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The post Why do people oppose wealth taxes? Some new data offer some insights. appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post Are Digital Companies Really Undertaxed? Evidence Using the Weighted Effective Tax Rate Method appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post Effects of taxation on European multi-nationals’ financing and profits appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post Hollande is right about cutting public spending appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post Germany: government waste galore appeared first on IREF Europe.

On July 6 the Berlusconi government passed a first package of mandating modest immediate cuts in the expenditure and similarly modest immediate increases in tax revenue to address concerns on the capacity of Italy to serve its huge public debt. Because this was not enough to reassure markets, the government had to pass a second, more substantial, package of fiscal measures on August 13. Despite those packages and the drafting of a constitutional amendment requiring balanced budgets, Berlusconi’s government had to go off the stage and the new Monti’s team immediately introduced a third package. As a result, Italy probably never experienced since the tax reform of the 1970’s such a huge number of changes in its tax system. Changes refer both to the introduction of new taxes and to modification of tax rates and of the tax base of the present taxes.

The post Italy in the tax turmoil appeared first on IREF Europe.

In view of the great fragility of French public finances, all the candidates to the April 2012 Presidential elections have felt the necessity to explain their strategy to put the country back on track, if elected. As a result, fiscal policy has attracted more public attention than rarely ever in the past. Although propositions seem to vary substantially from one candidate to the other, standing back they pretty much come down to the same two-tier plan: (1) cut some taxes here and raise some there so that the net balance is zero and (2) cut some public expenses here and increase some there so that net balance is zero or slightly positive (small reduction in public deficit). In short, no substantial reform, neither in the field of taxation or in the field of public expenditures, is to be expected. This, some say, is justified by the desire to save the country from recession (GDP is expected to stagnate during the first quarter of 2012 and to grow by 0.2% in the second quarter). Keynesianism is still popular there: A strategy that displays a great deal of stubbornness if we recall that France has already one of the highest levels of public expenditures in the world.

The post French 2011 fiscal reforms in retrospect appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post The Spanish Corporate Income Tax Hike Will Hurt Economic Recovery appeared first on IREF Europe.

The post Spain Becomes One of Europe’s Highest Taxed Countries appeared first on IREF Europe.