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About the Indicators

The Collecting Taxes data system contains performance and structural indicators about countries’ national tax systems. The database contains quantitative revenue performance indicators, addressing how well a particular tax performs in generating revenues for the government, given its overall rate structure.  Among the performance indicators is also an indicator of how well the overall tax system produces revenues, given the costs of administering the tax system.  The data system also provides tax rate information, such as the general value-added tax rate or the normal corporate income tax rate.   Other indicators describe the main features of tax administrations, while economic indicators are also included so that performance, rate competitiveness, and structure can be easily compared given levels of development and other factors.

Collecting Taxes features more than two dozen indicators that can be divided into five categories.  These are: 

1. Tax revenue performance:  These quantitative indicators provide a sense of how effectively the tax system produces revenues.
2. Tax structure:  These quantitative indicators represent the substantive structure of tax law, in a simplified, comparative way.
3. Tax administrative structure: This category includes both qualitative and quantitative indicators of the organization and size of the tax administration.
4. Economic structure: These indicators provide information about the economy of each country included in the data system.  These basic indicators have been cited in a number of research projects as having important impact on the ability of tax systems to collect taxes.
5. Reference:  These indicators measure neither performance nor quality of the tax system, rather they provide information about the amount of revenues the three major taxes produce and allow international reference comparisons.  There is no specific evaluative aspect to these indicators.

The user can find many applications for the Collecting Taxes system.  The data system facilitates international comparisons of national tax systems, comparing tax system performance, structure, and tax administration.  The user can download the entire data set or choose to compare a single country with countries in its region or its income grouping, or with countries throughout the world.  The Collecting Taxes system can produce reports customized to the user’s specific needs and interests.

The links in the right-hand column of this page provide information about the meaning and calculation of each of the indicators included in the Collecting Taxes data system.

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