And, while raising so much revenue with so low a tax rate sounds grand, the declining volume of trades would shrink the tax base precipitously.

Poor regions have a low base of economic activity to tax, which prevents them from investing in human and physical capital.

According to the GAO, 80 of state tax officials opposed a national sales tax as an intrusion on their tax base.

And fourthly, it is important to expand the tax base.

This can include broadening the tax base, reducing tax avoidance and evasion, improving tax collection, and developing new, cooperative international taxation strategies.

So what else can eurozone governments do to raise revenue as their economies recover? Most economists favor finding ways to broaden the tax base for example, by eliminating special deductions and privileges in order to keep marginal tax rates low.

Governments with meager tax revenues can't provide basic public goods. Worse yet, low tax revenues in poor countries often result from defects in tax collection systems (rather than low tax rates) that also promote unproductive enterprise.

High unemployment countries include high tax Germany, France, and Italy, but also low tax Japan and Spain.

Instead, they placed them in conduits based in low tax countries.

Broadening the income tax base is a central element of the highly regarded Simpson Bowles proposals for tax reform in the United States.

Capital tax differences among countries would induce capital to flow from the high tax to the low tax economies. Such tax induced distortions would lead to an inefficient regional allocation of investment and possible tax competition.

In addition, private sector firms provide most of the tax base needed to fund public services.

However, the economy of Iraq showed signs of recovery, from a very low base.

And, unlike tax incentives, wage subsidies target only employment of low wage workers.

These revenue losses could be offset by curtailing so called corporate tax expenditures deductions, credits, and other special tax provisions that subsidize some economic activities while penalizing others and broadening the corporate tax base.

And low growth will hurt tax revenues, undermining the proclaimed goal of fiscal consolidation.

That said, if the goal of corporate tax reform is to boost investment and job creation, broadening the tax base to pay for a lower rate could be counterproductive.

As shown in a previous study by the secretariat, these changes are underscored by a shift in the industrial base towards low productivity, low pay activities.

From a very low base, FDI in Africa increased for the second consecutive year to 20 billion.

A desirable way to broaden the tax base would be to put an overall cap on the amount of tax reduction that each taxpayer can achieve through deductions and exclusions.

Governments that don t need to broaden their tax base have few incentives to respond to the needs of their people.

The Millennium Project report highlighted the problems of sub Saharan Africa and the poverty trap that is, low tax returns, low saving rates and the like.

The results also reflected China s declining attractiveness as a base for product assembly, low cost manufacturing, and parts production.

Trade bounced back relatively quickly in the second half of 2009, though this partly reflected the extraordinarily low base.

Corporate tax expenditures narrow the base, raise the cost of tax compliance, and distort decisions about investment projects, how to finance them, what form of business organization to adopt, and where to produce.

To strengthen purchasing power and to stimulate consumption, tax cuts on low and medium income households are essential.

But, despite their robust base and low administrative costs, excise taxes currently amount to less than 2 of low income countries GDP, compared to roughly 3 in high income countries.

Austerity programs have been largely counterproductive, generating vicious cycles of slow or no growth, business closures, skyrocketing unemployment, and tax base erosion.

Obama s recent statement that he favors reforming personal and corporate taxes by lowering rates and broadening the tax base reinforces that impression.

The tax base thus increased from approximately 8 per cent of GDP in 1995 to more than 10 per cent in 2002.

Most economists advocate rich countries replacing their complex and antiquated tax codes with a simple low flat tax, and they bemoan the fact that so few countries have tried it.

Accusations that Switzerland is a tax haven usually come from countries that have a low level of taxpayer honesty.

Both are openly opposed not only to the tax increase, but also to the continuing presence of the US Marine base on Okinawa.

The rump euro s weakened exchange rate would lead to renewed economic growth, job creation, and a stronger tax base in southern European countries.

The island has experienced the emergence of crime, which was formerly foreign to the Territory, albeit from a very low base.

The Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI), the tax authority, has continued to try to widen the scope of the tax collection base through various schemes in Government controlled areas in an effort to increase State revenues.

In many castes of low ritual rank, landlords, prosperous cultivators and traders were found, some of whom actually paid income tax.

One possibility is an increase in the consumption tax, which currently stands at 5 low in comparison with other industrialized countries.

Since the introduction of the Building Independence Strategy in 1998, low income families have seen their after tax disposable incomes increase.

Green and Galiana propose limiting carbon pricing initially to a low tax (say, 5.00 a ton) to finance energy research and development.

As Farid puts it in a documentary they filmed, Dalmia is a low income neighborhood sandwiched an abandoned cement factory and a naval base .

The proportion of countries that base their campaigns on needs assessment is especially low in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub Saharan Africa.

He rejected what he described as the European style of very large government and high tax rates and the American style of lower tax rates but large fiscal deficits, in favor of low budget deficits and a tax system that would promote opportunities for individuals and private enterprises.

The obvious way is to tax coal, or to require power plants to have permits to use coal, and to set the tax or permit price high enough to induce a shift towards the low carbon alternatives.

Finally, Abe s growth strategy demands a corporate tax reduction a powerful tool for increasing the tax base in a world in which countries are competing to attract multinational companies. Indeed, lower taxes are vital to increase foreign and domestic investment in Japan.