The World Bank - Working for a world free of poverty

Views menu

Does tax registration increase profits?

A large number of firms in developing countries operate in the informal sector. It is often argued that informality lowers profits and growth, but is this true? A recent paper on Bolivia finds that formality leads indeed to higher profit - on average. However, distinguishing between firms of different sizes shows that it is only mid-sized firms that stand to benefit from formality, whereas both smaller and larger firms suffer.

Comments

For many small- and micro-level enterprises in developing countr

For many small- and micro-level enterprises in developing countries, the answer to the question I think, is No. This is because business registration in those countries are very bureaucratic and time-consuming, and the fees are plentiful.

For medium-level enterprises, formal business and tax registration helps increase profit because the owners and managers of such enterprises can concentrate on their business, and worry less on extortion and harrassment by tax and other govt. bureaucrats.

I think another reason may be that business registration also le

I think another reason may be that business registration also leads to some increased costs to the enterprise such as bookkeeping, welfare, and increased wages. Not to mention lost time and money (read : bribes) trying to get your business permit!

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <br> <p>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.