OECD REVENUE STATISTICS

Tax and development roundtable: New data, new findingsCGD / ICTDWashington DC, Tuesday 9 September 2014

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• The OECD Revenue Statistics publications • The extension to non-member countries• The partnerships between OECD and

regional organisations• A tax policy tool• A common methodology• The involvement of participating countries• The next steps

Presentation plan

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• The OECD is an intergovernmental organisation that has forged global standards, international conventions, agreements and recommendations to promote rules of the game in international taxation. The OECD’s 34 member countries, as well as many partner countries, adhere to these agreements. The OECD plays a key role in strengthening international tax co-operation in order to combat tax offences and provides analytical support for the development of efficient tax systems, thereby helping to restore growth, create jobs and reduce inequalities.

• The Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) is the focal point for the OECD's work on all taxation issues, both international and domestic. Through its work, the CTPA enhances the OECD's global role in standard-setting, building knowledge, interacting with governments to inform and influence policy making in the tax area. The CTPA collaborates with other parts of the Organisation on horizontal issues such as tax and climate change, tax and growth, and the impact of taxation on labour markets.

• The Development Centre is a forum where countries come to share their experience of economic and social development policies. Its objective is to help decision makers find policy solutions to stimulate growth and improve living conditions in developing and emerging economies.

An OECD joint project

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REVENUE STATISTICS PUBLICATIONS

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OECD compares tax revenue of its members using a database commencing in 1965

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An online database

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• The publications provide an overview of the main tax trends over time

• Contain comparative statistics on:- The overall tax burden as measured by tax to

GDP ratios

- The tax-mix (distribution of tax revenues by type of tax)

- The share of tax revenues attributed to the different levels of government (i.e. federal or central, state or local)

• Methodology for defining and classifying tax revenues

Content

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DEVELOPING COMPARABLE STATISTICS ON NON-

MEMBER COUNTRIES

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• This annual publication presents a conceptual framework designed to define and classify public revenue from what are regarded as taxes in a common format for the countries concerned and to propose statistics by geographical area

• This expansion is driven by a desire to improve the comparability, consistency, quality and accessibility of revenue statistics and tax indicators in developing and emerging economies

The OECD is expanding its flagship publication “Revenue Statistics”

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First publication on Latin American countries in early 2012

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• OECD currently working in partnership with 2 regional Latin American organisations :– The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the

Caribbean (ECLAC) – The Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrations (CIAT)

• The 2014 publication covers a group of 18 LAC countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. It is planned that that the 4th edition (2015) will include two additional countries (+ Barbados and Jamaica) .

• It also includes a special chapter describing the trends in revenues from nonrenewable natural resources and discusses the drivers of the increases observed since the year 2000

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean

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« Just a few years after the launch of its first edition in 2012, this publication has become an international benchmark, which is regularly referenced in international newspapers and magazines (it was recently mentioned in The Economist) (…) The publication now covers 18 countries from 1990 to 2012 and provides comparable data across the region and the OECD countries. This comparative database allows governments to benchmark their structure with their peers in the region and with other countries in the OECD ».Angel Gurría, SG de l’OCDE, mars 2014, à Paris (France), lors du cocktail de lancement de l’ouvrage sur les statistiques fiscales des pays d’Amérique latine

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• 2 years from decision to commence work to publication

• Importance of local partners

• Start with published data (on line and books)

• Importance of (formal and informal) exchange with local officials to clarify definitions and proof the disponibility of data

• Cost relatively low for each country– but very diverse

• Start with the publication of an initial release with additional countries being included in subsequent releases

• Importance of political motivation and implication of local officials

What have we learned from this experience ?

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• Revenue Statistics in Asian countries 2014 (may) is the first edition for this region. It presents detailed, internationally comparable data on tax revenues for four Asian economies, two of which are OECD members. The Asian countries covered are Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Malaysia

• Second edition planned for 2015 to include some additional countries – full list to be decided

• For future editions, it is expected that the publication will be expanded to other Asian countries including one Pacific Islands country

Revenue Statistics in Asian countries

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• It is anticipated that the first edition of Revenue Statistics in Africa is to be published late 2015.

• It is proposed that the publication will be launched in partnership with the World Customs Organisation (WCO). The African Development Bank, African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), Centre de rencontres et d’études des dirigeants des administrations fiscales francophones (CREDAF) and the African Union have also expressed the wish to collaborate on this initiative.

• Half a dozen countries are foreseen to be covered in the first edition and four countries have already committed to participate: Cameroon, Mauritius, South Africa and Tunisia. Other African countries have expressed agreement in principle.

Revenue Statistics in Africa

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PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN OECD AND REGIONAL

ORGANISATIONS

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• The OECD and local partners co-produce a joint publication under a co-publication agreement.

• The role of the various partners to the project varies across regions– Encouraging countries to join the OECD Revenue Statistics project– Enhancing the involvement of participating countries– Supporting the data collection– Helping to formulate the next steps– Publishing their own reports / data can be utilised by partners as necessary as long

as the source is internally quoted– Organizing tax policy and administration dialog meeting across their region

• The role of the OECD also varies– Collecting the data– Analysing and harmonising the data– Maintaining the databases– Publishing the data on-line– Updating the OECD interpretative guide when necessary– Providing advice and assistance to local partners and countries on key questions

related to the classification of the source of revenue data to ensure consistency with the OECD methodology

Regional partners play a key role

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A TAX POLICY TOOL

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• A tool developed by and for tax policy makers• Improve their capacity to mobilise their own

resources ; a high priority on the international and local agendas

• Inform their decision-making with regard to tax reform possibilities

• Provide the data necessary to assess alternative fiscal reforms and make relevant policy recommendations

• Provide essential inputs to most structural economic and social analyses: economic growth, inequalities, informal sector, state building… In particular, data on the “tax mix” is particularly important for the development of tax reforms due to the varying effects of different types of taxes on economic growth and income distribution.

A tool adapted to tax and customs policy decision-maker

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• Provide countries with the same statistical indicators as those available to tax and customs policy makers in OECD countries

• Guaranteed comparability: the same method for collecting, analysing, aggregating and presenting data for all regions

• Not only allow for comparisons with OECD countries, but also on a regional and increasingly global basis

A common standart for comparability

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• Data checked and validated by national authorities or regional organisations

• Continuous dialogue between stakeholders, the OECD, international organisations and participating countries during the data production stage

Guaranteed accuracy

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• Comparable statistics will also facilitate transparent tax policy dialogue

• Available background information are given I.E. sources…

• Everybody can check and discuss accuracy• Researchers can easily re-use the data• Local statisticians can easily add their own

indicators coherent with the basic ones

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COMMON METHODOLOGY

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• The methodology used in compiling the OECD’s internally comparable revenue statistics has been carefully developed and refined through consultation with statisticians and tax policy makers over more than 40 years

• Contents reviewed annually by an OECD Working Party and updated to take account of new taxes (recent examples include the new bank levies introduced in many countries following the financial crisis and payments for tradable emissions permits)

• Each publication contains either a “Special Feature” chapter • Involving new countries will lead the Secretariat to new

methodological challenges. Partners and countries help resolve them. Some issues can already been foreseen such as the availability of standardised national accounts, the high proportion of non-tax revenue, the high presence of tax exonerations and exempted economic sectors like agriculture, etc.

The Interpretative Guide

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- compulsory - unrequited (sans contrepartie)

- made to the government sector

The definition of tax payments

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• Main headings in the OECD classification

1000 Taxes on income, profits and gains;

2000 Social security contributions;3000 Taxes on payroll and workforce;4000 Taxes on property;5000 Taxes on goods and services;6000 Other tax revenues.

The tax classification

• 1100 Individuals

1110 Income and profits

1120 Capital gains

• 1200 Corporates

1210 Income and profits

1220 Capital gains

• 1300 Unallocable as between 1100 and 1200

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1000 Taxes on incomes, profits and capital gains

• 2100 Employee contributions

• 2200 Employer contributions

• 2300 Contributions by the self employed and non-employed

• 2400 Unallocable as between 2100, 2200 and 2300

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2000 Social security contributions

• 4100 Re-current taxes on immovable property

4110 Households

4120 Others

• 4200 Re-current net wealth taxes

4210 Households

4220 Corporates

• 4300 Re-current net wealth taxes

4310 Estate and inheritance taxes

4320 Gift taxes

• 4400 Taxes on financial and capital transactions

• 4500 Other non-recurrent taxes on property

• 4600 Other recurrent taxes on property

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4000 Property taxes

• 5100 Taxes on production, sale and transfer of goods and services 5110 General sales taxes 5111 Value-added taxes 5112 Sales taxes 5113 Other general taxes 5120 Taxes on specific goods and services 5121 Excises 5122 Profits of fiscal monopolies 5123 Customs and import duties 5124 Exports 5125 Investment taxes 5126 Specific services 5127 Other taxes on international trade and transactions 5128 Other taxes on specific goods and services 5130 Unallocable as between 5110 and 5120

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5000 Taxes on goods and services (1)

• 5200 Taxes on the use of goods or permission to perform activities

5210 Recurrent taxes

5211 Motor vehicles taxes - households

5212 Motor vehicles taxes - others

5213 Other recurrent taxes

5220 Non recurrent taxes

• 5300 Unallocable as between 5100 and 5200

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5000 Taxes on goods and services (2)

• 6100 Paid solely by business

• 6200 Paid by other than business or unidentifiable

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6000 Other taxes

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INVOLVEMENT OF PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES

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• The publication of data is the result of a continuous dialogue between the OECD, the other partners and participating countries.

• Each country provides and facilitates the compilation of data on revenues since 1990-2012 in accordance with the planned classification,

• with the support of the OECD Secretariat. • Countries are encouraged to take the lead in retrieving their data. • Ideally, each country should designate a focal point in a local authority (national statistics

institute, Treasury, etc.). This person will assist in identifying the right contacts in the tax, customs and social security administrations and obtain their support to ensure the provision of more detailed data or information when necessary.

• Each country is encouraged to collaborate with the OECD and its partners such as WCO, ECLAC, CIAT to resolve classification problems.

• In certain cases, the OECD might consider holding technical joint events, to which all partners along with participating countries are invited, to discuss methodology and implementation.

• National interns are welcomed in Paris to enhance their capacities in producing the data in the right format.

• Each country checks and validates the final data. They also participate in the dissemination of the results and the ongoing dialogue on tax and customs policy.

• Participate in the dissemination of results and in the dialogue on tax and customs policy by standalone seminars organised to present results

• Support dialogue on tax and customs policy at different levels (national, regional)

Involvement of countries has to be active

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• 1. Country to accept formally and designate a contact point;

• 2. Secretariat to send data template, example and guide;

• 3. Country to fill the data template since 1990 and provide useful side information;

• 4. Bilateral consultation process to check and correct assumptions and data;

• 5. Exchanges to clarify any classification issues that might arise;

• 6. Secretariat to draft graphical profile and chapter for inclusion in the upcoming edition;

• 7. Country to formally comment, check and validate final data;

• 8. Secretariat to include comments and publish with partners.

Basic process for each country

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• There is a strong correlation between local administrative capacity and the ease with which OECD revenue statistics standards can be reliably applied within a country, both in terms of generating tax statistics and applying them to frame appropriate policy recommendations and implement effective policy reform. As far as possible, such analyses should be entrusted to local researchers.

• For some countries where the statistical foundation is less developed, it would be useful to analyse difficulties. The main objective would be the continuous adaptation of the methodological standards to country specific contexts with an eye on ensuring data comparability with OECD countries and optimum quality. Aspects of the overall process that may deserve attention include institutional parameters, human resources, statistical tools and methodology.

• Another key objective would be to help partner countries with the production of data, including through the development of tailored nomenclatures, MOUs for access to administrative data, standard file formats, implementing procedures for assessing data and comparison of the results, and the promotion of exchange of best practices between countries.

Country-specific research on applying the methodology

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NEXT STEPS

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• The OECD is encouraging countries to come on board

• Thank you and any questions?

Next steps

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Contact

GLOBAL PROJECT

Mr. Maurice Nettley Head Statistics Unit Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) Tel: +33 1 45 24 96 17 maurice.nettley@oecd.org

Ms. Jocelyn Pierre Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) Tel: +33 1 45 24 89 60 jocelyn.pierre@oecd.org

AFRICA EDITION ASIA EDITION LAC EDITION

Mr. Luis Padilla Development Centre Tel: +33 1 45 24 85 45 luis.padilla@oecd.org

Mr. Kojiro Yoshizawa Centre for Tax Policy and Administration Tel: +33 1 45 24 17 94 Kojiro.Yoshozawa@oecd.org

Mr. Luis Padilla Development Centre Tel: +33 1 45 24 85 45 luis.padilla@oecd.org

www.oecd.org/ctp/tax-policy/revenue-statistics-publications.htm

www.oecd.org/fiscalite

ctp.contact@oecd.org

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