Migration, Taxation, and Inequality
International migration is intimately intertwined with issues of taxation, inequality and public welfare benefits, both in home and destination countries. In home countries the emigration of workers, especially high-skilled workers, is often percei...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/05/16252940/migration-taxation-inequality http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10038 |
| Summary: | International migration is intimately
intertwined with issues of taxation, inequality and public
welfare benefits, both in home and destination countries. In
home countries the emigration of workers, especially
high-skilled workers, is often perceived to create a fiscal
loss due to the cost of educating these workers and foregone
tax revenues that may reduce the fiscal resources available
for income redistribution. On the other hand, remittances,
when well spent, can create multiplier effects and
contribute to increasing domestic demand and growth, as well
as increasing tax collections. In destination countries,
immigration raises other challenges, especially when poor
and undocumented workers are perceived as taking more from
the government budget in the form of social welfare and
health care benefits than what they contribute in the form
of tax revenues. This note discusses some of the current
issues around migration and taxation including how to
compensate home countries for the fiscal losses of
high-skilled emigration, how to bring immigrants into the
tax system and make them net contributors, whether or not to
tax inward, cross-border remittances, and designing
appropriate tax incentives to encourage diaspora investment
in the home country. |
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