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The World’s Worst “Tax Hells”
Most people don’t know how to define a “tax haven,” but we assume places with no income tax are on the list. And there’s a lot to admire when looking at jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Monaco, and the Cayman Islands.
But what if we want to identify the opposite of a tax haven. What is a “tax hell” and how can they be identified?
A new study for the 1841 Foundation undertakes that task and it lists 12 nations that deserve this unflattering label. Belarus is the worst of the worst, followed by Venezuela, Argentina, and Russia.
But this isn’t just a list of places with high tax burdens.
To be a tax hell, a nation has to have punitive taxation and a lousy government. Here’s how the report describes the methodology.
The Tax Hells Index is an in-depth look at both the qualitative and quantitative data that is released annually by both the IMF and The World Bank. By drawing out critical insights from this data, The 1841 Foundation was able to create a comprehensive index and critically examine 94 countries against a stringent framework.
…we believe that a “Tax Hell” is not only a country with high taxes, but rather a country with a weak rule of law and where the rights to privacy and property are not enforced or protected as required. …Therefore, when considering the results, countries with high government quality and economic and legal stability may have high taxes (i.e., Denmark), but are very far from being considered Tax Hells. In fact, there are countries with both low and high taxes in the Top-12 tax hells; all of them, however, have low quality of government, high levels of corruption and discretion, poor economic management, and weak institutions.
By the way, the report identified 12 tax hells, but also lists 14 other nations that are “risky.”
These are countries that should be perceived as high risk.
I’ll close by noting that the report only considers nations in North America, Europe, and South America. If subsequent editions include Asia and Africa, I’m sure there will be more tax hells and more risky jurisdictions.
P.S. The five best-scoring nations are Ireland, Denmark, San Marino, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Remember, these are not necessarily low-tax jurisdictions. Indeed, Denmark is a high-tax nation. But all of these jurisdictions at least provide high-quality governance.
P.P.S. If you want a defense of tax havens, click here, here, and here.
Illinois and Fiscal Suicide, Part I
I wrote a couple of days ago about California’s grim future.
But now I’ll share some good news. No matter how bad California gets, the Golden State probably won’t have to worry 
about people and businesses fleeing to Illinois.
That’s because the Prairie State is an even bigger mess. If California is committing “slow motion suicide,” Illinois is opting for the quickest-possible fiscal demise.
Politicians in Springfield (the Illinois capital) have a love affair with higher taxes. A very passionate love affair.
But the state’s productive people have a different point of view. More and more of them have been escaping.
And they are now being joined by the state’s most-famous company, as Matt Paprocki of the Illinois Policy Institute explains in a column for the Washington Post.
When Boeing announced last month that it was moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Va., it sent shudders through the Illinois business community and state capital.
But last week, when the heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar said it was moving its headquarters to Texas, it felt more like a bulldozer ramming into the news. …If you’re an Illinois business owner or resident, as I am, the economics of staying are tough and the enticements to move away are many. …According to the U.S. Census Bureau, last year the state had the third-largest loss of residents due to domestic migration in the nation (-122,460), trailing only California and New York.
It’s easy to understand why people and businesses are leaving.
In 2017, Illinois lawmakers raised the personal income tax rate to 4.95 percent, from 3.75 percent, and hiked the corporate rate to 7 percent, from 5.25 percent. When J.B. Pritzker took office as governor in 2019, he passed another 24 tax and fee hikes costing taxpayers over $5 billion. …With 278,475 regulatory restrictions and requirements — double the national average — Illinois has the third most heavily regulated environment in the country. …Illinois owes over $139 billion in state pension debt as of last year, and local governments owe about $75 billion, which is the primary driver for Illinois’ spiraling property taxes, second-highest in the nation.
Mr. Paprocki offers all sorts of suggestions for reform, including a spending cap.
But the chances of pro-growth reform are effectively zero. The governor is a hard-core leftist (as well as a hypocrite) and the state legislature is controlled by government employee unions.
So if you’re hoping for a TABOR-style spending cap, there’s little reason to be optimistic.
And if you’re hoping for reforms that will improve the state’s “least friendly” tax climate, don’t hold your breath.
California is the Greece of the USA, but Texas is not perfect either!!!
Just Because California Is Terrible, that Doesn’t Mean Texas Is Perfect
January 21, 2013 by Dan Mitchell
Texas is in much better shape than California. Taxes are lower, in part because Texas has no state income tax.
No wonder the Lone Star State is growing faster and creating more jobs.
And the gap will soon get even wider since California voters recently decided to drive away more productive people by raising top tax rates.
But a key challenge for all governments is controlling the size and cost of bureaucracies.
Government employees are probably overpaid in both states, but the situation is worse in California, as I discuss in this interview with John Stossel.
Dan Mitchell Comparing Excessive Bureaucrat Compensation in Texas and California
But being better than California is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Texas fiscal policy.
A column in today’s Wall Street Journal, written by the state’s Comptroller of Public Accounts, points out some worrisome signs.
As the chief financial officer of the nation’s second-largest state, even I have found it hard to get a handle on how much governments are spending, and how much debt they’re taking on. Every level of government is piling up incredible bills. And they’re coming due, whether we like it or not. Even in low-tax Texas, property taxes have risen three times faster than the inflation rate and four times faster than our population growth since 1992. Our local governments, meanwhile, more than doubled their debt load in the last decade, to more than $7,500 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state. In Houston alone, city-employee pension plans are facing an unfunded liability of $2.4 billion. But too many taxpayers aren’t given the information they need to make informed decisions when they vote debt issues. Recently I spent several months holding about 40 town-hall meetings with Texans across our state. Each time, I asked the attendees if they could tell me how much debt their local governments are carrying. Not a single person in a single town had this information.
In other words, taxpayers need to be eternally vigilant, regardless of where they live. Otherwise the corrupt rectangle of politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and interest groups will figure out hidden ways of using the political process to obtain unearned wealth.
P.S. The second-most-viewed post on this blog is this joke about Texas, California, and a coyote, so it must be at least somewhat amusing. If you want some Texas-specific humor, this police exam is amusing and you’ll enjoy this joke about the difference between Texans, liberals and conservatives. And if you want California-specific humor, this Chuck Asay cartoon hits the nail on the head.
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