Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2007. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

nÃo hà / Diante da significativa importÃncia de se aferir a efetividade dos mecanismos de atuaÃÃo das administraÃÃes tributÃrias e o papel da auditoria fiscal no combate a evasÃo fiscal, analisa-se os impactos da AutuaÃÃo Fiscal imposta como puniÃÃo pela Auditoria Fiscal no Ãmbito da FiscalizaÃÃo TributÃria do ICMS sobre o comportamento dos contribuintes no Estado do CearÃ. Modelos com dados em painel com informaÃÃes sobre o grupo de tratamento formado por empresas fiscalizadas e autuadas por irregularidades no cumprimento de suas obrigaÃÃes tributÃrias no perÃodo de Julho de 2006 à Dezembro de 2006 foram contrastados com os de um grupo de controle composto por empresas que nÃo foram fiscalizadas e autuadas entre Janeiro de 2005 à Dezembro de 2007. Modelos para a elasticidade tributÃria do faturamento do contribuinte foram estimados tambÃm em segmentos de atividade para verificar efeitos setoriais da autuaÃÃo fiscal. Para o total das empresas nos diversos segmentos constatou-se um moderado impacto da autuaÃÃo fiscal sobre a elasticidade tributÃria do faturamento dos contribuintes autuados. Nos subgrupos, apenas o segmento Atacadista mostra o impacto positivo da autuaÃÃo fiscal. / Given the significant importance of measuring the effectiveness of the mechanisms of action of the tax administrations and the role of audit in combating tax evasion, we analyze the impacts of Tax Fine imposed as punishment for Tax Audit under the Tax Inspection of ICMS on behavior of taxpayers in the state of CearÃ. Models with panel data with information about the treatment group consists of companies audited and fined for irregularities in meeting their tax obligations in the period July 2006 to December 2006 were contrasted with a control group composed of companies that do not were audited and fined between January 2005 to December 2007. Models for the tax elasticity of the billing were estimated also in segments of activity to verify effects of sectoral tax fine. For the group of companies in various segments was found a moderate impact of the tax fine on the tax elasticity of billing from taxpayers fined. In subgroups, only the Wholesale segment shows the positive impact of tax fine.

Chapter 1: I analyze economies of scale for fire and police services by considering how per-household costs are affected by a municipality’s size. Using 2005-2008 municipal data for the Province of Ontario, I employ a partial-linear model to non-parametrically estimate per-household cost curves for each service. The results show that cost per household is a U-shaped function of municipal size for each service. For fire services, these costs are minimized at a population of about 20,000 residents, while for police services they are minimized at about 50,000 residents. Based on these results, implications are drawn for municipal amalgamation policy. Chapter 2: I review how the literature has continued to exclude the business property tax (BPT) from the marginal effective tax rate (METR) on capital investment for over 25 years. I recast the METR theory as it relates to the BPT and compute 2013 estimates of the METR for all 10 provinces in Canada with provincial BPTs included. Building on these estimates, I compute the METR inclusive of municipal BPTs for the largest municipality in each province. I find the BPT to be substantially damaging to municipal, provincial and international competitiveness. With the business property tax representing over 60% of the Canadian METR, among the various capital taxes it is by far the largest contributor to Canada’s investment barrier. Chapter 3: I estimate the responsiveness of structure investment and the tax base to commercial property taxes, taking a new step toward resolving the “benefit view” vs. “capital tax view” debate within the literature. Using a first-difference structural model to analyze 2006-2013 municipal data for the Province of Ontario, I improve upon past studies and build onto the literature in a number of ways. I find that commercial structure investment and tax base are highly sensitive to the property tax with Ontario’s assessment-weighted average tax elasticity (and tax-base elasticity) ranging from -0.80 to -0.90 at 2011 taxation levels. The results support the capital tax view of the business property tax, building onto the growing consensus that business property taxes substantially impact investment in structures and the value of the tax base.