that cater to high-income residents. The result highlights potential negative spillover effects of new construction on incumbent low-income residents and suggests that optimal tax policy must incorporate such spillovers when designing incentives that encourage investment.

Tax law related aspects of the underground economy The aim of this thesis is the analysis of the underground economy and the sources of its genesis and particular tax law related aspects of the underground economy including legal instruments which are used to eliminate and counter it. The goal is also the description of specific kinds of the underground economy policies. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter brings definition of the underground economy and division of it among black economy, grey economy and home production. The next part of this chapter is dedicated to the causes of the underground economy. Firstly it describes the tax burden with focus on the value-added tax, there is the analysis of the problematics associated with tax evasion and tax avoidance, carousel frauds and tax havens. The second part of this chapter describes illegal work and execution of jobs in the form of unreported employment and a form called "švarcsystém". In the second chapter is the analysis and description of selected institutes of tax law which are used to eliminate the underground economy including illegal work. The institutes are tax inspection, electronic registration of sales, control reporting and work inspection focused on illegal work. The next part of the chapter is dealing with...

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Studying how firms and individuals respond to tax policy changes is key to assess their trade-off between equity and efficiency. Among individuals, taxpayers at the top of the income distribution have received special attention in the Public Economics literature. Progressive tax systems disproportionately rely on high income individuals to raise revenues, making them susceptible to strategies adopted by these taxpayers to reduce their tax liability. In the first two chapters of this dissertation, I provide new empirical evidence on the characteristics of high income individuals that can inform the design of tax policies. Chapter 1, focusing on the UK, shows that migrants have become more prevalent among high income individuals, thus altering the composition of individuals in the top 1 percent. Chapter 2, focusing on Italy, provides evidence of long term persistence in economic status among present-day descendants of noble dynasties. These chapters shed light on the characteristics of high income taxpayers and their path to the top of the distribution in these two countries. Understanding the composition of individuals at the top of the income distribution is key for analyzing their response to tax policies and for informing the trade-off between equity and efficiency. Firms too are a central part of the tax system of developed countries. They remit payment of the vast majority of government revenues, either fulfilling their own tax liabilities or on behalf of third parties. As a result, governments implement enforcement strategies to reduce evasion while minimizing their costs. In Chapter 3, I analyze one of these government interventions aimed at curbing tax evasion of Value Added Tax (VAT) in Italy and I provide evidence on a new margin of response adopted by businesses. As the government shifted the responsibility to remit VAT from the seller to the buyer for a subset of transactions in the economy, it altered the distribution of costs between the two sides of the transaction. I show that smaller firms face the largest increase in costs and, thus, exhibit higher exit rates, leading to higher market concentration. Chapter 1, which is joint work with Arun Advani, Felix Koenig, and Andy Summers, studies the contribution of migrants to the rise in UK top incomes.Using administrative data on the universe of UK taxpayers we show that migrants are over-represented at the top of the income distribution, with migrants twice as prevalent in the top 0.1 percent as anywhere in the bottom 97 percent. These high incomes are predominantly from labor, rather than capital, and migrants are concentrated in only a handful of industries, predominantly finance. Finally, we calculate the contribution of migrants and natives to the observed growth in the UK top 1 percent income share over the past 20 years. We find that almost all (92 percent) of the observed growth can be attributed to migration. Chapter 2 documents that present-day descendants of aristocratic dynasties enjoy high economic status in Italy, several decades or centuries after their ancestors received a title. Over this period of time, Italy experienced wars, annexations, political reforms, and a structural transformation of the economy. Yet, the income distribution of noble taxpayers living in Milan in 2005 is shifted to the right relative to the one of all other taxpayers. On average, noble descendants obtain 41,125 Euros (or 1.77 times) more, controlling for observables. Moreover, aristocrats are three times more likely to be involved in firms, either as shareholders or company officials. Chapter 3 analyzes how firms and markets adapt to a reform of the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT), combining a new administrative dataset on firm-to-firm links from Italy and a quasi-experimental research design. The reform shifted the responsibility to remit payments of VAT from sellers to “trusted" buyers, such as government entities and large firms. I present three main findings. First, firm-to-firm links subject to the new rules are more likely to become inactive after the introduction of the new rules. Second, I find that the reform was costly for the average firm. Firms more exposed to the reform experienced lower sales and higher exit rates, relative to the counterfactual. Third, I document that the burden of the reform was not evenly distributed across firms. Small firms were hit hardest, while large firms did not appear to be negatively affected. As a result, I show that markets more exposed to the reform became more concentrated.

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a major opportunistic fungal infection in patients with haematological malignancies. Morbidity and mortality rates are high despite anti-fungal treatment, as the compromised status of immune system prevents the host from responding optimally to conventional therapy. This raises the consideration for immunotherapy as an adjunctive treatment. In this study, we evaluated the utility of expanded human NK cells as treatment against Aspergillus fumigatus infection in vitro and in vivo. The NK cells were expanded and activated by K562 cells genetically modified to express 4-1BB ligand and membrane-bound interleukin-15 (K562-41BBL-mbIL-15) as feeders. The efficacy of these cells was investigated in A. fumigatus killing assays in vitro and as adoptive cellular therapy in vivo. The expanded NK cells possessed potent killing activity at low effector-to-target ratio of 2:1. Fungicidal activity was morphotypal-dependent and most efficacious against A. fumigatus conidia. Fungicidal activity was mediated by dectin-1 receptors on the expanded NK cells leading to augmented release of perforin, resulting in enhanced direct cytolysis. In an immunocompromised mice pulmonary aspergillosis model, we showed that NK cell treatment significantly reduced fungal burden, hence demonstrating the translational potential of expanded NK cells as adjunctive therapy against IA in immunocompromised patients.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is remarkable for its ability to establish persistent infection. Studies suggest that HCV core protein modulates immune responses to viral infection and can bind Fas receptor in vitro. To further examine the role of HCV core protein in Fas signaling, full-length (aa 1-192) and truncated (aa 1-152) HCV core proteins were expressed in Jurkat lymphocytes and cells were assayed for apoptotic response, caspase activation, and Fas activation. Jurkat expressing full-length but not truncated core protein exhibited ligand-independent apoptosis. Cytoplasmic targeting of truncated core protein recapitulated its ability to induce apoptosis. Activation of caspases 8 and 3 was necessary and sufficient for full-length core to induce apoptosis. Jurkat cells expressing full-length but not truncated core protein induced Fas receptor aggregation. HCV core activates apoptotic pathways in Jurkat via Fas and requires cytoplasmic localization of core. Infection of host lymphocytes by HCV may alter apoptotic signaling and skew host responses to acute infection.

Mercantile Law / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Mercantile Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The title of this essay is "What are the effects of a cashless society on VAT evasion –A study on Denmark, Finland & Sweden". Due to an increasingly digitalized world there will be different effects on the economy. We are getting closer to a cashless society every day, but we do not know the consequences that this will have. VAT evasion has long been a problem and has been easy to go through with, due to all the payments made with cash. It would be interesting to see if there is going to be a change in VAT evasion now as we go towards a cashless society. The aim of the study was therefore to answer the question: what are the effects of a cashless society on VAT evasion. To answer this question we focused on collecting data from three Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Many articles were read on the subject before interesting data was collected to be analyzed. The data, mostly gathered from the European Central Bank, included the VATgap, number of payment terminals, number of ATMs, percentage of total payments made with cards, GDP and the Consumer Price Index for each of the three chosen countries. In the theoretical framework the theory around VAT is presented as well as a short discussion about the underlying factors on VAT evasion. There is also a section on how we have chosen to represent the cashless society and how this will be measured in the paper. In order with previous research the hypothesis of the study was formed to be that the VAT gap will decrease as we gotowards a cashless society. Multiple regressions were made on the data collected and the result analyzed. There was no significant relationship found between the VAT gap and any of the three explanatory variables. Instead the VAT gap seemed to be connected to what country that was studied. The coefficients of the variables seemed to indicate that there might be a positive relationship between the VAT gap divided by GDP and the number of payment terminals. The reason for this relationship was discussed to possibly be blamed on the fact that card usage increases the total transactions due to the speed and simplicity of card payments. In order to make the results more reliable it was suggested that the study would be enlarged to include more countries and specifically countries that are less digitalized and perceived to be more corrupt.