Political decision-makers need to weigh up the pros and cons of increasing the tax burden on businesses, according to the latest study by the international think tank Tax Foundation, published on Wednesday 16 April.
In its view, the economic burden of these tax rises will fall on workers - who will see their wages fall, on shareholders - who will see their returns fall, or on consumers - who will see their prices rise.
Companies make a significant contribution to tax collection through the taxes they are legally obliged to pay and the taxes they are obliged to collect and pay on behalf of others.
Companies in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries pay an average of 37.8% of all taxes collected. On average, they collect and pay out 47.4% of total tax revenue.
“Without businesses acting as tax collectors and bearing those compliance costs, governments’ tax collection agencies would need to incur significant additional costs to raise a similar or even lower amount of revenue”, economist Cristina Enache points out.
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/gh1 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)