4.17 Central government revenues
See Table 4.17 hereAbout the data
Definitions
Data sources
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies government transactions as receipts or payments and according to whether they are repayable or nonrepayable. If nonrepayable, they are classified as capital (meant to be used in production for more than a year) or current, and as requited (involving payment in return for a benefit or service) or unrequited. Revenues include all nonrepayable receipts other than grants. Grants are unrequited, nonrepayable, noncompulsory receipts from other governments or international organizations. Transactions are generally recorded on a cash rather than an accrual basis. Measuring the accumulation of arrears on revenues or payments on an accrual basis would result in a higher deficit. Transactions within the same level of government are not included, but transactions between levels are included. In some instances the government budget may include transfers used to finance the deficits of autonomous, extrabudgetary agencies.
The IMF's Manual on Government Finance Statistics (1986) describes taxes as compulsory, unrequited payments made to governments by individuals, businesses, or institutions. They are unrequited because governments provide nothing specifically in return, although they may use the funds received to provide goods or services to individuals or to the community as a whole. The sources and relative size of revenues are determined by policy choices about where and how to impose taxes and by changes in the economy's structure. Tax policy may reflect concerns for distributional effects, economic efficiency, and the pragmatics of administering a tax system. There is no correct distribution of revenues among sources, nor is this distribution likely to remain constant.
Traditionally, taxes have been classified as either direct-those levied directly on the income or profits of individuals and corporations-or indirect-sales and excise taxes and duties. This distinction may be a useful simplification, but it has no particular analytical significance. The definitions used here are those followed by the IMF in its Manual on Government Finance Statistics. For further discussion of government revenues and expenditures see the notes to tables 4.16 and 4.18.
• Taxes on income, profit, and capital gains are levied on the actual or presumptive net income of individuals, on the profits of enterprises, and on capital gains, whether realized on land, securities, or other assets. Intragovernmental payments are eliminated in consolidation.
• Social security taxes include employers' and employees' social security contributions and those of self-employed and unemployed people.
• Taxes on goods and services include general sales and turnover or value added taxes, selective excises on goods, selective taxes on services, taxes on the use of goods or property, and profits of fiscal monopolies.
• Taxes on international trade include import duties, export duties, profits of export or import monopolies, exchange profits, and exchange taxes.
• Other taxes include employers' payroll or labor taxes, taxes on property, and taxes not allocable to other categories. They may include negative values that are adjustments (for example, for taxes collected on behalf of state and local governments and not allocable to individual tax categories).
• Nontax revenue includes requited nonrepayable receipts for public purposes, such as fines, administrative fees, or entrepreneurial income from government ownership of property and voluntary, unrequited nonrepayable receipts other than from governmental sources. Proceeds of grants and borrowing, funds arising from the repayment of previous lending by governments, incurrence of liabilities, and proceeds from the sale of capital assets are not included.
Data on central government revenues are from the IMF's Government Finance Statistics Yearbook (1995) and IMF data files. The accounts of each country are reported using the system of common definitions and classifications found in the IMF's Manual on Government Finance Statistics (1986). The IMF receives additional information on the tax revenues of some OECD members from the OECD. For complete and authoritative explanations of concepts, definitions, and data sources see these IMF sources.