Diss. Univ. zu Köln, 2008. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).

The global economy is still recovering from the effects of the sub-prime crisis. The economic downturn has created international tax policies that seem to encourage debt funding. Some commentators are of the view that debt and equity should have a uniform tax treatment. South Africa has not escaped the aftermath of the economic meltdown and had three credit downgrades since the second half of 2009. The first objective of this treatise was to determine whether loan funding still has a role to play in a SME environment. This was considered in the context of interest-free or low-interest rate loans advanced by companies to shareholders or other connected persons and interest-bearing loans due by companies that in substance clearly have equity features. The primary enquiry pertaining to debit loans is whether the debt arose by virtue of any share held in the company. It is submitted that a causal connection is required between any share in that company and the advance made. Where a company parts with funds for no quid pro quo a deemed dividend in specie is triggered. Conversely, where a loan was made on commercial grounds the company will not be in breach, even if the loan is interest-free. A loan that lacks a reasonable redemption period is more akin to equity and to this extent a deemed dividend will be triggered where a loan owing by a company to a shareholder or other connected person is not redeemable within 30 years. There is ambiguity with regards to the inception of the 30-year period for pre-existing loan agreements. Taking the contra fiscum rule into account, it is submitted that the 30-year period should only commence from the effective date due to the impracticalities involved and because the concept of an ‘instrument’ did not previously exist. It is submitted that shareholder and other connected person loans are not by default equity, to the extent that the transaction is on commercial grounds and in substance a loan. It is further submitted that loan funding still has a role to play in a SME environment and that South Africa has no need for uniform tax rules pertaining to debt and equity, due to the anti-avoidance provisions highlighted above. The poor state of the local economy prompted Treasury to introduce new debt relief rules to assist distressed debtors. The second objective of this treatise was to analyse whether the new rules will provide tangible relief to distressed debtors as this was one of the short comings of the previous system. It is submitted that the new ordering rules delay the incurrence of an immediate tax as trading stock held and not disposed of, the base cost of an asset or the balance of an assessed capital loss is first reduced compared to the old rules where it instantly triggered a recoupment or a deemed disposal for CGT purposes. Tangible relief is provided to distressed debtors as a tax debt reduced has no normal tax consequences. This provides an opportunity for companies under business rescue because SARS rank on par with concurrent creditors. As a result, the tax debt reduced is likely to be higher under business rescue than liquidation.

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.

This study discusses South Africa’s tax incentives for small businesses and identifies shortcomings and areas of concern within the tax incentive regimes. A comparison of small business tax incentives provided by Australia, India, and the United Kingdom is made with South Africa’s small business tax incentives to identify similarities and differences, and new lessons are learned from the approaches of other countries. As a result of the comparison with the tax dispensations available to small businesses in other countries, the study recommends additional tax incentives that could be implemented by South Africa. Only those tax incentives that are available in other countries but not in South Africa that were deemed worthwhile were recommended to be introduced in the Republic. Recommendations were also made based on the gaps identified in South Africa’s small business tax incentives. / Taxation / M. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

No description available.

This study compared the turnover tax and small business corporation tax systems in South Africa as applicable to micro and small businesses. Misinformed perceptions of the turnover tax system were the motivation for this study. A three phase approach was adopted to conduct this study, the phases being literature review, in-depth face-to-face interviews and quantitative analysis of financial statements which are referred to as case studies. The tax liability was calculated for each of the thirty cases and thereafter a comparative analysis was performed to establish the most beneficial tax system for each case study. The findings for year one revealed that the small business corporation tax system was the most beneficial tax system for fifteen of the thirty cases and turnover tax for the other fifteen cases. Over an average of five years, fourteen cases benefited from the small business corporation tax system and sixteen from turnover tax. There were a number of significant reasons why the above mentioned tax systems were appropriate for each of the thirty cases, one of which being, the type of business or industry where the case is located. The information obtained from this study could inform small and micro businesses about the most appropriate and beneficial tax system for their businesses. In addition the information emanating from this study could be used by tax practitioners to advise their clients on the most appropriate tax system for their businesses. Lastly, the results of this study could contribute to the debate around legislation for small and micro businesses. / Taxation / M. Com. (Accounting)

Die Dissertation widmet sich dem Problem der fiskalischen Konsequenzen der konsumorientierten Steuern, die die unternehmerischen Gewinne unabhängig von der Rechtsform belasten. Im empirischen Teil der Arbeit wird der Untersuchungsgegenstand auf die zinsbereinigte Gewinnsteuer (allowance for corporate equity) eingegrenzt. Die Untersuchung beruht auf theoretischen Überlegungen sowie einer eigenen Simulationsanalyse. Den Schwerpunkt bilden dabei zwei Kategorien, zwischen denen ein kausaler Zusammenhang vorliegt: die Gestaltung der Bemessungsgrundlage einerseits und die Erfüllung der Fiskalfunktion andererseits. Das Hauptziel der Arbeit ist es, die fiskalischen Konsequenzen einer nach dem Konzept der Konsumorientierung modifizierten Bemessungsgrundlage der Gewinnsteuern zu überprüfen. Die Abschätzung der fiskalischen Konsequenzen wird aufgrund der vier folgenden Bereiche vorgenommen: (1) theoretische Konzepte der konsumorientierten Einkommensteuer, (2) bisherige Umsetzungen der Konzepte der konsumorientierten Gewinnsteuer, (3) bisherige Untersuchungen der konsumorientierten Gewinnsteuer, (4) eine eigene Simulation der fiskalischen Konsequenzen der konsumorientierten Gewinnsteuer. Um das Hauptziel der Arbeit zu erreichen, werden acht in Form von Teilfragen ausformulierte Untersuchungsprobleme gelöst. Sie betreffen sowohl die theoretischen Ausführungen, als auch die empirische Untersuchung. Dabei entsprechen sie den einzelnen Untersuchungsschritten, die in den aufeinander folgenden Kapiteln der Arbeit durchgeführt werden. Anhand der Analyse der bisherigen wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse und der praktischen Umsetzungen des Konzepts der konsumorientierten Steuern wurde die folgende Haupthypothese aufgestellt: Der Ausfall des Steueraufkommens, der ein direkter Effekt der Gestaltung der Bemessungsgrundlage nach dem Konzept der Konsumorientierung ist, schließt die Fiskalfunktion der Gewinnsteuern nicht aus. Das Verfahren, das eine Verifizierung der Haupthypothese zum Ziel hat, erfolgt durch eine Untersuchung von drei Teilhypothesen: der Hypothese über die Nullsteuer, der Hypothese über den differenzierten Aufkommensausfall und der Hypothese über die Konzentration der Steuerschuld. In der Dissertation werden empirische Daten aus drei Quellen benutzt. Sie umfassen einen Teil der in Polen in den Jahren 2004-2008 tätigen Unternehmen und ermöglichen es, eine Simulationsanalyse des Aufkommensausfalls durchzuführen. Diese bedient sich der Methodik der Mikro- und Gruppensimulation, was in den bisherigen Untersuchungen zur Unternehmensbesteuerung ein eher selten anzutreffender Ansatz ist. Die gewonnenen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Steuereinnahmen aus der Einkommensteuer und der Körperschaftsteuer durch die Modifizierung der Bemessungsgrundlage deutlich reduziert werden. Die relativ große fiskalische Bedeutung der beiden Steuern bleibt jedoch erhalten und der Ausfall des Steueraufkommens, der direkt nach der Einführung einer konsumorientierten Steuerreform eintreten würde, wäre der „Preis“ für eine bessere, weniger verzerrende Bemessungsgrundlage. Die Dissertation liefert Ergebnisse, die für die Gestaltung der Steuerpolitik in Polen wie auch in anderen Ländern relevant sind. Dies scheint insbesondere im Kontext des häufig diskutierten Umbaus des Systems der Einkommen- und Gewinnbesteuerung bedeutsam. Darüber hinaus bildet die Arbeit einen Ausgangspunkt für weitere, vertiefte Untersuchungen zu den möglichen Gestaltungsformen der Einkommen- und Gewinnsteuern wie auch zu deren Folgen. Die Methode der Steuersimulation kann weiterentwickelt werden und in anderen Analysen der potenziellen Konsequenzen von Steuerreformen Anwendung finden. / The dissertation looks into the problem of fiscal consequences of consumption-oriented business profit tax. The subject of this doctoral thesis is the consumption-oriented taxation of business profits regardless of the legal form of business activities. In its empirical part, the investigation was narrowed to the Allowance for Corporate Equity (ACE). The analysis, carried out on both theoretical and empirical ground, concentrates on two causally related areas: the structure of the tax base and its impact on the fiscal function of the tax on business profits. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate fiscal effects of changing the corporate tax base into one that reflects the concept of consumption-oriented income taxation. The effects are identified in the following four areas: (1) theoretical concepts of consumption-oriented income tax, (2) practical implementations to date of the concept of consumption-oriented business profit tax, (3) other research to date into consumption-oriented business profit tax, (4) author’s simulation of the fiscal effects of consumption-oriented business profit tax. To achieve the main goal, eight detailed research problems must first be solved. These problems are formulated as supporting research questions of both theoretical and empirical nature. The main research hypothesis was formulated based on the analysis of theoretical literature and practical implementations, and it is as follows: the tax revenue loss, which is a direct consequence of consumption-oriented tax base, does not rule out the fiscal function of business profit taxes. In order to verify the main hypothesis, three supporting hypotheses were verified, namely: zero-tax hypothesis; diverse revenue loss hypothesis; and tax liability concentration hypothesis. The investigation was based on empirical data from three sources, all concerned with businesses active in Poland during the period 2004-2008. The microsimulation and group simulation methods were applied, still a rather rare choice in the analysis of business taxation. The research has shown that modification of the tax base results in considerable revenue reduction. Still, profit taxes remain to be of great fiscal importance and the loss of revenue should be understood as the price to be paid for a more properly defined and non-distortionary tax base. The thesis offers conclusions of importance for development of tax policy in Poland and other countries, particularly in the context of the restructuring of the business income tax system. Moreover, the thesis constitutes a starting point for further research on possible methods for defining the income tax structure and on its effects. The simulation method applied in the empirical part of the analysis can be developed and implemented in other research into the effects of potential tax reforms.

This study compared the turnover tax and small business corporation tax systems in South Africa as applicable to micro and small businesses. Misinformed perceptions of the turnover tax system were the motivation for this study. A three phase approach was adopted to conduct this study, the phases being literature review, in-depth face-to-face interviews and quantitative analysis of financial statements which are referred to as case studies. The tax liability was calculated for each of the thirty cases and thereafter a comparative analysis was performed to establish the most beneficial tax system for each case study. The findings for year one revealed that the small business corporation tax system was the most beneficial tax system for fifteen of the thirty cases and turnover tax for the other fifteen cases. Over an average of five years, fourteen cases benefited from the small business corporation tax system and sixteen from turnover tax. There were a number of significant reasons why the above mentioned tax systems were appropriate for each of the thirty cases, one of which being, the type of business or industry where the case is located. The information obtained from this study could inform small and micro businesses about the most appropriate and beneficial tax system for their businesses. In addition the information emanating from this study could be used by tax practitioners to advise their clients on the most appropriate tax system for their businesses. Lastly, the results of this study could contribute to the debate around legislation for small and micro businesses. / Taxation / M. Com. (Accounting)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Accounting: Taxation, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / The study was to explore the awareness of owners of small medium enterprises with regards to green tax incentives; to identify their attitudes towards such green tax incentives and the possible impact it will have on small medium manufacturing enterprises going green.This study used a quantitative research design, specifically a descriptive survey approach. A census sample was drawn through a list provided by the Durban Chamber of Commerce. A survey questionnaire was the primary data collection tool used. At total of 152 questionnaires were distributed and a 104 were received yielding a response rate of 68 %. The data showed that small medium enterprises were concerned about the environment, and acknowledged that their business activities have a negative impact on the environment. The study also established that small medium enterprise owners are concerned with the impact that climate change will have on their business operations. A majority of the sample considered green taxation to be an important driver that would allow businesses to become eco-friendly. Owners were found to support the utilization of green taxation incentives and were considering using green taxation as part of future business decision making, thus ensuring that meet corporate social responsibility. It was concluded that there was a need for the government to put more focus into creating awareness of global warming and climate change. There was also a need to find more innovative ways of promoting eco-consciousness and green sustainable practices and the need to draft and identify new green taxation legislature that caters for public and small medium enterprises. / M

Die vorliegende Dissertation besteht aus vier Kapiteln zum Thema Steuerfehlwahrnehmung. Kapitel 1 gibt einen Überblick über die bisherige Literatur und systematisiert sie durch die Entwicklung des Behavioral Taxpayer Response Model. Das Ausmaß der Steuerfehlwahrnehmung wird u.a. durch die Verfügbarkeit von Informationen und persönliche Merkmale beeinflusst. Auch wenn Steuerinformationen verfügbar sind, schätzen die Steuerpflichtigen die Steuerlast falsch ein, weil sie sich in einem begrenzten Maße rational verhalten. Die umfangreiche Literatur zeigt auch, dass es nur wenig Literatur in Bezug auf Unternehmen gibt. Wir schließen diese Forschungslücke in Kapitel 2, indem wir die Fehlwahrnehmung durch Unternehmen in Deutschland analysieren. Um Datenbeschränkungen zu überwinden, verwenden wir einen innovativen Ansatz, der robuste Schätzungen liefert. Im Allgemeinen nehmen die Unternehmen ihre durchschnittlichen Steuersätze und Grenzsteuersätze deutlich verzerrt wahr und haben Probleme mit dem Konzept des Grenzsteuersatzes. Fehlwahrnehmungen werden tendenziell von der Komplexität, dem Steuerwissen und der Unzufriedenheit mit dem Steuersystem beeinflusst. Im Zusammenhang mit der Vermögensbesteuerung zeigen wir in Kapitel 3 anhand eines Umfrageexperiments, dass die Fehlwahrnehmung der jährlichen Vermögensteuer aufgrund ihrer mathematischen Komplexität zu einer verzerrten Präferenz führt. Die Information über die tatsächliche Steuerbelastung führt zu deutlich niedrigeren präferierten Steuersätzen. In dem abschließenden Kapitel 4 überprüfen wir die Ergebnisse einer Studie zur Steuervermeidung, die von den Grünen/EFA im Europäischen Parlament in Auftrag gegeben wurde. Diese Studie erregte große Aufmerksamkeit, weil sie behauptete, dass Unternehmen in Deutschland weit weniger Steuern zahlen, als der gesetzliche Steuersatz vermuten ließe. Wir zeigen, dass die Ergebnisse falsch sind und tragen damit zur Steuertransparenz in Deutschland bei. / This dissertation consists of four chapters on tax misperception. Chapter 1 reviews the previous literature on tax misperceptions and systematizes it through the development of the Behavioral Taxpayer Response Model. The extent of tax misperception is determined by information availability and personal characteristics. Under the assumption that tax information is available, taxpayers may even misperceive the tax burden because they behave in a rational bounded manner. The extensive literature also shows that there is little literature on corporations. We address this research gap in Chapter 2, which analyzes the misperception of tax rates by firms in Germany. To overcome data limitations, we use an innovative approach to measure tax misperception that provides robust estimates. In general, firms significantly misperceive their average (ATR) and marginal tax rates (MTR) and have problems with the concept MTR. Misperceptions tend to be influenced by the complexity of the tax system, tax knowledge, and satisfaction with the current tax system. In the context of wealth taxation, we use a survey experiment in Chapter 3 to show that misperception of a yearly wealth tax, due to its mathematical complexity, leads to a biased preference for wealth taxation. Informing respondents about the actual tax burden leads to significantly lower preferred tax parameters. In the final Chapter 4, we question the findings of a study on tax avoidance commissioned by the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament. This study attracted media attention because it claimed that companies in Germany pay far less tax than the statutory tax rate would suggest. We demonstrate that their findings are wrong and help to increase tax transparency in Germany.