As billionaires dance in the halls of the second Trump administration, it’s haunting how well Plutarch’s two-thousand-year-old words describe the state of American politics. It’s a barren landscape of plutocratic insatiability. *** How did it get this way? *** One way to tell the story is...

This report analyses the Scottish Government's Budget for 2025-26, with chapters on tax strategy, school spending, public sector pay and more.

Council tax is levied on the occupiers of residential property to help fund the provision of local services. Individual Scottish councils set the tax rates for their area, but it is the Scottish Government that determines the tax base to which the tax rates apply. With properties still assigned...

The Scottish Government has a range of tax powers at its disposal, which it has used in recent years to forge an increasingly distinct tax policy from the rest of the UK. In its 2025-26 Budget, the Scottish Government made a number of tax policy changes, including to income tax, business rates,...

Within a two-country model, this paper identifies a novel emission leakage channel that is caused by moral behavior of (atomistic) consumers. In a non-cooperative emission tax game between the countries, the leakage effect lowers the governments' marginal benefit of emission taxation, so...

Council tax is levied on the occupiers of residential property to help fund the provision of local services. Individual Scottish councils set the tax rates for their area, but it is the Scottish Government that determines the tax base to which the tax rates apply. With properties still assigned...

The Scottish Government has a range of tax powers at its disposal, which it has used in recent years to forge an increasingly distinct tax policy from the rest of the UK. In its 2025-26 Budget, the Scottish Government made a number of tax policy changes, including to income tax, business rates,...

Within a two-country model, this paper identifies a novel emission leakage channel that is caused by moral behavior of (atomistic) consumers. In a non-cooperative emission tax game between the countries, the leakage effect lowers the governments’ marginal benefit of emission taxation, so...

We continue the discussion of the taxation game following our presentation in [12]. Our concept describes a cooperative game played between a set of jurisdictions (" countries"). These players admit the operation of a multinational enterprise (MNE, the "firm") within their jurisdiction. The...

This paper assesses the feasibility of developing a tax and benefit microsimulation model in Rwanda. Tax-benefit microsimulation can be used to explore ways in which national development goals can be achieved in a cost-effective manner, and to assess the distributional effects of more...

The UK finds itself in an unfortunate economic and fiscal bind. Living standards have endured an unprecedentedly long stagnation. Taxes are at record levels for the UK (though remain lowto-middling by European standards). Public services are showing visible signs of strain and are, in many...

This paper compares two important sources of tax revenue statistics for African countries, namely the Africa Tax Administration Forum's African Tax Outlook and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research Government Revenue Dataset. We consider the background,...

This "explainer" looks at how the parties' proposals would affect Scotland and Wales, covering tax, spending, public finances and the constitution.

What has happened to average incomes, inequality, poverty, jobs and pay since 2009 and since 2019? How does the UK compare internationally?

This chapter of our second annual Budget Report looks beyond 2024-25 to the medium-term outlook for the Scottish Government's funding, and the implications of the funding picture for the choices and trade-offs faced when allocating funding between areas of the budget. The Scottish Government had...

The Scottish Government's Budget for 2024-25 takes place at a time of particular uncertainty about the future funding environment. UK government spending plans both for the coming year and for later years seem likely to be topped up, but when and by how much is unclear. The current UK government...

This report gives a high-level overview of tax policy across the period 2010 to 2024. An appendix summarises the main tax policy changes. There are some clear distinctions between the governments before 2019 (including the coalition government of 2010-15) and the governments from 2019. Most...

This chapter of our second annual Budget Report looks at Scottish tax policy and revenue, the overall amount of funding available for Scottish public services, and planned spending on different individual services in the coming financial year, 2024-25. In several important respects, the Scottish...

The past 14 years have witnessed an enormous amount of reform to the tax and benefit system. While it is tempting for politicians to draw attention to one set of reforms or another, what matters for household incomes is the whole system. In this report, we study the impact of policy changes to...

In this paper, we attempt to estimate the tax revenues to be gained by the Member States of ATAF, WATAF, AU and the South Centre under the Amount A and an alternative stylized DST taxation regime. Our research demonstrates that the comparative revenue effects of the Amount A and DST taxation...

Purpose: The paper aims to identify the factors that impact the budget revenues of countries in ASEAN economies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies fixed effect and random effect models on a 25-year database of ASEAN economies from 1991 to 2020. Findings: The research reveals that...

Taxation of cross-border services has been identified as a high priority issue in the United Nations (UN) negotiations to establish a new global framework for tax. This paper analyses the defects of international tax rules as applied to services, and their exploitation by multinational...

The new Chancellor faces a difficult fiscal inheritance. Her choices on tax and spending at this first Budget could define the rest of the parliament.

The financial losses recorded by Gazprom in 2023 driven by collapsing gas export revenue point to a wider transition in the role of the company, which has been at the heart of Russia's energy economy since the Soviet period. In the pre-crisis period, Gazprom was able to subsidize gas supply to...

Should the government raise capital gains tax in the Budget? What is the case for reforming capital gains tax? What are the options for reform?

Aid diversion poses a significant challenge to aid-recipient countries by depleting vital resources and hindering sustainable development. In many developing nations, high levels of corruption raise concerns about whether aid funds reach their intended destination. This paper studies the impact...