Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications

This study discusses options how to increase the Dominican Republic tax revenue and attempts to identify priority areas for efficiency-enhancing reforms. A 2016 World Bank report on Dominican fiscal policy found that the country's tax expendit...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/903761518538205568/Gearing-up-for-a-more-efficient-tax-system-an-assessment-of-tax-efficiency-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-tax-expenditures-and-an-exploration-of-labor-informality-and-its-tax-implications
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29394
id okr-10986-29394
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-293942021-05-25T09:11:40Z Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications World Bank TAX ADMINISTRATION TAXATION TAX EFFICIENCY VALUE-ADDED TAX INCOME TAX CORPORATE TAX TAX EXPENDITURE TAX EVASION INFORMALITY INFORMAL LABOR FISCAL TRENDS This study discusses options how to increase the Dominican Republic tax revenue and attempts to identify priority areas for efficiency-enhancing reforms. A 2016 World Bank report on Dominican fiscal policy found that the country's tax expenditures were poorly targeted and regressively distributed, benefitting the wealthy more than the poor, and imposed considerable fiscal and economic costs. The report also showed that the tax contribution of the informal sector is extremely low, despite the fact that informal workers account for roughly half of the active labor force. As the new government prepares the ‘fiscal pact' first described in the country's development strategy 2030, policymakers will require a more thorough understanding of these issues and their fiscal, economic, and distributional implications. Thus, building on past analytical work, the present study focuses on two priority areas: tax efficiency and labor informality. Chapter One reveals that the DR's strong and sustained economic growth in recent years has had only a modest impact on revenues' efficiency from value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, and minor taxes. An analysis of tax-collection efficiency reveals several feasible options for boosting tax revenues. Chapter Two explores the characteristics, correlates, and effects of widespread labor informality in the DR. Identifying the correlates of informality yield important implications for promoting formalization and thereby broadening the income-tax base. 2018-02-28T19:25:02Z 2018-02-28T19:25:02Z 2017-06 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/903761518538205568/Gearing-up-for-a-more-efficient-tax-system-an-assessment-of-tax-efficiency-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-tax-expenditures-and-an-exploration-of-labor-informality-and-its-tax-implications http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29394 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Public Sector Study Economic & Sector Work Latin America & Caribbean Dominican Republic
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TAX ADMINISTRATION
TAXATION
TAX EFFICIENCY
VALUE-ADDED TAX
INCOME TAX
CORPORATE TAX
TAX EXPENDITURE
TAX EVASION
INFORMALITY
INFORMAL LABOR
FISCAL TRENDS
spellingShingle TAX ADMINISTRATION
TAXATION
TAX EFFICIENCY
VALUE-ADDED TAX
INCOME TAX
CORPORATE TAX
TAX EXPENDITURE
TAX EVASION
INFORMALITY
INFORMAL LABOR
FISCAL TRENDS
World Bank
Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Dominican Republic
description This study discusses options how to increase the Dominican Republic tax revenue and attempts to identify priority areas for efficiency-enhancing reforms. A 2016 World Bank report on Dominican fiscal policy found that the country's tax expenditures were poorly targeted and regressively distributed, benefitting the wealthy more than the poor, and imposed considerable fiscal and economic costs. The report also showed that the tax contribution of the informal sector is extremely low, despite the fact that informal workers account for roughly half of the active labor force. As the new government prepares the ‘fiscal pact' first described in the country's development strategy 2030, policymakers will require a more thorough understanding of these issues and their fiscal, economic, and distributional implications. Thus, building on past analytical work, the present study focuses on two priority areas: tax efficiency and labor informality. Chapter One reveals that the DR's strong and sustained economic growth in recent years has had only a modest impact on revenues' efficiency from value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, and minor taxes. An analysis of tax-collection efficiency reveals several feasible options for boosting tax revenues. Chapter Two explores the characteristics, correlates, and effects of widespread labor informality in the DR. Identifying the correlates of informality yield important implications for promoting formalization and thereby broadening the income-tax base.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
title_short Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
title_full Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
title_fullStr Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
title_full_unstemmed Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System : An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
title_sort dominican republic gearing up for a more efficient tax system : an assessment of tax efficiency, a cost-benefit analysis of tax expenditures, and an exploration of labor informality and its tax implications
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/903761518538205568/Gearing-up-for-a-more-efficient-tax-system-an-assessment-of-tax-efficiency-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-tax-expenditures-and-an-exploration-of-labor-informality-and-its-tax-implications
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29394
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