Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990-2013

From the document: The Revenue Statistics in Latin America publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development bank (IDB). It compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for a number of Latin American and Caribbean economies, the majority of which are not OECD member countries. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well-established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Latin American countries enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Latin American economies and between OECD and Latin American economies. The term “taxes” in this publication is confined to compulsory, unrequited payments to general government. As outlined in the Interpretative Guide to the Revenue Statistics, taxes are “unrequited” in the sense that benefits provided by government to taxpayers are not normally in proportion to their payments. The OECD methodology classifies a tax according to its base: income, profits and capital gains (classified under heading 1000), payroll (heading 3000), property (heading 4000), goods and services (heading 5000) and other taxes (heading 6000). Compulsory social security contributions paid to general government are treated as taxes, and classified under heading 2000. Much greater detail on the tax concept, the classification of taxes and the accrual basis of reporting is set out in the Interpretative Guide in Annex A. Extending the OECD methodology to Latin America and the Caribbean countries makes possible comparisons of tax systems on a consistent basis both across this region and between them and OECD and countries. However, in a few cases this methodology is different from the approach used by ECLAC, CIAT and IDB. In these cases the differences are noted in the text and in the tables, either with a footnote or an extra row. The report provides an overview of the main taxation trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. It examines changes in both the level and the composition of taxation plus the attribution of tax collection by sub-level of government between 1990 and 2013. The LAC countries covered are Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.