Search results

This article looks at the issues which the Inland Revenue might consider in deciding whether to convert its paper records to another medium. There is a brief description of the functions of the Revenue, followed by an outline of some of the legislation which governs the actions of the Revenue. Some of the new developments which are currently being introduced in the Revenue are mentioned. Having given this background information the article looks at the ways in which the paper records could be converted to other media. It considers whether such conversion would be acceptable in the context of the legal requirements relating to the Revenue's operations, as the legal aspect of media conversion is the most important issue for an organisation whose main role is to implement tax law. This is followed by a mention of some of the other considerations which relate to media conversion issues, but which are not strictly legal issues. Note that this is not a comprehensive case study of current records conversion practices and policies in the Inland Revenue, but rather an examination of the issues which the Revenue might consider. Other organisations would have similar issues to consider, particularly if they also have strict requirements regarding documents as evidence.

This study aims to investigate the certainty of small business (SB) taxpayers about the presumptive tax law concerning the assessment of income tax based on gross turnover and how this impacts their income tax compliance.

The study adopted the exploratory research design. The saturation point was attained upon interviewing nine owners of SB enterprises, eight tax officers from the Uganda Revenue Authority and eight tax consultants. Themes were identified and explained using verbatim texts from the various interviews. Data were analyzed using the content analysis technique.

The findings indicate that SB taxpayers are uncertain about the nature of the presumptive tax, that it is assessed based on annual sales, indicators used to determine gross turnover and their actual tax liability. This has occasioned resistance to the tax system and inhibited voluntary compliance. SB taxpayers thus opt to wait for the tax officers to make tax assessments. However, they have used this opportunity to bribe or bargain with tax officers to pay low amounts in tax or no tax at all. Thus, policymakers and revenue authorities ought to concentrate on creating massive sensitization of the law on presumptive tax, in this case, the existing tax base on which the tax is imposed and its elements to improve income tax compliance of SBs.

These results are relevant to policymakers and Revenue authorities in developing countries, especially in Africa, in improving income tax compliance of SBs.

This study examines the contribution of certainty of the income tax law on the tax base (gross turnover) on which presumptive tax is imposed to income tax compliance of SBs, which has hardly been covered in previous studies.

To better detect potential audit issues, since 2010, the Internal Revenue Service has required firms to file a separate schedule individually disclosing each of their uncertain tax positions (UTPs). This study uses an experiment to examine how this increase in detection risk from the newly created IRS schedule influences both a firm’s tax reporting and financial reporting concurrently. We find that corporate tax professionals were more likely to recommend an UTP when their firm had a strong UTP reporting quality, regardless of the detection risk level of the reporting environment. However, we find an interaction effect for the recording of the tax reserve. In a low detection risk environment, corporate tax professionals recorded a higher (lower) tax reserve when their firm had a weak (strong) UTP reporting quality. However, in a high detection risk environment, corporate tax professionals recorded a lower (higher) tax reserve when their firm had a weak (strong) UTP reporting quality. Overall, the results provide insight into the dual nature of UTP reporting and the determinants that influence each reporting behavior.

The aim of this paper is to extend the prior auditing literature by examining audit engagement challenges arising during government tax compliance audits. The prior auditing literature has examined how audit engagement challenges have been resolved through auditor/auditee negotiations.

The empirical evidence for the paper was gathered during a participant observation study conducted by the primary researcher over a period of six years while working as an auditor for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the US Department of Treasury.

This paper discusses various challenges faced by government auditors and how these challenges were resolved. The path to resolution was not always clearly marked. Resolution depended a great deal on the individual auditor’s judgment, interpretation of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs), and the willingness of the auditee to change the methods and techniques they use in operating and reporting wine operations. Materiality was determined by compliance with the regulation criteria [CFRs and the US Code (USC)] – any non-compliance was considered to be material. Resolution of many of the challenges resulted in an increased payments of excise taxes or penalties by the auditee entities. In other cases, the audit agency allowed the auditees to agree to change or amend their practices to correct a violation or a lack of compliance with US federal government regulations. As such, while the difference in the role and status of the government tax compliance auditor as compared with the independent external auditor did not necessarily lead to a different set of audit procedures, the pattern of communications between the auditor and the auditee in a government tax compliance audit were quite different from an external audit of financial statements. The government tax compliance environment is often complex, but the auditor may draw on a number of sources of knowledge and communication: CFRs, USC, Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, national audit planning, national experts, winery management, local peers, local government supervision, legal counsel and other auditors.

The primary contribution of the paper lies in the fact that little or no prior research in auditing has been conducted using participant observation as a research methodology. The use of participant observation provides new perspectives on the resolution of audit engagement challenges and auditor/auditee communication and negotiation.

Several genealogical databases are now publicly available on the Web. The information stored in such databases is not only of interest for genealogical research but might also be used in broader historical studies. As a case study, this paper aims to explore what a crowdsourced genealogical online database can tell about income inequality in Denmark during the First World War.

The analysis is based on 55,000 family-level records on the payment of local income taxes in a major Danish provincial town (Esbjerg) from a publicly available database on the website of The Esbjerg City Archives combined with official statistics from Statistics Denmark.

Denmark saw a sharp increase in income inequality during the First World War. The analysis shows that the new riches during the First World War in a harbour city such as Esbjerg were not “goulash barons” or stock-market speculators but fishermen. There were no fishermen in the top 1per cent of the income distribution in 1913. In 1917, more than 37 per cent of the family heads in this part of the income distribution were fishermen.

The paper illustrates how large-scale microdata from publicly available genealogical Web databases might be used to gain new insights into broader historical issues.

This paper aims to examine areas of tax difficulties encountered by corporate taxpayers in complying with tax obligations under the self-assessment system.

A two-phase exploratory mixed methods approach was employed. The first phase involves eight focus group interviews with 60 tax auditors from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) and the second phase adopts a mixed-mode survey among selected Malaysian corporate taxpayers. Thematic analysis and descriptive and inferential analysis were used to examine the qualitative and quantitative data in achieving the objective.

Three dimensions of tax complexity encountered by corporate taxpayers were tax computations, record keeping and tax ambiguity. The first two complexity dimensions were faced largely by smaller companies. On the other hand, the least difficult tax-related areas were dealing with tax agents, submitting tax returns within the given time and dealing with the tax authority.

In a tax policy context, this study enables international tax authorities in general, and Malaysian tax authority in particular, to have greater confidence in developing and administering tax laws and policies to maintain and/or increase the overall level of corporate tax compliance.

Unlike prior studies that mainly used individual taxpayers or students as research participants, this study employed corporate tax auditors from the tax authority and corporate tax officers. Tax auditors and corporate taxpayers provide invaluable insights into the possible determinants of compliance variables. These insights are based on their practical experience in handling corporate tax audits and managing corporate tax matters, respectively.

This paper evaluates on a comparative basis three different property tax systems, British, French and Swedish. For this purpose an evaluation model, based on two criteria – namely efficiency and fairness – and on a number of sub‐criteria, is used. A comparison of the systems’ efficiency reveals that the French system is the least efficient while the Swedish system is the most efficient. A comparison of the systems’ fairness shows that, despite significant variations in the systems characteristics, all three systems can be evaluated as relatively fair.

The objective of this chapter is to compare the measurement bases of income and expenditures found in International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) used in Public Accounts with those in the statistical rules used in National Accounts/Government Finance Statistics (GFS). Both frameworks apply an accrual methodology, but, while some governments appear dubious about adopting the IPSAS framework, the National Accounts framework is more ‘tried and tested’ for government financial reporting on an international scale. The practical application of the accrual methodology in the two frameworks differs to a certain extent. These differences provide learning opportunities for both frameworks.

The purpose of this paper is to review the quantum and magnitude of tax avoidance in Nigeria's top seven banks by using recognized tax avoidance proxies of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) effective tax rate (ETR) and book-tax gap analysis for the appraisal.

Data for the paper came from the annual reports of the banks between 2011 and 2019. The individual bank’s tax data was analyzed for trends and then consolidated to establish the average percentages and the exact amount of the tax the banks evaded each year and cumulatively over the review period. The data were then matched with analytics of the drivers of tax avoidance in the reconciliation statement to highlight essential tax planning items and strategies being exploited by each bank in the pursuit of aggressive tax avoidance behavior.

F-test comparing the aggregate means (all banks) for tax evasion proxies of ETR and the book-tax gap was conducted at a 95% confidence interval. The results of this paper indicate no significant difference between the means obtained, thus affirming that the same pattern of tax evasion was consistent among the banks for the years reviewed.

The findings of this paper highlight the tax avoidance behavior of the referenced banks, identify weaknesses in the corporate tax planning policy pursued and serve to alert policymakers of the need to strengthen the laws and block loopholes that provide rooms for unrestrained tax avoidance behavior in the banking sector.

I examine patterns of making or deferring strategic repatriations that firms can use to either meet analysts' forecasts or defer to maintain future reported earnings flexibility. First, I examine the extent to which firms repatriate earnings from high foreign tax subsidiaries to decrease US tax expense, resulting in increased net income and lower cash taxes. Using federal tax return information, I find evidence that firms strategically repatriate these earnings to meet or beat current analysts' forecasts. Next, I find evidence that firms that are able to obtain current year tax reductions defer these repatriations in an attempt to build cookie-jar reserves. Lastly, I find that firms do not disclose high foreign tax repatriations (HTRs), even when required by SEC rules. This study contributes to the earnings management, tax avoidance, and disclosure literature by examining a discretionary tax planning strategy.