Tax Policy, Fiscal Analysis & Revenue Forecasting

Tax Policy, Fiscal Analysis and Revenue Forecasting exposes public sector finance officers and budget officials from developing and transitional countries to the latest developments in tax policy design, fiscal analysis, and revenue forecasting.

This course focuses on an examination of the design issues of an income tax, payroll taxes, consumption tax, property tax, special excises, and user fees. The fiscal analysis and revenue forecasting component of the course focuses on proven methodologies for forecasting revenue receipts in developing and transitional economies. Approximately one-half of the course time will be conducted in a computer laboratory. Participants apply principles learned in the course to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their country's tax policy.

This topic-driven course consists of lectures, seminars, roundtable discussions, workshops, and on-site visits. Participants receive hands-on training in applying the latest fiscal analysis and revenue forecasting techniques as well as a good grounding in the principles of tax policy design by leading international experts.

Participants need no previous formal education in economics or public administration, but the program is designed to be most useful to budget practitioners and policymakers from central, regional and local governments, as well as donor agency program managers working in developing and transitional countries. Participants do not need any previous experience with computers. This course is taught in English.

If you have any questions regarding the content of this course, please do not hesitate to contact the Course Coordinator for this course, Hiram Seraphin (hseraphin@gsu.edu).

• Principles of taxation
• Tax administration and tax compliance
• Tax reform and implementation challenges
• Fiscal policy and fiscal architecture
• Overview and trends in: consumption taxes, excises, trade taxes, property taxes, and taxes on wealth and assets
• Natural resource taxation
• Tax incidence analysis
• Learning about taxes through experiments
• Empirical techniques and models for forecasting revenue
• Regression analysis
• Micro-simulation models: estimating revenue from value-added tax
• Using EViews for revenue

Tuition for the three-week fiscal decentralization course is $7,650, tuition fee for the macroeconomics and education policy courses are $5,000 per course, and tuition for the tax policy and the public budgeting courses are $5,500 per course. The tuition fee includes all training-related costs, including instruction, course materials, single-occupancy lodging accommodations, local transportation and cultural activities. However, the course tuition does not include airfare to/from Atlanta, health insurance, meals, or other incidental expenses. The estimated cost for meals and incidental expenses for Atlanta is $49 per day.

Participants are typically funded by their government (e.g., Ministry of Finance) or through bilateral or multilateral development agencies. The participant is responsible for securing a commitment for funding before submitting the application. Examples of multilateral development agencies are the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank. Follow this link for additional information regarding funding opportunities.