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This study aims to compare recent topics on value-added tax (VAT) in the European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), understand the differences in VAT discourses between the two regions and explore the connection between research agendas, institutional legacies and semantic output in the field of VAT in each territory.

A bibliometric study was conducted using R programming. The data were gathered from the Scopus database, which contains 99 English-language publications with publication dates ranging from 1996 to 2022 (87 of which are from the EU and 12 from the GCC). Information about publications, journals, authors and citations is gathered, validated, cross-referenced and analyzed using bibliometric metrics.

The results highlight two ideal research contexts for studying VAT: the EU countries approach VAT research with a centralized, pluralistic and quantitative focus, while the GCC countries adopt a centralized, qualitative and practically oriented approach, highlighting distinct research goals, collaboration styles and institutional legacies. The authors extend their result findings to broader discussions on competing knowledge systems in VAT, the significance of the state and the level of autonomy within tax governance after identifying the most popular issues among scholars working in GCC and EU countries.

Although the focus of this analysis is restricted to the GCC and EU, it includes theoretical recommendations for broadening its application to other nations. Researchers from the GCC and the EU may benefit from this study by gaining more about VAT and being encouraged to share their research with young researchers. The study’s findings are relevant and important for comprehending the comparative state of research on VAT in GCC and EU countries, tax fields, publications and institutions.

This study analyzes the VAT systems of the GCC and the EU while identifying the intellectual structure of the field from each author’s point of view, revealing the scientometrics and informetrics intellectual structures in detail.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between trust in government, value added tax (VAT) compliance costs and VAT compliance in the Jordanian retail industry context.

The study makes use of an online questionnaire survey to collect the required data, and the research model is eventually validated based on 189 responses gathered from the retail industry in Jordan. The obtained data was analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling to examine the effects of trust in government and costs of VAT compliance on VAT compliance.

The results showed that VAT compliance costs have no significant influence on VAT compliance; while trust in government was found statistically positive significant with VAT compliance.

This study’s results are expected to have implications for VAT authorities and policymakers in Arab countries, like Jordan in their policies formulation to enhance VAT compliance in retail industry. The study’s findings are alerting the policymakers for the positive noneconomic consequences of VAT compliance. It provides evidence that trust in government can increase VAT compliance.

The results of the research have a plentiful of social implications. Higher VAT compliance will enable higher levels of government spending on a many of social targets such as health, education, welfare programs and infrastructure.

While the study builds on recent research examining how to incentivize VAT compliance, it simultaneously seeks to make three contributions. First, the study design aims to apply recent advances in behavioral sciences (impact of trust in government and VAT compliance costs) in a policy area that has not seen much use of such interventions in the Jordanian context (i.e. VAT compliance). Second, the study is government procedures pertinent in the sense that it aims to increase the effectiveness of existing government policies by complementing them with behavioral primes. Third, there is nearly no literature found applying this topic in a developing country such as Jordan. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines the trust in government and VAT compliance costs on VAT compliance among Jordanian retail industry. Thus, this paper contributes to mitigating the literature gap by providing empirical evidence concerning the influence of trust in government and VAT compliance costs on the retail industry VAT compliance in the Jordanian context.

Extensive macro- and micro-economics research has been conducted on China's tax reform, which replaced business tax with value-added tax (VAT). However, existing studies have not clarified the reform's impact on firm-level investment decisions. Hence, this study explored the effect of replacing business tax with VAT on firms' investment efficiency.

The study used 2010–2018 data from China's A-share listed companies and a difference-in-differences (DID) model to explore the effect of the reform on firm-level investment decisions.

The authors found that China's tax reform has improved investment efficiency in underinvested firms, increased liquidity and decreased the level of reliance on external financing. The tax reform had a greater effect on investment efficiency in firms with lower liquidity and higher external financing reliance. Its effect was also more significant among non-state-owned and small companies.

This study fills the aforementioned research gap by exploring the effects of China's tax reform, thus providing a theoretical reference and a basis for policymaking.

This study aims to explore the prospects of istijrar financing in the Islamic banking of Bangladesh. Istijrar is a supply sale contract that facilitates recurrent transactions under a master agreement without needing a deal-to-deal agreement. Murabahah financing in Bangladesh is being criticized for Shari’ah violations, which can be minimized if istijrar financing is integrated and applied.

The study uses a qualitative approach, primarily using a semistructured interview method to collect the primary data. The study conducted 13 one-to-one interviews with leading Islamic banking experts in the country, including Shari’ah scholars, Islamic bankers and regulators. Besides, the study consults with classical and contemporary fiqhi sources to realize the status of istijrar sale in Islamic law. Thematic analysis is performed to explore the qualitative data.

The study finds that istijrar financing has great prospects in the Islamic banking of Bangladesh. Istijrar is applicable in consumer financing and can be offered as an alternative or supplement to murabahah. Also, postimport murabahah financing can be structured with istijrar, while it can also be used in export financing. Besides, a few challenges should be dealt with before offering istijrar, such as proper structure, lack of literacy, stakeholders’ awareness, Shari’ah and regulatory approval and alignment with the law of the land.

Murabahah financing is dominant on the asset side of Islamic banks’ balance sheets in Bangladesh. Murabahah practice in Bangladesh is frequently criticized for some possible Shari’ah violations. Also, more documents are needed for each murabahah operation, which eventually accelerates the costs. Applying istijrar would minimize these issues as it does not require a new contract for each deal. Multiple supplies can be done under a single agreement. Besides, istijrar reduces documentation hassle and transaction costs. Istijrar would be an easy practice and benefit the bank and its clients.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge and the Islamic banking industry. The existing studies have not adequately addressed the potential of istijrar in Islamic banking. In addition, this study will be an eye-opener for Islamic bankers to develop new products with istijrar.

It is important to consider economic and political factors when designing the tax mix and setting the level of corporate taxation. Increasing corporate taxation can be seen as an inefficient way to raise revenue for the state, as it can have a negative impact on investment and the competitiveness of firms. However, lowering corporate taxation can encourage investment and job creation, but it can also be perceived as supporting large corporations. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate corporate taxation, its position in the tax mix and its potential impact on economic growth. The revenues of corporate income tax (CIT) have an increasing tendency even though the tax rate was reduced from 41% to 19%. Revenues are influenced by both legislative changes and economic cycles. The level of taxation is also influenced by deductions, which include asset depreciations, research and development expenses, or loss deductions. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to examine the correlation between the selected factors. A moderately strong positive correlation was found between GDP growth and CIT as a percentage of total taxes, as well as between GDP growth and CIT as a percentage of GDP.

This study aims to examine the illicit capital movement through trade misinvoicing in Burundi, at disaggregated levels by major trading partners and by major export and import commodities.

Trade misinvoicing is estimated by comparing the trade values declared by Burundi with those declared by trading partners in a bilateral international transaction, after adjusting for the cost of freight and insurance. Disaggregated trade misinvoicing by major trading partners is computed using the Direction of Trade Statistics database of the International Monetary Fund over the period 1970–2019. Disaggregated trade misinvoicing by major trading commodities is computed using the UN-COMTRADE database over the period 1993–2019.

Exports of Burundi to most of its major trading partners are found to be underinvoiced. The top destinations for export underinvoicing are United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Germany. However, exports to UK and Switzerland are found to be overinvoiced. The major export commodities considered, coffee and gold, are found to be affected by trade misinvoicing to a great extent. On the import side, the estimation results indicate that imports of Burundi from its major trading partners are in general overinvoiced. High import overinvoicing is observed in the trade with Saudi Arabia, China and Japan. At commodity level, for the top 6 commodities considered, imports were to a great extent found to be overinvoiced. Cases of illicit capital outflows and inflows through trade misinvoicing are highlighted.

Some policy implications are drawn from this study. First, in collaboration with its development partners, the Government of Burundi should put in place measures to reduce the trade misinvoicing phenomenon, which undermines poverty reduction efforts. The study has shown which trade partners are involved and which commodities are mostly affected. Policy efforts could then be focused in that regard. Investigations at the company and transaction levels can be made to identify the mechanisms of trade misinvoicing. Second, more effort is needed in ensuring systematic and transparent reporting of international trade transactions. To fight trade misinvoicing, transparency in international trade is key, through coordinated enforcement of reporting rules.

Previous studies analyzed the problem of trade misinvoicing at an aggregated level. However, this leaves out essential information on trading partners involved in the phenomenon as well as trading commodities affected. This study investigates trade misinvoicing at disaggregated levels, at product level and by trading partner.