4 ms·

"but not a large problem with collecting a large fraction of GDP. <links>" Part of my problem with the statistics you link is that the measure is limited beca

by Steko 14y ago

"but not a large problem with collecting a large fraction of GDP. <links>" Part of my problem with the statistics you link is that the measure is limited because it's known that US revenues are in the 16-19% range but they are listed here at 9%. Loathe as I am to cite the Heritage Foundation they are the most complete figures on wikipedia and show Greece heavily lagging France and Spain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenu... Next, the black market in Greece is estimated at 25% of GDP which inflates official collection percentages even more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_evasion_and_corruption_in_Greece http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_evasion_and_corruption_in_G... Finally, it really doesn't matter that they collect some nebulous "large share of gdp". What matters is that the scale of evasion is far greater than Greece's immediate problems. But Nikos Lekkas, the head of the Greek tax inspectorate, the SDOE ... insisted that Greece could easily pay off its debts if taxes due for payment were paid into the Greek state's coffers. ”Tax evasion in Greece has reached 12 to 15 per cent of the gross national product... That is €40 to €45bn per year. If we could recover even half of that, Greece would have solved the problem. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9319799/Greek-chief-tax-inspector-says-Christine-Lagarde-right-to-criticise-evasion.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9319799/G...

_dps 14y ago
> Part of my problem with the statistics you link ... You raise an interesting question, to which I don't have a conclusive immediate response. I'll have to dig deeper to really know. The numbers on the US do seem out of line with well-known facts. However, here's another ~30% estimate from Eurostat (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Tax_revenue_statistics http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index....). Given the conflicting reports, I can only say that it's theoretically possible that Heritage is right and OECD/Worldbank/Eurostat are jointly wrong. If I had to weigh Heritage's ideology and their likely expertise on European economic statistics, as compared to lined-up answers from OECD/WorldBank/Eurostat I know where I'd bet. Still, the 9% reported for the US does seem troubling. I have a research project for the evening. As for the scale of tax evasion and whether it could plug the hole: it's really, really hard to have an objective opinion here. My inner Greek is saying of course SDOE claims that tax evasion is the main problem. I can't prove that they're wrong, and I don't want to pollute the discussion with personal anecdotes. I'll only add that the SDOE claims don't link to any examinable research. Thank you for an interesting counterpoint :) [Edit: the Eurostat data shows Greece parallel to Spain but way behind France... so at this point I'm going to tentatively retract the comparison to France pending further research, but I think I am still persuaded that Greece has a tax base that commands a significant-enough fraction of GDP for them to manage responsibly]

by Steko 14y ago

_dps 14y ago

> Part of my problem with the statistics you link ... You raise an interesting question, to which I don't have a conclusive immediate response. I'll have to dig deeper to really know. The numbers on the US do seem out of line with well-known facts. However, here's another ~30% estimate from Eurostat (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Tax_revenue_statistics http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index....). Given the conflicting reports, I can only say that it's theoretically possible that Heritage is right and OECD/Worldbank/Eurostat are jointly wrong. If I had to weigh Heritage's ideology and their likely expertise on European economic statistics, as compared to lined-up answers from OECD/WorldBank/Eurostat I know where I'd bet. Still, the 9% reported for the US does seem troubling. I have a research project for the evening. As for the scale of tax evasion and whether it could plug the hole: it's really, really hard to have an objective opinion here. My inner Greek is saying of course SDOE claims that tax evasion is the main problem. I can't prove that they're wrong, and I don't want to pollute the discussion with personal anecdotes. I'll only add that the SDOE claims don't link to any examinable research. Thank you for an interesting counterpoint :) [Edit: the Eurostat data shows Greece parallel to Spain but way behind France... so at this point I'm going to tentatively retract the comparison to France pending further research, but I think I am still persuaded that Greece has a tax base that commands a significant-enough fraction of GDP for them to manage responsibly]