Tax Professionals' View of the Spanish Tax System: Efficiency, Equity and Tax Planning

Abstract

The IEB research program in Tax Systems' Analysis aims at promoting high quality research in the field of taxation, taking into account not only the traditional approach to optimal taxation, but also administrative issues and the decentralization or globalization context. The ultimate aim of the program is to generate socially useful knowledge in this field. Special emphasis is put on empirical research, and on the analysis of the Spanish Tax System. The program enjoys the support from the IEB-Foundation.The Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) is a research centre at the University of Barcelona (UB) which specializes in the field of applied economics. The IEB is a foundation funded by the following institutions: Applus, Abertis, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Diputació de Barcelona, Gas Natural and La Caixa. The IEB working papers represent ongoing research that is circulated to encourage discussion and has not undergone a peer review process. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IEB. The design of a tax system is a daunting task. Economies have become increasingly complex, which makes the design of taxes has to take into account behavioral taxpayers' responses -including mobility -, but also tax planning issues. Additionally, increasing inequality trends put more pressure on design. This complex framework increases the need of complete and constantly updated information about the functioning of the system to carry out welfare-enhancing reforms and having stable sources of public funding. It seems now the moment the Spanish tax system takes advantage of all sources of information to undertake a necessary reform. For this ambitious purpose, we aim at providing a novel source of information: the (objective) opinion of tax professionals. From a survey all over Spain, tax professionals unanimously conclude the current tax system is unfair, while the main inefficiencies, rather than due to traditional responses, come out as a consequence of tax planning and tax mobility. We hope the complete results of the survey are a useful source of information. Documents deMAIN RESULT: From their daily-practice, tax professionals might provide lots of insights into the functioning of a tax system. We have conducted a survey among them regarding the Spanish Tax System (2012); they unanimously conclude the current one is unfair, while the main inefficiencies, rather than due to traditional responses, come out as a consequence of tax planning and tax mobility.JEL Codes: H20, H29