This book provides a comprehensive analysis of tax systems and tax reforms in a number of Latin American countries since the early 1990's, including Argentina and Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay. The authors present and discuss tax systems from a broad quantitative and historical perspective and describe the main taxes existing in each country, presenting the details of their institutional features. The existing interactions between the economic structure, the corporate tax system and the attraction of FDI inflows are of paramount importance and these issues are deeply analyzed in the book.A characteristic trait of the area is the proliferation of tax havens, particularly located in the Caribbean and in some other small islands, and the book provides an analysis of these havens and the counteractions adopted by the OECD countries. Finally, the book investigates the political economy of Latin America's taxation, exploring why many of these countries have experienced a democratic transition but poor economic performances.
Introduction: Tax systems and tax reforms in Latin America by Vito Tanzi 1
Pt. I A general picture of tax systems and tax reforms in Latin America 17
1 Taxation structure and main tax policy issues by Juan Carlos Gomez Sabaini and Ricardo Martner 19
2 An outline of tax systems and tax reforms by Francesco Figari and Luca Gandullia 41
3 Political economy issues of taxation by Paola Profeta and Simona Scabrosetti 63
4 Corporate tax systems and policies for attracting FDI by Giorgia Maffini and Anna Marenzi 77
5 Fiscal havens in Latin America and the Caribbean by Jeffrey Owens and Alessandra Sanelli 97
Pt. II Country studies of tax systems and tax reforms in Latin America 121
6 Argentina by Martin Bes 123
7 Brazil by Jose Roberto Afonso and Rafael Barroso 154
8 Chile by Matteo Cominetta 183
9 Colombia by Luigi Bernardi and Laura Fumagalli and Elena Fumagalli 205
10 Costa Rica by Jorge Cornick and Eric Thompson and Adrian Torrealba 225
11 Mexico by Daniel Alvarez 244
12 Paraguay by Caterina Ferrario 267
13 Uruguay by Alberto Barreix and Jeronimo Roca 283
Index
