摘要：It is a privilege to have been invited back by the eJTR to pen this editorial for its December 2011 issue. This might be described as an “indirect tax” issue of the eJTR because all the articles are about aspects of indirect tax. The first article, by Vincent Mangioni, is about land tax and the challenge of maintaining transparency in the context of land valuation. Mangioni attempts to measure the transparency aspects of the land valuation process in NSW. He concludes with a summary of improvements in transparency that he has identified as well as recommendations for refinements in, and development of, further transparency measures. The second article looks further afield, Pakistan in fact, and is the jointly authored work of Saira Ahmed, Vaqar Ahmed and Cathal O’ Donoghue. The article assesses contentious taxation reforms being considered in Pakistan in order to widen the tax base and rationalize the rate structure of different taxes. It singles out VAT and some direct agricultural taxes as more attractive for various reasons including ease of collection and revenue adequacy. The article makes a powerful argument for an increase in revenue collection which, in the authors’ simulation, increases public sector spending. Bearing in mind (as eJTR readers know) that the art of taxation is the plucking of feathers with limited hissing1, the authors advocate an incremental approach to tax reform with a gradual increase in the tax net.
