MANILA - The government of the Philippines will update the nations excise taxes on the sale of cigarettes, to lower the country’s smoking rate and to increase government revenues. On February 28th the House of Representatives of the Philippines held a hearing on a new bill proposing an overhaul to the excise taxes imposed on the sale of cigarettes in the Philippines, which will instate a single unitary tax rate to be adjusted annually in line with the level of inflation in the ... Read More

PRETORIA - South Africa will soon impose a new carbon tax, although the measure will only apply to less than 40 percent of all carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. The government of South Africa recently released its latest budget plan, which, amongst other measures, unveiled a proposal to instate a new carbon tax which would be levied on polluters from all sectors of the economy. The new tax will be implemented in the 2013 – 2014 fiscal year, and will be charged ... Read More

SEOUL - Opposition parties in South Korea are announcing their proposed tax plans ahead of the upcoming elections, saying that taxes on the wealthiest members of society must be raised. On February 26th two opposition parties in South Korea, the Democratic United Party and the United Progressive Party, announced their proposed tax policies, ahead of the upcoming April 11th general elections, with both parties planning to raise greater tax revenues to fund the nation’s superannuation system. According to political experts in Korea, if ... Read More

WASHINGTON D.C. - The Obama administration has proposed a major update of the corporate tax rules in the USA, which would broaden the base for corporate taxes, simplify compliance, reduce the corporate tax rate, and encourage a greater level growth in the country’s manufacturing sector. The five key points describing President Barack Obama’s proposed tax reform were detailed in The President’s Framework for Business Tax Reform, a joint report by the Department of the Treasury and the White House, published on Febraury ... Read More

BEIJING - China’s budget deficit and debt levels are currently within a safe margin, allowing the government to implement new fiscal policies in 2012 in order to maintain the economic growth of the country. In an interview conducted earlier this week, the Minister of Finance Xie Xuren described the intentions of the government of China to implement new proactive policies throughout 2012 to improve the national tax system, to increase the incomes and improve the livelihoods of taxpayers of China, and to expand ... Read More

NAIROBI - The government of Kenya is facing the reality that it may soon need to delay a number of development projects around the country, due sharp a sharp decrease in the collection of tax revenues in the country. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) recently released its latest Revenue Performance Report, detailing the country’s tax collections during the first half of the 2011 – 2012 financial year, and showing that the government’s cumulative tax revenues in the time period were below previous projections ... Read More

WELLINGTON - New Zealand has seen lower than expected tax collections levels in 2011, but the drop was offset by economic measures taken by the government to decrease own spending levels. According to the latest Financial Statements of the government of New Zealand, which were released on February 20th by the Treasury of New Zealand, tax revenues in the country over for the six month to December 2011 were 1.4 percent below forecast, but 3.3 percent greater than in the same period ... Read More