(E)Tax Policy is an Art, Not a Science
Finally, perhaps the most basic lesson that may be drawn from experience to date with implementing VAT in DTE is simply that doing it right is in most respects a matter more of art than of science. A principal rationale for conferences such as this is to provide a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences in order to provide some help for those vb.net药房进销存管理系统论文+源码 responsible for existing VATs in DTE in adapting to changing circumstances as well as to those responsible for deciding whether to adopt a VAT (and what kind of VAT) in the first place. But even the most careful consideration of the experiences of other countries is of little use in the absence of close knowledge of how one’s own economy really functions. If, for example, the extent and behavior of the informal sector depends, as some recent literature (Gerxhani,2004) suggests, largely on the interaction between formal institutions such as the tax administration and the prevalent norms and customs in a country, the ‘best’ VAT design and implementation in many DTE will undoubtedly be rather different from that suggested by experience to date in the EU and other developed countries.
In the end , what VAT looks like and how it performs in any country inevitable reflects political factors and calculations as much or more than economic and administrative considerations. As a rule, of course, the critical political dimension of the policy process must simply be accepted as given by those directly concerned with tax design and implementation. Nonetheless, it is obviously desirable that they are as fully aware as possible of the manner in which such factors may impact on, and are in turn affected by, such central elements of VAT design and implementation as exemptions. To be forewarned that a particular sector is politically ‘untouchable’ may, for instance, enable policy designers to be able to work around the problem in a way that does less damage to the tax as a whole than might otherwise be the case. Somewhat curiously, however, despite the proliferation of real world examples available for study, few careful ‘political economy’ studies of VAT implementation appear to have been done in DTE as yet. As such studies begin to appear, they will in all likelihood often suggest still further questions calling for still more scientific (empirical and theoretical) research that may, in the long run, provide more useful advice than can yet be offered those engaged in the precarious art of policy design and implementation in DTE.
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