H - Public EconomicsReturn

Tax reliefs (tax expenditures) in the Czech Republic, as well as in other countries, are frequent topic of political and public finance discussion. Sometimes they are presented in a positive spirit as administratively inexpensive tool for promoting desirable public policies. More often, however, they are presented negatively, as an exception, which complicates the tax system and causes distortions. This article aims to identify and quantify the tax reliefs (tax expenditures) of the three major taxes in the Czech Republic in 2008: personal income tax, corporation tax and value added tax. Unlike in many other OECD member countries, in the Czech Republic, tax expenditures have not been quantified and published yet; this contributions is therefore a first attempt to quantify them. For calculation we used the reference law approach and the revenue forgone method.