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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for taxation
5 results foundAuthor: International Tax Title: The Relationship Between Taxation, Consumption and Smuggling of Tobacco Summary: In this paper, we review analysis published recently by the World Bank and others looking at the impact of cigarette taxation on tobacco consumption and smuggling, focusing on four key issues: • The effect of increases in taxation on overall tobacco consumption, smuggling and government revenues — The World Bank (1999) argues that higher taxation will lead to a significant reduction in cigarette consumption, especially in middleand low-income economies, while at the same time increasing government tax revenues. But our analysis demonstrates that, although higher taxes may have a significant impact on legitimate (ie tax-paid) tobacco sales, its impact on overall consumption is likely to be mitigated by a marked rise in purchases of smuggled cigarettes. As well as limiting the impact of higher taxation on overall tobacco consumption, smuggling also undermines the tax base, reducing government revenues. Moreover, high taxes — particularly under an ad valorem regime — encourage consumers to trade down to cheaper cigarettes, which also reduces government revenues. • Tobacco smuggling: the role of tax differentials and its wider impact on society — Merriman et al (2000) argue that it is the ease of tax evasion rather than price differentials that are most important in determining the level of tobacco smuggling in a country. But while we would accept that there is sometimes a relationship between the general level of corruption in a country and the extent of cigarette smuggling, we would challenge the claim that corruption is more important in influencing smuggling than cigarette taxes and prices. Experience in the UK and US, for example, demonstrates that high excise taxes can generate a serious problem with smuggling even in countries with very effective law enforcement and administration. Moreover, it is important to recognise the other costs associated with measures that encourage tobacco smuggling, such as increased criminality and the creation of infrastructures that allow smuggling of other products as well. • The role of governments: law enforcement and administration — The World Bank (1999) claims that increasing the certainty and severity of law enforcement and prosecution is the most straightforward and sometimes the most effective way of discouraging smuggling. But while sensible regulatory and administrative policies have an important part to play in countering smuggling, experience in the UK, for example, shows that Customs enforcement measures have only a limited impact while large tax differentials persist, and are also very expensive to implement. • The effect of benchmark tax rates for cigarettes and their relationship with purchasing power — The World Bank (1999) suggests that cigarette taxation should be set at two-thirds to four-fifths of the total retail price of cigarettes. This is far too simplistic a prescription. It makes no allowance for local conditions, such as the level of income, efficiency of Customs enforcement, tax rates in neighbouring economies, etc. Measured relative to purchasing power, cigarette taxes in many developing economies are already significantly higher than in developed countries. Raising excise taxes in such circumstances would encourage increased smuggling and criminality, and undermine the government tax base. Details: Washington, DC: ITIC, 2003. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 11, 2011 at: http://www.iticnet.org/Public/other_publications.aspx#divYear2003 Year: 2003 Country: International URL: http://www.iticnet.org/Public/other_publications.aspx#divYear2003 Shelf Number: 121716 Keywords: Illicit TradeTaxationTobacco Smuggling |
Author: Carragher, Natacha Title: What are the Options? Pricing and taxation policy reforms to redress excessive alcohol consumption and related harms in Australia Summary: Increasing community and political concern about excessive alcohol consumption and related harms in Australia has prompted calls for the introduction of tighter regulatory controls. From an evidence-based, research perspective, measures which increase alcohol prices and taxes, in particular, are considered most effective for reducing alcohol consumption and related harms. Accordingly, this report presents a review of pricing and taxation policy levers that have been considered and/or implemented nationally and internationally. These policies include: alcohol taxation and differential price by beverage; special/additional taxation on alcopops; minimum pricing; and bans on price discounts and promotions. Industry response to these policy initiatives is discussed, in addition to the role of public opinion in policy-making, and the issue of substitution and complementarity with other drugs. This review is designed to inform policymakers of useful taxation and pricing policy levers to redress alcohol-related harm in the Australian community. We conclude that each policy holds some promise, and it appears that they would be more successful when used in combination than as individual uncoordinated strategies. Details: Sydney, Australia: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Attorney General's Department, 2011. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 11, 2012 at http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/R59a.pdf/$file/R59a.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/R59a.pdf/$file/R59a.pdf Shelf Number: 124089 Keywords: Alcohol Abuse (Australia)Alcohol Law EnforcementIntoxicationTaxation |
Author: Booth, Andrew Title: Alcohol pricing and criminal harm: a rapid evidence assessment of the published research literature Summary: This rapid evidence assessment (REA) of the published research literature provides a specific Home Office focus after previous independent reviews on the effects of pricing and taxation on alcohol consumption and alcohol-associated harms. It looks specifically at the effects on crime-related outcomes. The REA covers primary studies examining a direct association between alcohol pricing/taxation and crime–related outcomes (4,975 studies were reviewed and 36 papers met the inclusion criteria); review-level evidence for associations between pricing and consumption and between consumption and crime (58 reviews or meta-analyses); new primary research examining the association between pricing and consumption. The latter two areas provided an update to the recent review by Booth et al. (2008). This report examines the first of the three areas, and attempts to answer the following research question: To what extent does the research evidence support a direct association between the price of alcohol and crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour? An REA is a tool in the systematic review methods family and is based on comprehensive electronic searches of appropriate databases, internet sources and follow-up of cited references. To complete REAs in a short timeframe, researchers make some concessions in comparison with a full systematic review. Exhaustive hand searching of journals and textbooks is not undertaken, and searching of ‘grey’ literature is necessarily curtailed. This shortened timeframe is essential for policy makers to meet deadlines, but increases the risk of publication bias. Details: United Kingdom: University of Sheffield, School of Health and Related Research, 2010. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 12, 2012 at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-drugs/alcohol/alcohol-pricing/rapid-evidence-assessment?view=Binary Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-drugs/alcohol/alcohol-pricing/rapid-evidence-assessment?view=Binary Shelf Number: 124107 Keywords: Alcohol Law Enforcement (U.K.)Alcohol-Related Crime, DisorderTaxation |
Author: LaFaive, Michael Title: Cigarette Taxes and Smuggling: A Statistical Analysis and Historical Review Summary: States usually cite two major reasons for hiking their cigarette taxes: to decrease smoking, and to increase state tax revenue. Although these two goals can conflict, the “inelastic” nature of the cigarette market often allows policymakers to achieve both aims at once, with modest smoking reductions accompanying net increases in tax revenue. This outcome may become increasingly difficult to achieve, however. Many states have raised their cigarette taxes significantly in recent years. These increases have likely furthered the growth of two types of cigarette smuggling: “casual” smuggling, in which individual consumers save money by buying their cigarettes in low-tax states or countries, and “commercial” smuggling, in which larger-scale operators buy cigarettes in bulk in a low-tax area and sell them tax-free in hightax areas. This smuggling undermines both the revenue and health goals of higher cigarette taxes, while producing unintended consequences for individual states and American society as a whole. In this study, the authors consider cigarette smuggling from two angles. First, they employ a statistical model to estimate the degree to which cigarette smuggling occurs in 47 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Second, they review the historical experiences of three states — Michigan, New Jersey and California — known to have problems with cigarette smuggling. The authors’ statistical model compares legal, per-capita sales of cigarettes from 1990 through 2006 with survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the percentage of smokers in each state. Apparent discrepancies between legal sales and smoking rates — for instance, relatively low sales in a heavy smoking state — are used to estimate smuggling import and export rates between states, including any imports from, or exports to, Canada and Mexico. The model also distinguishes between casual and commercial smuggling. From 1990 to 2006, the authors estimate that the states with the top five average smuggling import rates as a percentage of their total estimated in-state cigarette consumption, including both legally and illegally purchased cigarettes, were California (24.5 percent of the state’s total cigarette consumption), New York (20.9 percent), Arizona (20.6 percent), Washington state (20.1 percent) and Michigan (16.0 percent). Commercial smuggling import rates were highest in New Jersey (13.8 percent), Massachusetts (12.7 percent) and Rhode Island (12.7 percent). Casual smuggling import rates were highest in New York (9.9 percent), Washington (8.9 percent) and Michigan (6.0 percent). The authors estimate that the states with the highest average smuggling export rates from 1990 to 2006 (excluding North Carolina) were Delaware, Virginia and New Hampshire, where the volumes of the smuggling export markets were equal to 29.4 percent, 20.8 percent and 17.2 percent respectively of each state’s total estimated in-state cigarette consumption. Delaware’s high export rate is driven by an estimated casual smuggling volume equal to 34.8 percent of the state’s estimated total cigarette consumption, a figure that is partially offset by an estimated commercial smuggling import rate of 5.0 percent. Mexico is also estimated to have played a significant role as a source of smuggled cigarettes to California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, exporting quantities that represented 8 percent to 10 percent of each state’s estimated total cigarette consumption. The authors’ 2006 smuggling estimates were much higher, with rapid cigarette tax increases since 2001 fueling greater tax-induced smuggling activity. In 2006, the states with the highest estimated cigarette smuggling import rates were Rhode Island (45.7 percent), New Mexico (42.4 percent) and the state of Washington (42.3 percent). All three states have raised their cigarette taxes significantly since 2003. The authors estimate that in 2006, no state had a higher export rate than Delaware, where outbound cigarette smuggling — fueled by casual smuggling — reached 82.8 percent of the state’s estimated in-state cigarette consumption. (State smuggling estimates appear in Graphic 6 and Graphic 7.) The authors’ review of Michigan’s, New Jersey’s and California’s cigarette smuggling experiences suggest that cigarette smugglers can realize large profits: tens of thousands of dollars for a single vanload of cigarettes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single truckload. These sums represent a loss in estimated tax revenues to a state’s treasury, but they have produced other unintended consequences, including a variety of crimes: • financing a terrorist organization; • thefts of untaxed cigarettes, including truck hijackings; • thefts of state tax stamps; • counterfeiting of tax stamps; • property damage; • counterfeiting of name-brand cigarettes, which are replaced with adulterated products, including counterfeit cigarettes from China; and • violence against residents and police officers. These societal costs are frequently borne by innocent people. This, together with the authors’ cigarette smuggling estimates, suggests that state policymakers should reassess the value of cigarette taxes as a revenue and public health tool. States with high cigarette taxes, for instance, may want to consider reducing those taxes to reduce the smuggling incentive and the attendant ancillary crime. States with lower cigarette tax rates should be cautious about increasing the taxes, especially with an apparent growth in international smuggling. State policymakers should also recall that cigarette taxes are regressive, and that cigarette tax revenues are best spent on programs that mitigate the cost of smoking, not on general programs that would be more properly financed by the general taxpayer. Details: Midland, MI: Mackinac Center for Public Policy, 2008. 99p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 9, 2012 at: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2008/s2008-12.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2008/s2008-12.pdf Shelf Number: 125229 Keywords: Cigarette Smuggling (U.S.)Taxation |
Author: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Title: A Criminal Culture: Extortion in Central America Summary: In parts of Central America, extortion has become so endemic that it is now a feature of the daily socio-economic life of citizens, businesses and the fabric of the state. The pervasive impunity and weakness of state institutions to combat extortion have meant that, for many central American communities, extortion, or the threat of it, has become a normalized facet of life a form of violent, omnipresent, criminally enforced taxation - and its effects are far-reaching on a personal, economic and societal level. For the violent, armed street gangs that continually threaten and harass communities in the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) - a region that is the main focus of this report - the extortion market is the main security threat to those countries and one of the principal sources of criminal income. These gangs have bred a criminal regional economy on such a scale that extortion forms a sizeable tranche of some Northern Triangle countries' GDP. The revenue from extortion has provided some gangs in the region with a solid economic operating base, and at the same time allowed them to diversify into other criminal enterprises, including drug trafficking, and human smuggling and trafficking, which means that they have consolidated their influence over broader transnational organized-crime networks operating in the region. Meanwhile, extortion revenue is laundered through investments in formal businesses, extending the gangs' economic stranglehold over the communities they target. In Panama and Costa Rica, the dynamics are somewhat different; there, gangs, and the threat of extortion they pose, are also present but the groups in these countries rely more on revenue from drug trafficking than from extortion markets. The response to the extortion markets by Central American governments, as well as by non-governmental organizations and community self-support groups, has been largely ineffective, mainly because the violent control exerted by the gangs makes individual citizens and organizations powerless to resist. In some cases, state interventions, in the form of heavy-handed crackdowns by law-enforcement authorities, including mass incarceration of gangsters, have served not to quell the problem, but to exacerbate it, creating more problems than solutions. Non-police intervention policies, involving preventative, rehabilitative and reintegrative measures, have been limited. Another factor that perpetuates the vortex of gang violence is corruption, which weakens state institutions and law-enforcement agencies, and leads to impunity; as a result, some arms of the state have become cells of criminal governance. Until the chain of collusion between corrupt political actors (and other civil servants) and the criminal rackets can be broken, it will be difficult for policy interventions to penetrate and break the circuit of criminality, which reaches into the very organs of state that are constitutionally instituted to combat it. This report offers a comprehensive picture of the nature and impact of the various kinds of gang-based extortion schemes across Central America, but particularly in the trio of countries in the Northern Triangle, and the political-economic environment in which they occur. The report develops a typology of modes of extortion that have been reported in the region under study, with case studies on how certain schemes operate and the impact they have on their victims. In the face of the growing scourge of regional extortion markets, it also examines more innovative ways of responding to extortion and analyzes some promising trends that may threaten the regional gang networks. There has been a shift, for example, towards dismantling the financial structures of the gangs, and investigations into money-laundering schemes they use to conceal their revenue, which may offer the kind of intelligence needed to combat the regional transnational networks. Some citizen- and community-initiated pushbacks against the extortion have shown promise and they have, if only to a small degree, mitigated the impact wrought by the gangs on society by helping generate resilience initiatives. Where these have connected multiple actors within civil society and the private sector, the potential for impact is considerable, and suggests that a whole of community approach to addressing extortion might be a promising practice that could be replicated. The report is the culmination of recent extensive research conducted jointly by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and InSight Crime, an investigative research foundation dedicated to the study of crime trends in Latin America. To produce a comprehensive and balanced analysis of the extortion economy in Central America, field researchers interviewed a large number of representative participants, including victims and perpetrators of extortion; members of regional law-enforcement agencies; analysts; politicians; members of the judiciary and academia; businesspeople; journalists; and civil-society organizations. To corroborate the field investigation, and to provide a broader quantitative framework to inform the findings, statistics on the regional extortion markets were analyzed and a literature review was carried out. The authors also drew from previous investigations by InSight Crime on gangs in the Northern Triangle. This report is the first phase of the 'Building coalitions against extortion in Central America' project developed by the Global Initiative. During the second phase, this report will enable the project to gather stakeholders from each country to discuss and analyze this pervasive phenomenon in the region. It will also allow the creation of a network of experts and stakeholders who will, firstly, exchange information and practices to tackle extortion and then, regionally, discuss alternatives to better respond to the issue. During the third and final phase, the project will aim to strengthen local resilience through a training initiative to help affected communities to better respond to extortion and mitigate its effects, and a roadmap to help build municipal strategies in the medium and long run. Details: Geneva, Switzerland: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2019. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 5, 2019 at: https://globalinitiative.net/extortion-in-central-america/ Year: 2019 Country: Central America URL: https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Central-American-Extortion-Report-English-03May1400-WEB.pdf Shelf Number: 156180 Keywords: Central America Drug Trafficking Extortion Human Smuggling Money Laundering Street Gangs Taxation |