02012cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF002556 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451858655 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Stepanyan, Vahram. Reforming Tax Systems : Experience of the Baltics, Russia, and Other Countries of the Former Soviet Union / Vahram Stepanyan. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2003. 1 online resource (31 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Starting in the early 1990s, the Baltics, Russia, and other (BRO) countries of the former Soviet Union initiated tax reforms that varied widely at the later stages. Recently, some of the BRO countries, basing decisions on the proposition that lowering of the top marginal income tax rate would significantly benefit economic development and increase tax compliance, have initiated a new stage of tax reforms. This paper reviews country experiences and suggests that (i) overall, there seems to be little evidence of a substantial improvement in income tax revenues resulting simply from a reduction in the top marginal tax rates, and (ii) in the BRO countries, the elasticity of the behavior of economic agents, in terms of labor supply, saving, and investment, with respect to income tax rates is not large, and a reduction of the existing income tax rates is unlikely to lead to a notable expansion of economic activity. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2003/173 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2003/173/001.2003.issue-173-en.xml IMF e-Library