Evaluating EU structural policy

Author(s): Indhira Santos / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2008

The EU budget review, launched by the Commission in 2007, is a unique opportunity to critically examine EU policies and instruments. Structural Funds are at the heart of the EU’s cohesion efforts, and amount to almost one-third of the Community’s budget. They have two declared objectives, economic growth and regional convergence, but these do not always complement each other. The allocation of the Structural Funds is not efficient from a pure growth standpoint, and a large proportion of transfers takes place within regions. With enlargement, cross-country transfers increased significantly to 40% of total flows, and intra-regional redistribution decreased. In a more diverse EU, this is a step to the right direction. Yet, almost three-quarters of intra-country redistribution still happens within regions.

Local Government Budgeting: The Central and Eastern European Experience

Author(s): Mihály Hõgye,Charles McFerren / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2003

The purpose of this work is to fill an existing void in descriptive data concerning local government budgeting in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In the terms of reference given to the project teams chosen for each of the countries included in the study, the project was designed to elicit three types of information: (1) the budgeting environment, (2) the budget process, and (3) a summary of best practices.

Illegal State Aid and Harmful Tax Competition: The Case of Hungary

Author(s): Dániel Deák / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2002

It is of particular importance to be competitive for a country like Hungary, going to join the European Union. It has been important for the country to modernise its tax system, in line with completing the transition into a modern market economy. It is usually less interest in the examination of the tax system as to whether it is competitive, and if so, whether it is streamlined enough to comply with the international comity that dictates us that a country - while attractive for investors - must not avail itself of tax practices that can be seen harmful. Hungary, associated with the EC, is also bound to rules equivalent to the EC rules on state aid and, as a WTO member, to WTO rules on subsidies. This paper takes a hard look at the Hungarian fiscal system from the perspective of illegal state aid and harmful tax competition.

TRETIRANJE DVOSTRUKOG OPOREZIVANJA U REPUBLICI SRBIJI

Author(s): Maida Bećirović-Alić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 12/2017

The goal of any business entity is to ensure the success of its activities, financial stability and durability and long-term business continuity. Achieving these objectives depends on a number of influential factors, both internal and external. In order to examine the level of achievement of these objectives certain indicators of success, stability and trends that point to the possibility of long-term business should be measured and expressed. Those indicators can be financial and non-financial in nature, or quantitatively and qualitatively expressed. The subject of this paper are financial indicators that help to measure and review business performance and are in the function of providing information needed for effective management of the company. These indicators primarily include indicators of cost-effectiveness, profitability and indicators of investment security. In addition to these literature recognizes also activities that indicate the success and stability of the business. The need for measuring and quantifying business performance resulted from analytical activities which are a product of financial indicators that indicate the business accomplishments of enterprise.

RASPRAVA O REŠAVANJU SOCIJALNIH RAZLIKA U DRUŠTVU OPOREZIVANJEM CELOKUPE IMOVINE

Author(s): Šemsudin Plojović,Suad Bećirović,Senadin Plojović,Enis Ujkanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 13/2018

In this paper, authors consider the concept of property from the aspect of taxation and associate it with the principles of justice and equality of citizens who make up one community. The paper rely on the discussion of the social contract as well as the work of Loka and Hobs, who considered the formation of the social community, the theory of natural law and the distinction between equality and freedom, and on the basis of their guidelines, the authors try to define the path towards social well-being. This path to social well-being should be based on an adequate distribution of wealth as well as taxation of it. Only with just treatment, even the one where Justice is based on the theory of natural law, one can speak of the welfare society. The authors argue that fair taxation cannot affect the resolution of social differences in society and in the work they have come to deny this attitude and at the same time confirm the alternative hypothesis that there are at least some aspects in which the solution of social differences can be achieved by taxing the entire property of both, physical and legal entities.

HARMONIZACIJA POREZA U EVROPSKOJ UNIJI

Author(s): Samra Dečković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 13/2018

The tax structure in the EU was leading to numerous discussions, its partial alignment and possible full harmonization. However, although they pointed to the complexity of the tax system in the European Union, achieving very few results in the field of harmonization of EU tax systems, the fact remains that the pursuit of activities is still continuously pursued as an ideal basis for the conduct of a common tax policy. The author deals with the issue of harmonization tax systems, since the tax policy and tax system are one of the significant features of the national sovereignty of a country and are an integral part of the overall economic policy it is leading. For this reason, in the single, internal market of the European Union, member states should move in the same direction as regards the tax policies they take. In this regard, the author points to the basic characteristics of the methods for harmonization, but also to the problems that arise. The aim of the paper is to indicate arguments for and against the harmonization of taxes in the European Union.

Finland’s public sector balance sheet

Author(s): Maren Brede,Christian Henn / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

We construct comprehensive public sector balance sheets for Finland for 2000–2016 by complementing general government statistics with data on public corporations and pensions. These static balance sheets show that Finland’s public sector net worth at end 2016 was −160 percent of GDP, after having registered considerable fluctuations previously, including due to asset holdings’ sensitivity to equity valuations. We then expand the analysis to an intertemporal balance sheet by adding present value estimates of future fiscal flows. This allows performing fiscal stress tests and policy experiments. These suggest that Finland’s public finances will remain sound if ongoing reform efforts to address aging pressures yield their expected savings. Under this assumption, intertemporal financial net worth (IFNW) of the public sector would exceed 50 percent of GDP – well within the 30–85 percent of GDP range derived in stress tests as the needed buffer to maintain positive IFNW in light of a severe shock.

THE EFFECT OF TAX PLANNING, EQUITY AND OPERATION CASH FLOW TOWARDS THE EFFORT OF COMPRESSING INCOME TAX BURDEN IN PROPERTY AND REAL ESTATE COMPANIES LISTED IN STOCK EXCHANGE PERIOD 2012-2015

Author(s): Han TONO / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The purpose of this research is to prove and analyze the effect of tax planning, equity and cash flow towards the effort of compressing income tax burden in property and real estate companies listed in Stock exchange in period 2012 – 2015. The population in this research including all property and real estate companies. Sample is taken using purposive sampling technique with the amount of 32 companies. The data used in this research is secondary data, by gathering neccessary information from IDX such as financial report year 2012 – 2015. The method used to analyze the relationship between independent variable and dependent variable is double regression method and assumption method. The result shows that simultaneously, variable – independent variable; tax planning, equity and operation cash flow towards the effort in compressing income tax burden. Partial result, variable of tax planning, equity and operation cash flow towards the effort in compressing income tax.

AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ’NE ÜYELİK SÜRECİNDE TÜRKİYE VE BATI BALKAN ÜLKELERİNİN EKONOMİK VE MALİ PERFORMANSI: KÜRESEL KRİZ SONRASI BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Author(s): Halil SERBES,Mircan TOKATLIOĞLU / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2019

It is aimed to compare the economic and fiscal performance of Western Balkans and Turkey in the process of accession to the European Union. Turkey and the Western Balkans that consist of candidate (Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania) and potential candidate (Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina) countries are obliged to fulfill the criteria for the European Union's economic and fiscal cohesion. The Western Balkans have been forced to fulfill their obligations under the negotiating process, as the global crisis and the subsequent debt crisis seriously affects their economic and fiscal performances as well as European Union members. Economic and fiscal indicators such as real gross domestic product, unemployment, inflation, public deficit, public debt for the years 2008-2017 clearly demonstrate this. Despite the fact that Turkey less affected by global crisis vis-a-vis the Western Balkans has more positive outlook in terms of the indicators, the European Union stands closer to the Western Balkans compared to Turkey.

ЭФФЕКТЫ МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНОГО ПЕРЕРАСПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ ФИНАНСОВЫХ РЕСУРСОВ: ОБЩЕРАВНОВЕСНЫЙ ПОДХОД

Author(s): Artem Gennadevich Isaev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2019

The Russian Federation has a high degree of the socio-economic differentiation among its regions, which objectively requires large-scale redistribution of funds between them. Intergovernmental transfers are one of the main tools of this redistribution.Other things being equal, an increase in transfers to the region leads to an increase in the unpaid goods’ consumption by its residents, which ultimately affects their welfare. Moreover, these changes stimulate interregional migration. Therefore, the resulting change in welfare depends on multiple economic forces. Based on a computable model of general equilibrium with two regions, I assessed the effects of intergovernmental transfers for the Khabarovsk Krai’ economy. The specific feature of the model is the behaviour of regional governments, which optimize the regional tax rate and budget expenditures in a non-cooperative game to maximize the utility function of resident households. The latter are completely mobile between regions and consume two types of goods, private and state-provided ones, under given budgetary restrictions. I carried out simulation estimations for two scenarios differing in motivation incentives of households to change their residency. Calculations have shown that a sharp increase (more than twofold) in the federal budget grants may lead to a significant inflow of labour resources to the recipient region, but changes in welfare, wages and per capita household consumption will be minor. The reason is the behaviour of the regional governments, balancing the households’ consumer basket by changing the volume of local government spending.Ultimately, the actions of regional authorities seeking to maximize the residents’ welfare will result in such changes in tax revenues, which will compensate the increase in households’ consumption of the state-provided goods by the decrease in funding of the same goods from the regional budget.

Emevîlerde Haccâc b. Yûsuf Döneminden İtibaren Mevâlîden Cizye Alınması ve Arka Planı

Author(s): Yunus Akyürek / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2019

The Umayyad State is widely criticized in the West as well as in its own region. Actually, this is normal situation. Because Hijaz Arabs who had no state experience, built a multinational state in short period of time. Yet, this caused serious matters. The fundamental point of the criticism is the payment of tax, also called jizya, which is taken from residents (mawālī) of Khorasan and Transoxania. However, in most studies on this subject, it is understood that the jizya taken from mawālī is combined jizya and kharja, which is different type of tax. Although mawālī was tested for whether it passes religious criteria in critic periods or not, this situation did not last throughout the entire Umayyad history. It was continued for fifteen and twenty years. In this period, it was understood that the jizya tax taken from the mawālī, was caused by the unlawful practices of some regional governors, most of them were non-Muslim local tax officials and all their purpose was to collect the amount of combined jizya. It cannot be said that the Umayyad caliphs officially ordered written instructions in order to take the conceptual sense from the mawālī part. But some Khorasan governors, who detected that taxes were decreasing, blinked at the collection of the jizya from the mawālī.

Equality of the Czech Tax Assignment for Municipalities

Author(s): Eduard Bakoš,Daniel Němec,Petra Dvorakova / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2019

The Czech tax sharing system essentially respects the basic principles described by contemporary theoretical approaches. The purpose of this paper is to examine how changes to its parameters influenced the municipal revenue distribution in relation to revenue equality and uniformity. We simulate different models of tax sharing with the full sample of Czech municipalities between 2010 and 2016. The impact of different parameterization is evaluated using the Gini coefficient. By comparing different scenarios, we conclude that the recent changes contribute to the equality of municipal tax revenue sharing per capita. Nevertheless, the conclusion should be interpreted in a broader context, e.g. concerning grants provided by the central government to municipalities.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Economic Growth

Author(s): Nebojša Stojčić,Meri Šuman-Tolić / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2019

This paper examines the direct and indirect effects of decentralization on economic growth that take place through transmission channels such as government efficiency, control of corruption, government sector size and the quality of living. A dynamic nature of growth, potential endogeneity and the distinction between short-and long-run effects are taken into account. Our findings support proactive government approach, including fiscal policy measures to stimulate demand, prevent decline of production and employment and rebuild trust in institutions. They question the current prevalent thinking about the beneficial effects of the reduction of government expenditure on economic growth.

Tax Policy of the Czech Republic and Securing Funds for Retirement

Author(s): Jana Janoušková,Pavlína Kirschnerová / Language(s): English Issue: 09/2018

Pension policy and issues relating to the life of the elderly in an ageing Europe is one of the major areas that cannot be ignored. The severity of the pension issues is enhanced by the long-term demographic development and the associated question of financing the pension system. The paper is aimed at tax allowances, which are intended to support the old-age security in the form of voluntary and individual savings. In addition to their description, the ways of how these options are used by tax entities are clarified, too. The aim of the research is to assess the use of legislative tax tools leading to the increase in the effectiveness of the given measures. Methodically the research is based on the evaluation of secondary statistical data of the Czech Statistical Office and Financial Administration of the Czech Republic. The data are statistically backed up by primary research, which was carried out in 2016.

Do Fiscal Multipliers Vary with Different Character of Monetary-Fiscal Interactions?

Author(s): Michal Benčík / Language(s): English Issue: 08/2018

We investigate the fiscal multiplier in normal times and in the presence of a binding zero lower bound on interest rates with SVARs. We construct shocks to interest rates that compensate their reactions to fiscal expansion and hold them constant we apply the shocks to the United States, the Euro area and Slovakia. We find that for the former case, the multiplier decreases in the ZLB, but it increases sharply in the ZLB for the latter two cases. The sign of its change is determined by the coordination of fiscal and monetary policy i.e. whether the interest rates drop or rise in response to fiscal expansion.

Balkan Candidate Countries Running for Fiscal Consolidation: Legal Frameworks vs. Economic Results

Author(s): Aleksandra Maksimovska Stojkova,Elena Nešovska Kjoseva,Irena Stojmenovska / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2019

The subject of this paper is four Balkan countries (Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro) that are determined to join the European Union. More particularly, it looks at their work towards accomplishing the political, legal and economic requirements for the EU. Thus, the legislation with the EU Fiscal Compact is the prime focus. Methodologically, the research is based on an assessment of fiscal and monetary legal documents, evaluating the stages of accomplishing the harmonization with the EU’s conditions. Further, cross‑section analyses are made by in putting selected indicators; additionally, the authors compare the four countries’ achievements. The EU’s rigorous fiscal rules are being quietly bypassed, but more frequently by existing member states than the candidate states; this statement is founded on legal and economic arguments, with mathematical estimations. Consequently, the authors question the political courage and financial capacity of the examined countries to cope with the fiscal compact of the superior EU 28 members. The answers are supported with numerous analyses of EU Reports for each country, as well as tables and figures that compare the states’ results and economic achievements vs. EU fiscal consolidation rules. The EU 28 average is givenin addition as a comparison. The conclusion gives across analysis between the four countries and the EU 28 member states, with accompanying argumentation to the main statement about the legal and economic developments of the examined Balkan countries as well as a future prognosis.

Adevărata idee care ne sucește mințile

Author(s): Emanuel COPILAȘ / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2017

Türkiye Ekonomisinde 2002 - 2016 Dönemindeki Mali Çarpanın Kova Yaklaşımı ile İncelenmesi

Author(s): İbrahim Tokatlıoğlu,Nagihan Demet Yavuz Bahadir / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 3/2019

Recent researches emphasize that the effect of fiscal expansion on the output level varies according to countries and economic conjuncture. Researchers often use model-based approaches or statistical methods based on variance analysis to predict fiscal multiplier. In this study, the size of the fiscal multiplier in the Turkish economy is predicted via an alternative approach called "Bucket Approach". The findings obtained for the 2002-2016 period, have similarities with other studies conducted for Turkish economy.

Toplumsal Cinsiyete Duyarlı Vergilendirme: Ülke Örnekleri Özelinde Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz

Author(s): Cahide Göğüsdere / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2019

Budget is a document that is expected to be collected incomes and will make expenditures in the fiscal year. In all stages of budgets, addressing the needs and rights of women and men is called gender sensitive budgeting (GSB). Since 2000, studies and practices related to GSB have gained importance. When examining the relevant literature, it is possible to see examples in more than fourty countries. Countries have been able to create GSB in a way that will comply with their budget systems and the country's structure. While the budget is addressed in terms of gender sensitivity, in specific to taxation, the studies carried out by researchers and taxation analysts are not too much for gender sensitivity. In this study, examples of countries related to gender sensitive taxation (GST) will be emphasized. In this context, studies and practices in India, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom (England) will be discussed and a comparative analysis will be conducted.

Interaction of Monetary and Fiscal Policies in Turkey: A Dynamic Time Series Data Analysis

Author(s): Asli Guler / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2019

Monetary and fiscal policies are designed and implemented by different government agencies, each with its own objectives, resources, constraints, and incentives. The actions of monetary authority may affect the fiscal authority’s public debt management and fiscal deficit. On the other side, the fiscal authority’s action also may affect the stance of monetary policy and its results. This paper aims to find the level of fiscal or monetary dominance by evaluating the interaction of monetary and fiscal policies in Turkey for relevant period. For this purpose, it was examined the relationship between inflation rate, monetary policy interest rate, fiscal deficit, public debt in Turkey for 2000 to 2018 by using VAR and ARDL model. According to the results obtained from VAR analysis monetary variables significantly affect fiscal variables. However, there is no evidence of fiscal dominancy on monetary policy. The evidence acquired via ARDL bound test supports these findings. Hereunder, it can be concluded that monetary policy is dominating fiscal policy in the relevant period.