Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan among countries with high tax rates
2013-01-08 17:56:47
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are among the countries with high tax rates. Kazakhstan has the best tax burden compared to other Central Asian countries, according to the Paying Taxes 2013 Report.
Paying Taxes 2013, a joint effort of the World Bank, IFC, and PwC, looks at tax regimes in 185 economies and finds that the most common tax reform is the introduction or improvement of online systems for tax compliance, which occurred in 16 economies.
This report finds that governments continue to reform their tax systems despite global economic uncertainty, with 31 economies having taken steps from June last year through May 2012 to make it easier and cost less for small and medium businesses to pay taxes.
Uzbekistan is on the 161st place as a country with high tax rates. The total tax rate in Uzbekistan makes 98.5%, including 0.9% profit tax, 28.2% social security tax, and 69.4% of other taxes.
The specialist of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Pavel Hermansky says the tax burden of Uzbekistan is the highest among Eastern European and Central Asian countries.
This is the highest rate, as Eastern European and Central Asian states have the average tax rate of 41.3%, he added.
Kazakhstan has the lowest tax burden in Central Asia – 28.6%. This country is on the 17th position in the rankings. Kyrgyzstan with its 68.9% rate is on the 169th position, Tajikistan with 85.9% rate is 174th.
The paying taxes indicator covers the cost of taxes borne by the case study company and the administrative
burden of tax compliance for the firm. Both are important for business. They are measured using three sub-indicators: the Total Tax Rate (the cost of all taxes borne), the time needed to comply with the major taxes (profit taxes, labour taxes and mandatory contributions, and consumption taxes), and the number of tax payments.
The paying taxes indicator measures all taxes and contributions mandated by government at any level (federal, state, or local) as they apply to the standardised business. The Total Tax Rate sub-indicator measures the impact of taxes and contributions that are borne by the company which impact the company’s financial statements. It includes the corporate income tax, social contributions and labour taxes paid by the employer, property taxes, property transfer taxes, dividend tax, capital gains tax, financial transactions tax, waste collection taxes, and vehicle and road taxes. The other two sub-indicators, on the time to comply and number of payments measure taxes borne and taxes collected, and so include taxes and contributions withheld or collected, such as sales tax or value added tax (VAT).
As the paying taxes measures have been calculated for a large number of economies over an eight year period, PwC has undertaken some additional statistical analysis to look at the relationship between the paying taxes indicators and economic growth.