Paying Taxes 2014

Key themes and findings

2012
On average it takes our case study company 268 hours to comply with its taxes, it makes 26.7 payments and has an average Total Tax Rate of 43.1%. On average across the 9 years of the study the cost of tax, the Total Tax Rate (the taxes borne), has fallen by 9 percent; the time to comply has fallen by 55 hours (almost 7 days); and the number of payments has fallen by 7.

2004 - 2012
Over the nine years of the study, the compliance sub- indicators have improved most for labour taxes.

2012
The compliance burden (the time to comply and the number of payments) has continued to fall in 2012, but the rate of decline has slowed.

2004 - 2012
Over the nine years of the study the Total Tax Rate attributable to profit taxes has fallen faster than that for labour taxes so that labour taxes are now the largest element of the Total Tax Rate.

2012
While the global average Total Tax Rate has continued to fall in 2012, 14 economies have significantly1 increased their rate while 14 have reduced it.

2012
If the exceptional rate reductions which arise from replacing cascading sales tax with VAT are excluded, the global average Total Tax Rate has started to rise in 2012. On average, consumption taxes have always taken the longest time to comply.

2011 - 2012 -2013
Reforms continue around the world. 32 economies have made it easier to pay taxes between June 2012 and June 2013. In the last three years the majority of the reforms have been focussed on introducing or improving electronic systems.

Paying Taxes 2014