Global Trends and Constraints on Tax Policy in the Least Developed Countries
University of British Columbia Law Review, Vol. 40
University of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1086
32 Pages Posted: 11 Aug 2009
Date Written: August 7, 2009
Abstract
Through decades of tax reform and cross-border collaboration, the world's wealthiest countries have adopted domestic tax policy norms that meet their mutually beneficial interests. But these norms have introduced rigorous change and increasingly rigid parameters for tax policy in the world's poorest countries. While much scholarly attention is devoted to identifying tax strategies that poor countries could or should adopt in response to global tax trends, relatively little is paid to the process through which these trends developed and how they constrain alternative policy choices. This article argues that many of the biggest challenges to taxation faced by the world's poorest countries are a reflection of the international community's failure to consider the impact of their tax policy consensus on these vulnerable nations. It concludes that the world's wealthiest nations should unleash the global constraints on tax policy by reforming their own approaches to taxation.
Keywords: tax, tax policy, global tax policy, tax reform, cross-border, domestic tax, international, norms, change, tax strategies, tax trends, tax policy consensus, constraints, free trade, international tax, taxation of capital, VAT, value added taxation, consumption taxation, developed countries
JEL Classification: H11, H21, H87, F02, F5, F53, F59, Z13, E63, H2, K33, K34, N4, P45
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation