Tax System in Industrialized Countries

This volume is the only book to provide a comparative and systematic analysis of the tax systems of the major industrialized nations (the G7 plus Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden) over the last decade. An introductory chapter compares the tax levels, structures, and systems of the ten, notes differences between government preoccupations in mid-1980s and mid-1990s, and unusual tax features of particular countries, before speculating on likely changes in the remainingyears of the century. In the ten main chapters, individual national experts providein a standardized format to facilitate comparisondetails of all the significant taxes and important changes in relation to specific policy considerations such as fiscal deficits, savings and investment incentives, incomedistribution effects, and administrative and compliance costs. The country chapters conclude with a summary of recent and prospective tax reforms, which in each case takes account of the underlying economic conditions and political climate.

The book excels in the comparison of tax statistics, using comprehensive OECD and national data....The contributors to The Tax System in Indusrialized Countries provide many thoughtful observations about current tax problems.