This page is dedicated to IMF capacity development, research, and data related to tax policy issues.

The IMF’s tax policy program supports countries in their consideration of how to raise revenue in support of their spending needs, and how to structure their tax and revenue system to balance key objectives including efficiency and equity, as well as issues such as the impact of taxes on incentives to invest, work, and save.

Our Leadership

  • Mario Mansour
    Mario Mansour

    Division Chief, Tax Policy Division 1

    Francophone Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe

  • Shafik Hebous
    Shafik Hebous

    Deputy Division Chief, Tax Policy Division 1

  • Alexander Klemm
    Alexander Klemm

    Division Chief, Tax Policy Division 2

    Anglophone/Lusophone Africa, Asia, Pacific, and Western Hemisphere

  • Thomas Baunsgaard
    Thomas Baunsgaard

    Deputy Division Chief, Tax Policy Division 2

  • Artur Swistak
    Artur Swistak

    Deputy Division Chief, Tax Policy Division 2

Core Topics

Current Issues

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Suggested Starter Resources & Training

Core Topics

  • Personal Income and Wealth
  • Personal Income and Wealth

    This section covers income taxation of individuals, covering issues such as the taxation of labor income and wealth.

    Individual taxation is a core tax base for many countries, and the design of personal income taxes directly affects how people work, save, and invest. This topic includes resources on income taxes, wealth taxes, capital gains as well as analysis on distributional issues, equity, and how individual behavior responds to these taxes (e.g., elasticity of labor supply).

  • Business Income and Assets
  • Business Income and Assets

    This section provides information and resources on the taxation of business income and business assets.

    Key taxes include corporate income taxes and taxes on capital gains. This section also includes taxation of business entities such as partnerships. It links closely to the international taxation topic given the importance of multinational enterprises in business. Sector-specific resources are also provided under the Sector Specific Taxes section.

Books
Country Reports
Departmental Papers
Policy Papers
External Publications
Papers
Working Papers
  • Consumption
  • Consumption

    This section provides information and resources on taxes imposed on consumption.

    Key taxes include excises, customs duties and VAT/GST systems. It also includes papers on excises, which many countries impose on goods such as fuel, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, as well as taxes imposed to influence health objectives.

  • Sector-Specific Taxes
  • Sector-Specific Taxes

    This section provides information and resources on tax issues that are specific to particular sectors of the economy.

    The following sectors are included below: i) financial sector recourses on the taxation of financial institutions such as banks; ii) non-renewable and renewable natural resources covering natural resource taxation, including the mix of fiscal instruments; and iii) telecommunications resources on the taxation of telecommunications companies and related issues.

  • Tax Policy and Institution Building
  • Tax Policy and Institution Building

    This section provides resources on the institutions that are necessary for well-functioning tax systems.

    This section provides information on key institution building issues such as the role of political institutions, the role of tax policy units, and the analysis of tax effort.

Board Papers
External Publications
Notes
Staff Reports
Working Papers
  • Tax Transparency
  • Tax Transparency

    This section provides resources on how countries can foster greater transparency in their tax systems.

    This section includes resources on tax transparency, including the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code. This Code includes initiatives to foster transparency in the payment and management of resource revenues.

Current Issues

Tax policy needs to be responsive to the changing demands of our environment and needs to adapt as the world changes. To maintain currency and relevance, the IMF tax policy program is supported by analytical work to address current issues such as international taxation, the COVID crisis, gender equality and digitalization.

  • COVID-19
  • COVID-19

    This section contains documents on the tax policy issues that may require consideration in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    This section includes resources on topical tax issues that arose as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These topics include the challenges of revenue forecasting tax revenues, the use of temporary investment incentives to support growth, natural resource taxation issues, and ensuring tax policy settings foster inclusive growth after the pandemic.

  • Digitalization
  • Digitalization

    This section provides resources on the tax aspects of the digitalization of economies.

    This section includes resources and studies into the new tax challenges raised by digitalization and how existing rules can be perceived as unfair. Highly‑digitalized businesses have a large base of customers that generate value, but where they have no physical presence, which creates difficulties in determining where profits should be taxed.

  • International Tax
  • International Tax

    This section provides resources on cross-border taxation issues.

    This section illustrates our contribution to the global debate on modernizing the international taxation system, including identifying and quantifying problems with the existing architecture such as tax avoidance through profit shifting, as well as tax treaties.

Departmental Papers
External Publications
Policy Papers
Publications
Technical Notes
Working Papers
Videos
  • Gender

    This section provides resources focusing on the impact of tax instruments on women.

    This section includes documents and analysis on how tax instruments affect women’s welfare, their incentives to work, and their economic participation.

  • Inequality
  • Inequality

    This section includes resources on the tax policy elements of inequality.

    Excessive income inequality is detrimental to macroeconomic stability and economic growth. This section provides resources on tax policy issues relating to inequality and how tax systems can consider inequality in policy design.

  • Climate Change
  • Climate Change

    This section contains resources on the role of taxation in reducing the rate of carbon emissions and encouraging actions to adapt.

    This section contains resources and analysis to assist countries in managing the difficult task of reducing carbon emissions and adapting to change. Tax policy can be a key driver of change in energy usage by changing relative prices and taxing unwanted carbon pollution.

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Can’t Find What You’re Looking For?

If you have any questions about the IMF’s work in the revenue domain, please contact us.

revenueportal@IMF.org