IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lpe/efijnl/201805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship of VAT Rate and Revenues in the Case of Informality

Author

Listed:
  • Fikri R. Arrachman

    (Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia and Ministry of Finance, Government of Indonesia)

  • Riatu M. Qibthiyyah

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)

Abstract

This study explored relationship between tax rate and revenues in the case of VAT, one of few type of consumption taxes that is considered to be a broad-based tax. Based on a larger set of countries - in comparison to previous studies, this study shows VAT rate has an inverted U-shaped relationship to VAT revenues, confirming the Laffer Curve theory. Exploring further on the effect of informality to maximum VAT rate, we found that higher informality will reduce government flexibility in its effort to increase tax rate. Furthermore, openness has significant and positive effect on VAT revenues performance, and tax administration capacity may also play role on improving VAT revenues performance

Suggested Citation

  • Fikri R. Arrachman & Riatu M. Qibthiyyah, 2018. "The Relationship of VAT Rate and Revenues in the Case of Informality," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 64, pages 73-96, Juni.
    • Handle: RePEc:lpe:efijnl:201805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lpem.org/repec/lpe/efijnl/201805.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bird,Richard & Gendron,Pierre-Pascal, 2011. "The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107401440, September.
    2. Emran, M. Shahe & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2005. "On selective indirect tax reform in developing countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 599-623, April.
    3. Navarro, Ignacio & Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 2010. "Antichresis leases: Theory and empirical evidence from the Bolivian experience," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 33-44, January.
    4. José A. Tijerina-Guajardo & José A. Pagán, 2000. "Valued-Added Tax Revenues in Mexico: An Empirical Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(6), pages 561-575, November.
    5. Agbeyegbe, Terence D. & Stotsky, Janet & WoldeMariam, Asegedech, 2006. "Trade liberalization, exchange rate changes, and tax revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 261-284, April.
    6. Shome, Parthasarathi, 1999. "Taxation in Latin America: structural trends and impact of administration," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 34658, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    7. John Piggott & John Whalley, 2001. "VAT Base Broadening, Self Supply, and the Informal Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1084-1094, September.
    8. Áureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2010. "Value-Added Taxes, Chain Effects, and Informality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 195-221, October.
    9. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    10. Tromben, Varinia & Martner Fanta, Ricardo, 2004. "Tax reforms and fiscal stabilization in Latin American countries," Gestión Pública 7300, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    11. Shin, Kilman, 1969. "International Difference in Tax Ratio," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(2), pages 213-220, May.
    12. José A. Pagán & Gökçe Soydemir & José A. Tijerina‐Guajardo, 2001. "The Evolution Of Vat Rates And Government Tax Revenue In Mexico," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(4), pages 424-433, October.
    13. Marcelo M. Guigale & Vincente Fretes-Cibils & John L. Newman, 2007. "An Opportunity for a Different Peru : Prosperous, Equitable, and Governable," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6633.
    14. Leuthold, Jane H., 1991. "Tax shares in developing economies A panel study," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 173-185, January.
    15. F Guedes de Oliveira & L Costa, 2015. "The VAT Laffer Curve and the Business Cycle in the EU27: An Empirical Approach," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 20(2), pages 29-43, September.
    16. Joaquim Sarmento, 2016. "The Determinants Of Value Added Tax Revenues In The European Union," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 21(2), pages 79-99.
    17. World Bank, 2017. "World Development Indicators 2017," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 26447.
    18. Kent Matthews & Jean Lloyd-Williams, 2000. "Have VAT rates reached their limit?: an empirical note," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 111-115.
    19. Keen, Michael, 2008. "VAT, tariffs, and withholding: Border taxes and informality in developing countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 1892-1906, October.
    20. Baunsgaard, Thomas & Keen, Michael, 2010. "Tax revenue and (or?) trade liberalization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 563-577, October.
    21. International Monetary Fund, 2007. "Kenya: Poverty Reduction Strategy Annual Progress Report: 2003/2004," IMF Staff Country Reports 2007/158, International Monetary Fund.
    22. International Monetary Fund, 2008. "Mongolia: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix," IMF Staff Country Reports 2008/201, International Monetary Fund.
    23. Chun-Yan Kuo & Hatice Jenkins & Glenn Jenkins, 2006. "Is The Value Added Tax Naturally Progressive?," Working Paper 1059, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    24. Mr. Parthasarathi Shome, 1999. "Taxation in Latin America: Structural Trends and Impact of Administration," IMF Working Papers 1999/019, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Pradumna B Rana & John Malcolm Dowling, 2009. "South Asia:Rising to the Challenge of Globalization," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 6837, August.
    26. Truong, Tham V & Gash, Dennis N, 1979. "Less-Developed Countries' Taxable Capacity and Economic Integration: A Cross-Sectional Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 61(2), pages 312-316, May.
    27. Hsing, Yu, 1996. "Estimating the laffer curve and policy implications," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 395-401.
    28. Luiz de Mello, 2009. "Avoiding the Value Added Tax," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(1), pages 27-46, January.
    29. Kent Matthews, 2003. "VAT Evasion and VAT Avoidance: Is there a European Laffer curve for VAT?," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 105-114.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    2. Antonio Gómez Gómez-Plana & Pedro Pascual Arzoz, 2011. "Fraude fiscal e IVA en España: incidencia en un modelo de equilibrio general," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 199(4), pages 9-52, December.
    3. Eduardo Lora & Johanna Fajardo-González, 2016. "Employment and taxes in Latin America: An empirical study of the effects of payroll, corporate income and value-added taxes on labor outcomes," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 35(Especial ), pages 75-117, January.
    4. Lourenço S. Paz, 2015. "The welfare impacts of a revenue-neutral switch from tariffs to VAT with intermediate inputs and a VAT threshold," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 465-498, June.
    5. Harsha Konara Mudiyanselage & Shawn Xiaoguang Chen, 2022. "What impairs the ‘money machine’ of VAT in developing countries?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(5), pages 1128-1159, October.
    6. Richard M. Bird & Michael Smart, 2012. "Financing Social Expenditures in Developing Countries: Payroll or Value Added Taxes?," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1206, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    7. Morrow, Peter & Smart, Michael & Swistak, Artur, 2022. "VAT compliance, trade, and institutions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    8. Michael Keen, 2007. "VAT attacks!," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(4), pages 365-381, August.
    9. Kodjo Adandohoin, 2021. "Tax transition in developing countries: do value added tax and excises really work?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 379-424, May.
    10. Mr. Michael Keen, 2012. "Taxation and Development: Again," IMF Working Papers 2012/220, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Michael Keen, 2009. "What Do (and Don't) We Know about the Value Added Tax? A Review of Richard M. Bird and Pierre-Pascal Gendron's The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 159-170, March.
    12. Ronald Davies & Lourenço Paz, 2011. "Tariffs versus VAT in the presence of heterogeneous firms and an informal sector," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(5), pages 533-554, October.
    13. Christian EBEKE & Hélène EHRHART, 2011. "Does VAT reduce the instability of tax revenues?," Working Papers 201124, CERDI.
    14. Christian Ebeke & M Mansour & Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, 2016. "The Power to Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa: LTUs, VATs, and SARAs," Working Papers halshs-01332049, HAL.
    15. Buettner, Thiess & Madzharova, Boryana, 2018. "WTO membership and the shift to consumption taxes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 197-218.
    16. Adandohoin, Kodjo, 2018. "Tax transition in developing countries: Do VAT and excises really work?," MPRA Paper 91522, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Isidro Hernández Rodríguez, 2015. "Economía política de la tributación en Colombia," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Economía, edition 1, number 70.
    18. Kowsar Yousefi & Mohammad Vesal, 2023. "The Double Dividend of a Joint Tariff and VAT Reform: Evidence from Iran," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(2), pages 331-349.
    19. Mukherjee, Sacchidananda & Rao, R. Kavita, 2017. "Determinants of Registration of Unincorporated Enterprises under State Value Added Tax Act in India," MPRA Paper 81236, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bachas, Pierre & Gadenne, Lucie & Jensen, Anders, 2020. "Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1277, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lpe:efijnl:201805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Halley Yudhistira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feuinid.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.