Abdul Muheet Chowdhary
Review: Taxation and Inequality in Latin America: New Perspectives on Political Economy and Tax Regimes (2023)
By Abdul Muheet Chowdhary
The volume Taxation and Inequality in Latin America: New Perspectives on Political Economy and Tax Regimes is an insightful collection of articles about the patterns of inequality in Latin America and detailing the nature of tax avoidance and evasion in the region, with lessons from political attempts to bring about progressive reforms and tax considerations for policymakers about the future of the region’s development.
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Honduras’ Tax Justice Law: Increasing tax collection to achieve the SDGs without increasing tax rates
By Abdul Muheet Chowdhary, Kuldeep Sharma and Kolawole Omole
In April 2023, the government of Honduras submitted a tax reform bill called the “Tax Justice Law” to the National Congress through which it intends to reform the Honduran tax system with potential for improved revenue collection, that too, without introducing new taxes or increasing tax rates. The law aims at Constitutional recognition that tax collection must be progressive, change the principle of taxation from territorial to worldwide taxation of income, introduce Ultimate Beneficial Ownership requirements that inter alia aim to repeal bearer shares, facilitate exchange of information with other jurisdictions, eliminate banking secrecy for tax purposes, implement credit method in domestic legislation to eliminate double taxation, amend the Constitution so as to limit tax exemptions to a maximum period of 10 years, restore transfer pricing audits to check abusive claim of tax incentives and eliminate the possibility of forgiving tax debts. The provisions contained in the Tax Justice Law are timely and welcome, particularly in light of the Global Minimum Tax. They can improve government revenues, reduce public debt and create the fiscal space for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
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