Estimating the Corporate Income Tax Gap: The RA-GAP Methodology
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Disclaimer: This Technical Guidance Note should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Note are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
Summary:
The IMF Fiscal Affairs Department's Revenue Administration Gap Analysis Program (RA-GAP) aims to provide a quantitative analysis of the tax gap between potential revenues and actual collections, and this technical note explains the concept of the tax gap for corporate income tax (CIT), and the methodology to estimate CIT gaps. It includes detailed steps to derive the potential CIT base and liability with careful consideration for the theoretical differences between the coverage of statistical macroeconomic data and the actual tax base of CIT, and then compare the estimated results with actual declarations and revenues. Although the estimated gaps following the approach will have margins of errors, it has the advantage of using available data without additional costs of collection and suits initial evaluations of overall CIT noncompliance in a country.
Series:
Technical Notes and Manuals No. 2018/002
Subject:
Business enterprises Corporate income tax Economic sectors Fiscal accounting and reporting National accounts Personal income Public financial management (PFM) Taxes
English
Publication Date:
September 12, 2018
ISBN/ISSN:
9781484357224/2075-8669
Stock No:
TNMEA2018002
Pages:
36
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