Milla Sepliana Setyowati, Niken sila De Utami, Arfah Habib Saragih, Adang Hendrawan
The utilization of new technology in the form of blockchain technology for a Value Added Tax (VAT) acceptance system is relatively new and has not been widely encountered thus far. This research analyzes how blockchain technology can be applied to a VAT system, particularly for electronic invoices (e-Invoice). A qualitative approach was used in this study to analyze blockchain technology models that could be applied in a VAT system. The results of this study indicate that due to its characteristics, blockchain technology can only be applied to taxpayer data that do not require privacy. Data that are considered safe if distributed to nodes in the blockchain technology network include the Tax Invoice Serial Number (TISN). A TISN system based on blockchain technology will produce a faster and more efficient system. Transactions on the TISN in Indonesia can also be monitored and tracked directly by the Directorate General of Taxation (DGT). Blockchain technology can be applied in the TISN system by using a permissioned private blockchain type.
Mücahit Özdemir, Zeyneb Hafsa Orhan, Hüseyin Burgazoğlu
This chapter examines the cryptocurrencies within the framework of recent developments in Islamic economics and aims to contribute to the effort to understand the phenomenon. It then examines the technical features of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The chapter also mentions the views of the leading scholars/religious authorities in the Islamic world regarding cryptocurrencies and practical initiatives. It discusses the potential that cryptocurrencies can offer to Islamic economics and raises some issues for further studies. Blockchain technology enables peer-to-peer money transfer without the need for any intermediary institutions. The most innovative feature of Bitcoin is that it functions as a monetary system outside a central authority. Bitcoin is the reference point for the majority of fatawa for cryptocurrency. This fatwa about Ether will undoubtedly open new debates, both particularly in the academic field in the Islamic world and the legitimacy of cryptocurrency in general.
Marcos Allende López, Antonio Alleyne, Laura Giles Álvarez, Jeetendra Khadan · 5 authors
This paper analyzes the potential effects that distributed ledger technology (DLT) could have on intraregional trade volumes in the Caribbean. Using a two-step panel regression gravity model for 15 CARICOM countries, the analysis finds that non-tariff barriers, such as distance and culture, bilateral exchange rates, transfer fees, and required documentation, have negative effects on trade. There are a rising number of pilot projects across the world that apply DLT for payment settlemetns and trade facilitation. These are starting to generate encouraging evidence that the application of DLT could indeed help reduce the prevalence of some of these NTBs and thus promote trade.
We develop a theory that shows signaling a firm’s fundamental quality (e.g., its operational capabilities) to lenders through inventory transactions to be more efficient—it leads to less costly operational distortions—than signaling through loan requests, and we characterize how the efficiency gains depend on firm operational characteristics, such as operating costs, market size, and inventory salvage value. Signaling through inventory being only tenable when inventory transactions are verifiable at low enough cost, we then turn our attention to how this verifiability can be achieved in practice and argue that blockchain technology could enable it more efficiently than traditional monitoring mechanisms. To demonstrate, we develop b_verify, an open-source blockchain protocol that leverages Bitcoin to provide supply chain transparency at scale and in a cost-effective way. The paper identifies an important benefit of blockchain adoption—by opening a window of transparency into a firm’s supply chain, blockchain technology furnishes the ability to secure favorable financing terms at lower signaling costs. Furthermore, the analysis of the preferred signaling mode sheds light on what types of firms or supply chains would stand to benefit the most from this use of blockchain technology. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, operations management.
Orientation: This article examines the normal tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions performed by natural persons in South Africa. Research purpose: The aim of this article was to document the normal tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions subsequent to the inclusion of cryptocurrency in the definition of ‘financial instrument’ in section 1(1) of the Income Tax Act No. 58 of 1962, and to determine whether this inclusion gives rise to unanticipated issues. Motivation for the study: This investigation was necessitated by the distinguishing features of cryptocurrency that differentiate it from other financial instruments. Research approach/design and method: This article falls within the reform-orientated genre of doctrinal research. A desktop literature review was conducted to determine the normal tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions, based on an interpretation of relevant legislation and a review of secondary commentary. Key issues identified in the normal tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions were documented, and recommendations were made for addressing the issues identified. Main findings: A misalignment may occur between taxable incomes and economic gains of taxpayers engaged in cryptocurrency mining. Practical/managerial implications: The South African Revenue Service (SARS) should allow for a deduction equivalent to the market value of cryptocurrency acquired through cryptocurrency mining in terms of section 22(2)(a). Contribution/value-add: A risk of misalignment between taxable incomes and economic gains of taxpayers performing cryptocurrency mining has been identified and documented, which may inform legislative amendment, or the practice of the SARS.
Subnational governments have become more involved in the ‘regulation of unemployment’ (the design, implementation and financing of unemployment-related benefits and activation), partly because they are thought to be better placed to activate the unemployed than federal governments. However, depending on its specific design, decentralization can reduce the incentives subnational governments have to implement effective activation. Such ‘institutional moral hazard’ is not yet systematically theorized. We examine how and to what extent it affects three federal countries. We distinguish three factors that influence whether institutional moral hazard is perceived as a problem and how it can be resolved. We identify two types of subnational challenges to federal control.
Com o surgimento das Criptomoedas os debates sobre sua regulamentação jurídica e sua confiabilidade vêm se destacando no âmbito jurídico. Este presente trabalho tem o objetivo de contribuir, sobre o que são Criptomoedas, como funcionam e a possibilidade ou impossibilidade de sua regulamentação. Com base em diversas obras de autores em várias áreas de conhecimento, explora-se a Criptomoeda em um âmbito mais geral, além do principal foco, que e a viabilidade de incidência desse ativo no imposto de renda. Ademais, a questão da natureza tributária da Criptomoeda. O desenvolvimento deste trabalho inicia conceituando com o contexto histórico da moeda, conceituando Criptomoedas assim como a mais conhecida delas, chamada Bitcoin e seus desdobramentos, com uma analise jurídica do tema, estudando a necessidade/possibilidade de sua regulamentação.
The main purpose of this paper is to set a model in which there exist multiple firms producing data in a situation where each firm produces data and shares it voluntarily for new additional revenue. The model is used for theoretical examination of the revenue distribution rule and behaviors to maximize the social welfare. Consequently, the following three main results can be obtained. First, if the number of firms is sufficiently large and some conditions are assumed, the revenue distribution rule to maximize social welfare in a decentralized economy coincides with the elasticity of additional revenue with respect to the provided data. Second, if each firm maximizes profit in the decentralized economy, the firm can achieve allocations to maximize social welfare in a command optimum for any revenue distribution rule as long as the government provides the policy of lump-sum tax and subsidy appropriately. Third, if the subsidy for data sharing is financed by a flat rate tax for additional profit, each firm has an incentive to participate in the platform irrespective of the subsidy rate and revenue distribution rule.
Decentralization in the public sector, in general, has been discussed in the perspective of revenue sharing between spheres of government in the federation and the distribution of decision-making autonomy in the application of public resources and government management processes. This research is part of this context, and it investigates the decentralization of the expenditure execution process, a practice carried out within governments, and its impact on municipal spending. The analysis was carried out from the perspective of the Theory of Public Choice, which presupposes the self-interested behavior of managers when they participate in government decision-making processes and, therefore, the autonomy granted to them to decide on expenditure is important. To operationalize the research, five areas of government activity were selected – education, health, social assistance, sports and leisure, and urbanism – to represent different expenditure characteristics and sources of financing to explain the behavior of managers in different expenditure realities. The data were collected through an electronic questionnaire, whose respondents were managers of city halls, complemented by data from public sources of information. The econometric analysis was done through the estimation of the model by quantile regression for each of the areas analyzed, with data from 290 municipal governments in the period between 2013 and 2018. The results show that the decentralization of the process of spending execution (i) for area with insufficient resources decreased the expenditure; (ii) for areas with insufficient resources and characteristics that make it possible for managers to bargain budgets, the expenditure has increased; and (iii) for areas with insufficient resources, but without characteristics that allow bargaining by budget, decentralization was ineffective. It is concluded, therefore, that the decentralization of spending execution affects municipal expenditure and these effects are different depending on the characteristics of the area in which decentralization occurs, since the behavior of managers is affected by these characteristics. This research points out theoretical implications when it highlights the behavior of managers and the expenditure characteristics of the areas as relevant factors to be considered in the analysis of the relationship between decentralization of spending execution and expenditure. Governments can use the results of this research to assess the desirability of decentralization, as well as consider the need to implement controls on expenditure in decentralized environments.
Marta Cristina Pelucio Grecco, Jacinto Pedro dos Santos Neto, Diego Constancio
Abstract This essay presents recommendations in regard to accounting for operations that involve bitcoins, in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and analyzes their main tax aspects. There is no specific pronouncement on the part of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) or from the Brazilian Accounting Pronouncements Committee (CPC) regarding the accounting treatment to be applied in operations that use these currencies. Bitcoin is of interest to economists as a virtual currency with the potential to disrupt existing payment systems and even monetary systems. This essay offers a contribution for standard-setters and the tax authority (fisco) by providing the basis for possible guidelines to be issued on the accounting treatment of bitcoin operations, as well as by defining the appropriate tax treatment; in addition, it makes a contribution for accounting professionals by suggesting the accounting policy to be adopted in these operations. Here, the analysis of the characteristics of bitcoins is compared with the guidelines and concepts of IFRS, in order to elaborate the recommendation for accounting treatment, and it suggests that the most adequate procedure would be that of foreign currency, which would go against the tax treatment adopted up until now by the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service (Receita Federal) or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America (USA), which suggest treating virtual currencies as goods and not as currencies. It warrants mentioning that this contradiction may cause tax risks for taxpayers.
Fiscal asymmetric decentralization is seen as the panacea in solving persistent income inequalities facing developing economies. Despite efforts to finance County governments, about 42% of Kenyan’s 47.6 million people still live below the poverty level. This study evaluates the influence of County fiscal autonomy on household effects in Kenya. Both primary and secondary data, collected from households in 47 county governments and the Commission on Revenue Allocation, respectively. A Sample of 4,813 households was drawn from 96,251 lists of households developed by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Cochran's correction formula was used. The result finds an insignificant negative correlation between county fiscal autonomy and household effects in Kenya. Further studies are recommended with diverse indicators. Findings in this paper are generalizable and a point of reference for policymakers in Kenya.
Recent analysis of Blockchain use has highlighted considerable potential productivity gains arising from lower transaction costs between buyers and sellers of goods. This has been shown by recent examples of Blockchain use in the Australian grains sector. In this paper, we have further developed and quantified this concept of productivity gain by undertaking several illustrative scenarios using a general equilibrium model of the global economy. Our analysis indicates that an assumed modest growth (five per cent) in productivity due to Blockchain use in the grains sector could raise output by eight per cent over the medium term. If this is accompanied by Blockchain use in the Australian finance sector, grains output could reach ten per cent. This reflects the effect of reduction in transaction costs due to the use of Blockchain technology as a “distributed ledger technology” in grain trading. Further, it is anticipated that the wider effects of Blockchain‐driven productivity enhancement of the Australian finance sector could contribute to approximately 2.5 per cent increase in GDP in the medium term, relative to what would otherwise be.
We study how financial frictions amplify labor supply shocks in a macroeconomic model with occasionally binding financing constraints. Workers supply labor to entrepreneurs who borrow to purchase factors of production. Borrowing capacity is restricted by the value of capital, generating a pecuniary externality when financing constraints bind. Additionally, there is a distributive externality operating through wages. The planner's allocation can be decentralized with two instruments: a credit tax/subsidy and a labor tax/subsidy. Labor shocks, such as the COVID-19 shock, amplify the policy responses, which critically depend on whether financing constraints bind or not.
Samuel Brülisauer, Anastasia Costantini, Gianluca Pastorelli
"Digitalisation and other advanced technologies are increasingly reshaping our economy, including social economy enterprises. Disruptive technologies can inspire the social economy and vice versa. Blockchain for instance carries an intrinsic decentralisation approach that could have many implications for services and generate a high social added value through traceability, fair pricing, commonly recognised and verified standards and democratization of access to services and products in all societies and areas." - Ms Ulla Engelmann, Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Social Economy and Clusters, European Commission, DG Grow In the first two decades of the new century digital technologies have started to reshape work, leisure, behaviour, health, education, money, governance, and other aspects of human life. As people and businesses start using digital appliances for all kinds of interaction, an increasing amount of communication and value exchange shifts to the digital realm. This megatrend holds many promises to spur innovation, generate efficiencies, and improve services, and in doing so boost more inclusive and sustainable growth. But these technologies also tend to disrupt traditional ways to organize our economy and society, entailing important consequences for people, organisations and markets, and raise important issues around jobs and skills, privacy, security. We use the term digital transformation to describe these social, cultural, and economic changes resulting from digital innovations, and identify four socio-technological areas in which people are particularly affected by this transformation: work and income goods and services, money and finance, and state and governance. Digital platforms and blockchains (and other distributed ledger technology) are two of the most impactful technologies. Because of the astonishing possibilities these technologies offer, observers regularly fathom that it is not only unfeasible but also undesirable to ‘stop’ the digital transformation. Rather, it is argued that digital technologies and their impacts must be actively managed and leveraged to ensure their alignment with people-centred development and sustainability. In this context, a growing number of social economy innovations aim to create an internet and digital appliances that put individual users and society first. Social economy enterprises and organizations are either based on participatory governance where users are ultimately in (partial) control over the platform/technology, or bound by a statutory purpose asserting the priority of social and environmental goals before financial returns. The digital social economy innovations discussed in this paper aim to realize this vision in the four areas undergoing digital transformation. Our analysis is informed by insights from the workshop organised by Diesis on “Blockchain, digital social innovation and social economy. The future is here!”, as well as case studies elaborated in close collaboration with various digital social economy enterprises. The study finds a vivid variety of digital social economy enterprises, and important potential for further applications of social economy principles in the digital realm. Yet the realization of this potential depends on whether these enterprises manage the critical challenge to achieve sustainable and user-centred growth. We therefore conclude with a discussion of this challenge and some recommendations for policy, organization and entrepreneurship.
This article presents an example of how globalization and digitization force states to rely on international organization. Examining tax policy with respect to cryptocurrency—an innovative, global technology—the implication is that a state levying taxes on cryptocurrency must turn to international monitoring and enforcement regimes to support effective taxation. Based on Margaret Levi’s theory of predatory rule, I submit a theory of “co-predation” to explain international cooperation with respect to taxation of novel, cross-border technologies such as cryptocurrency. The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), an anti-tax evasion framework promulgated by the OECD, serves as an example of international cooperation. A comparison of cryptocurrency taxation in Russia and Belarus finds that, where effective tax policy is at stake, states are enjoined to commit to international cooperation through AEOI. The article concludes by considering implications for legitimacy, quasi-voluntary compliance, and strategic tax policy.
Government of Uganda is undertaking reforms to improve on the funding levels and modalities of local governments but is faced with a limited budget to fund both the central government and decentralized functions. Less is known about the effect of central government transfers to local revenue collection especially in the context of decentralization in Uganda. We assessed the effects of central government transfers on local revenue generation by municipalities in Uganda by analyzing the trends of central government transfers and locally generated revenues by the municipal councils and assessing the effects of central government transfers on own local revenue generation. Our study focused on municipalities that have been in existence since introduction of decentralization policy and some of these have recently been upgraded into cities. Time series data covering the selected municipalities were obtained from the Local Government Finance Commission. The dataset comprised of locally generated revenue and central government transfers for 13 old municipal councils. The data was in Excel and it had to be exported to E-Views statistical software for further analysis using the fixed effects regression model. Our findings indicate that over the period 2002 to 2017, both central government grants and local revenue generation grew exponentially. We find that increased central government grants contributed to a decline in locally generated revenue and this partly attributable to too much reliance of the local governments on central grants. The results showed that the lagged total central government grants had a significant negative effect on the locally generated revenue. Government should factor in the allocation formula for central government grants to the local revenue performance to serve as an incentive for the municipal councils to raise own local revenue.
Reluctance to pay taxes is a natural feature of man. Given the above, it is not surprising that taxpayers are constantly looking for all possible ways to avoid taxation. The legislator, realizing the above, introduces a number of regulations aimed at counteracting dishonest actions of taxpayers. In the context of cryptocurrencies, these are in particular solutions aimed at limiting anonymity in the circulation of cryptocurrencies. The taxpayers, taking advantage of the fact that trading in cryptocurrencies is very specific, complicated and partially anonymous, try to outsmart the tax authorities and pay no taxes on income from such transactions. Also, the fact that until January 1, 2019, there was no regulation regarding the taxation of cryptocurrencies, and the introduced regulation also raises many doubts, does not encourage taxpayers to honestly settle accounts with tax authorities. Tax authorities, on the other hand, do not have the tools that would enable them to counteract taxpayers’ dishonesty effectively, what leads to the depletion of tax liabilities.
This paper aims to measure the degree of fiscal decentralization in Jordan by estimating the indicators used by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These are the share of local units in public revenues, the share of public spending, and the share of compensation for workers in local units from the total compensation of workers in the public sector. The study uses set of data about public revenues and expenditures of the central government, independent government units, as well as the municipalities’ budgets figures. These data are for the period 2016-2018 and published electronically by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Administration in Jordan. The study revealed progress in the field of political and administrative decentralization represented in the establishment of elected councils at the national, regional, and municipal levels and the transfer of a number of powers from central authorities to regional or local bodies. The issuance of a new decentralization law and the amendment of the Municipalities Law in 2015. The results showed that the degree of fiscal decentralization is very low in Jordan, especially when compared to other countries that had implemented decentralization reforms.