Reports

This paper examines intergovernmental fiscal disputes and co-operation mechanisms across federal and decentralised countries. Employing a case study approach and AI tools, the research analyses constitutional court rulings and their influence on the development of fiscal federalism in seven countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India and the United States, with additional insights from Spain, the Netherlands and the European Union. The findings reveal significant variations in the nature and frequency of disputes and judicial interventions, highlighting the crucial role of court decisions in shaping fiscal federalism, most notably in the area of taxation. While conflicts are inherent to decentralised systems, their nature and frequency vary based on each country’s unique constitutional, political, and economic context. The paper recommends strategies for managing disputes and fostering co-operation, including clearly defining powers and responsibilities, enhancing the role of courts in providing fiscal guidance, strengthening intergovernmental institutions and ensuring adaptability to changing conditions. The study concludes that a proactive, collaborative approach involving all tiers of government is crucial to navigate the complexities of fiscal federalism and promote effective governance.

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IFTs) play a crucial role in addressing vertical and horizontal imbalances, promoting equitable service delivery, and aligning local spending with national priorities across OECD countries. However, their design involves navigating complex trade-offs between equity, efficiency, transparency, and autonomy. This paper reviews the theoretical framework of IFTs, aiming to dissect their objectives, incentives, and outcomes, and to clarify their classification. A significant contribution of this study involves new data that tracks IFTs across the OECD, revealing that transfers from central to subnational governments increased across all countries studied during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there have been no radical changes in IFTs in recent years, emerging trends such as performance-based grants, Ecological Fiscal Transfers, links with regional policy, and new budgeting techniques suggest potential avenues for reform. By understanding the present dynamics and trends, this study aspires to pave the way for more informed, strategic, and beneficial fiscal transfer policies in the years to come, ensuring that these transfers continue to serve their intended purposes effectively while adapting to changing economic and social conditions across OECD countries.

Corporate Tax Statistics is an OECD flagship publication on corporate income tax, and includes information on corporate taxation, MNE activity, and base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) practices. Corporate Tax Statistics was a key output of Action 11 of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project, which sought to improve the measurement and monitoring of tax avoidance. This publication includes a wide range of data on corporate income taxes, including corporate tax rates, revenues, effective tax rates, and tax incentives for R&D and innovation amongst other data series. Corporate Tax Statistics also includes anonymised and aggregated country-by-country reporting (CbCR) data providing an overview on the global tax and economic activities of thousands of multinational enterprise groups operating worldwide. The 2024 edition will include a new dataset on Income-based tax incentives for R&D and innovation, an update to the Interest Limitation Rules and Controlled Foreign Company rules datasets and an expansion of the CbCR data on effective tax rates.

Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making. This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations. The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.

This annual publication compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for 36 economies, including Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Georgia, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Additionally, it provides information on non-tax revenues for 22 of the 36 economies. The publication applies the OECD Revenue Statistics methodology to Asian and Pacific economies, facilitating consistent comparison of tax levels and structures within the region as well as globally. This eleventh edition of the report includes a special feature on tax revenue buoyancy in Asia. The publication is jointly produced by the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the OECD Development Centre, in co-operation with the Asian Development Bank, the Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association and the Pacific Community.

Subnational governments face a range of fiscal risks, defined as events whose realisation leads to significant deviations of revenue and/or expenditure from budgeted amounts. Fiscal risks reflect unforeseen macroeconomic developments, as well as structural shifts in the economy, including digitalisation and climate change. Sound management of these risks requires a comprehensive framework involving their identification, analysis, mitigation, sharing or transfer, and prudent accommodation. Within this framework, subnational governments need to strengthen their capacity to manage their own risks, but national governments also have a role to play. This includes mitigating risks created by national policies, minimising moral hazard in supporting subnational governments affected by exogenous shocks, and using their legislative powers to avert excessive subnational risk-taking. Effective intergovernmental cooperation is key to the sound management of subnational fiscal risks. The paper discusses how different levels of government can work together in applying this framework to the main types of risks. It also provides some examples of good international practices in the management of risks.

Tax crimes negatively affect all countries, developed and developing alike. They obstruct governments’ ability to collect revenue and undermine trust in the legal and financial system which can lead to a wide range of adverse outcomes. Tax crime is often closely linked to other forms of serious domestic and transnational crime, such as money laundering, corruption, the trafficking of drugs or people, and terrorist financing. This report sets out the rationale for adopting a national strategy for countering tax crime and to support jurisdictions’ efforts in designing such strategies, drawing from the practices of members of the OECD’s Task Force on Tax Crimes and other Crimes (TFTC).

This report looks back at 15 years of tax and development work at the OECD charting the evolution of the OECD’s engagement with, and inclusion of, developing countries in its tax work from 2009 to 2024. Beginning with the restructuring of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in 2009, through the BEPS Actions, the establishment of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS and negotiations on the Two Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges of the Digitalising Economy, it shows how OECD initiatives have combined the momentum for multilateral tax co-operation with the increased focus on taxation in international development, to develop a range of tools, instruments and forums with wide participation from developing counties. Accompanying the move to multilateralism in tax matters, the OECD has also sought to increase the availability of data on taxation, for example through the Global Revenue Statistics Database, and support more integrated tax and development policy thinking, for example on the taxation of development assistance. Concurrently there has been a continuous growth in the OECD capacity building activities, now reaching over 30,000 officials in over 100 countries annually. Notable among these initiatives is the groundbreaking joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative. The report features several case studies highlighting the impacts across various countries, as well as the wide range of partnerships forged by the OECD to harness taxation’s potential in advancing sustainable development.

This report reflects on the implications of the evolving international tax policy landscape for international tax co-operation, and provides an update on the 2022 Report 'Tax Co-operation for the 21st Century' and the 2023 Progress Report. The principles of tax co-operation set out in those reports have become even more important in light of the implementation of the Global Minimum Tax, which took effect from the beginning of this year. This report sets out the advances being made in implementing the vision for co-operation amongst tax administrations with a specific focus on the Global Minimum Tax. It also sets out areas of tax co-operation beyond the corporate tax system looking at recent developments in the exchange of information between tax administration as well as other transparency initiatives with respect to taxation of individuals. Finally, it addresses the implications of these developments in the international tax system for developing countries with respect to both direct and indirect taxes as well as the digitalisation of tax administration. This report was prepared by the OECD to inform the discussions at the May 2024 meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, at the request of the G7 Italian Presidency.