No abstract / Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Taxation / MCom Taxation / Unrestricted

The general mindset of most vendors is that if they have a valid tax invoice, they can claim all their input VAT. They are, however, not aware of the requirements of section 17(1) of the Value-Added Tax Act. Section 17(1) explains that vendors cannot claim all their input tax if their expense relates to both taxable and non-taxable supplies and that, consequently, input tax need to be apportioned in some or other way. There are several methods of apportionment available to vendors of which the turnover-based method is the only approved method by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for which no ruling is necessary. This study investigates the most common methods used by vendors, how these methods function and also under which circumstances these methods are recommended. The sectors that are influenced the most by this provision in the Value-Added Tax Act are banks, universities and municipalities. These sectors have large amounts of exempt supplies but also taxable supplies with expenses incurred that cannot be allocated specifically to a certain income. Therefore, a method of apportionment should be used to allocate the input VAT. Information was obtained through financial reports and questionnaires from 29 entities in South Africa. The information was used to calculate an average percentage of apportionment in each sector and also to establish which method of apportionment is the most commonly used method of apportionment in each sector. The conclusion was drawn that there might, under certain circumstances, be uncertainty on whether some income should be included or excluded in the apportionment calculation. Under these circumstances, it is recommended that a ruling should be obtained from SARS to avoid problems in the future. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Taxation / unrestricted

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.

A research report to be submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce( Specialising in Taxation); March 2016 / The present study sought to investigate self-selection among internal and international migrants in Gauteng by making use of the Gauteng City Region Quality of Life Survey data. The present study also sought to disentangle the effects of observed and unobserved characteristics in the self-selection of migrants by conducting Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition on overall employment and self-employment outcome variables. Preliminary descriptive statistics indicated that international migrants experienced markedly higher levels of employment than both locals and internal migrants driven by higher rates of informal and self-employment. System GMM analysis of pseudo panel data confirmed these results and showed that international migrants had a higher probability of employment and self-employment. Oaxaca Blinder decomposition indicated that unobserved characteristics explained the greatest share of the differences in the rates employment and self-employment of locals, internal migrants and international migrants. These results provide evidence for the positive selection of international migrants to Gauteng on unobservable characteristics relevant to the region’s labour market. Key Words Self-Selection; Migration; Self-Employment; Employment / GR2018

and keywords New methods of combating VAT evasion The topic of this work is the rating of the current situation regarding value added tax evasions, which rates the situation de lege lata, identifies its shortcomings and proposes de lege ferenda solutions that could prevent or at least reduce such evasions. The theses also shows practical examples and tries to present situations that can actually occur in the environment of taxes. The first chapter is focused at general description and introduction to the topic of value added tax, while it is very briefly explaining its basic design elements. It also outlines the nature of tax evasion. The second chapter focuses on the limits of financial administration, which lie mainly in its limited staffing capabilities. The chapter emphasizes the need for automation and explains its practical benefits, outlining the basic framework of most tools to fight against tax evasion. The third chapter describes specifically the issue of the so-called control report, points out its predominant strengths and presents it as one of the successful tools in the fight against tax evasion. At the same time, however, the shortcomings of the current legislation are rated and de lege ferenda solutions are proposed. The fourth is focused at the issue of the so-called electronic...

As the federal deficit rises in the United States, interest in a consumption tax system or the value added tax (VAT) also increases. This investigation attempts to determine the short-run impacts of a value added tax upon private forest management. A literature review investigates the theoretical economic impacts of a VAT and experience with the tax in other countries. Then supply and demand functions in both the southern pine sawtimber stumpage and new single-facility housing sector are empirically derived. These functions are used to determine the short-run housing price elasticities of the quantity of houses sold and the price and quantity of stumpage sold. From this, the impact of a VAT-induced housing price change is determined, and simulation with different VAT rates are performed. Based on housing markets alone, it is found that a VAT is likely to cause a short-run reduction in sawtimber stumpage price and quantity demanded which is less than 1/10 percent of the VAT rate. / M.S.

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of taxes on household consumption using panel data from 94 countries from 1997―2020. These countries are grouped into 64 high―and 30 low―income countries. This study employed the generalised method of moment estimation. The results were based on estimation regressions and sensitivity analyses indicating that taxes negatively affect household consumption. Furthermore, taxes were found to be more effective at limiting household consumption in high―income countries. In conclusion, this study supports findings that were previously reported in literature. Policy makers should limit the distortive nature of taxes on household consumption by periodically assessing and controlling tax rates.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The theme of this diploma thesis is "Application of Value Added Tax (VAT) in Association without Legal Personality". The thesis focuses on such type of association that is mainly used by entrepreneurs-individuals for the purposes of their consistent gainful activity. This type of association is the most common in practice. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is theoretical and provides with a general view of the legal frame of the association without legal personality under the Civil Code which represents the main basis for the application of the Law of VAT. Association participants who have the status of VAT taxpayers are obliged to observe general VAT rules, but there are some exceptions. The second chapter of the thesis is dealing with the analysis of legal regulations of the association without legal personality governed by the Law of VAT. With regard to the fact that these legal regulations are insufficient, the diploma thesis should offer proposals for making them better. So that the legal certainty of association participants could become higher.

The diploma thesis deals with issues of value added tax registration in Czech Republic in case of municipalities and with complications associated with applying value added tax to municipalities. In the thesis is defined methodology to determine impact of registration for value added tax on the municipal budget. The thesis considers the possibility of transfer of selected activities of the municipality to legal entities, in order to reduce turnover of municipality to secure that the turnover for compulsory registration for value added tax is not overrun.