Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: James Alm 
Author-Email: jalm@gsu.edu
Author-Homepage: http://aysps.gsu.edu/AlmJ.html
Author-Workplace-Name: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://aysps.gsu.edu/index.html
Author-Name: Mir Ahmad Khan
Author-Email: 
Author-Homepage: 
Author-Workplace-Name: 
Author-Workplace-Homepage: 
Title: Assessing Enterprise Taxation and the Investment Climate in Pakistan
Abstract: The Pakistan system of taxing enterprises has undergone some major changes in recent years.  
Nevertheless, the corporate tax system remains plagued by a number of problems.  The existence of numerous exemption 
programs has significantly reduced tax revenues, and has greatly distorted the allocation of investment across sectors 
and asset types.  There also seems to exist significant amounts of tax evasion, evasion that also distorts resource 
allocation, reduces tax revenues, and compromises the distributional objectives of the system.  In part as a result 
of tax avoidance and tax evasion, the tax base has shrunk over time, further reducing revenues and leaving the more 
visible taxpayers still out of the tax net.  The extensive use of tax incentives is seldom tracked, quantified, and 
evaluated, and the intended effects on economic growth are uncertain.  The incentives are only one feature of the 
tax system that contributes to an overly complicated system, complications that illustrate the limitations of the 
tax administration.  The tax system was designed for times and circumstances that are long past, and the system 
has evolved over time in a piecemeal, ad hoc manner with little apparent thought given to the ways in which the 
pieces of the system need to fit together.
Keywords: Pakistan, Pakistan Taxation, Pakistan system of taxing enterprises,  tax avoidance, tax evasion
Length: 118 pages
Creation-Date: 2008-12-01
File-URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp0810.pdf
File-Format:application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0810