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Business Daily

Factual: Money

The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.

Business Daily: Have you paid your taxes?

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18/12/2019 GMT

Have you paid your taxes?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Have you paid your taxes?

Tax evasion is rife, from Bolivia to Greece, but are we taxing the wrong things?

Tax evasion is rife, from Bolivia to Greece, but might that be partly because we are we taxing the wrong things?

Tax evasion is rife in many parts of the world, but might that be partly because we are we taxing the wrong things?

Ed Butler looks at two countries overwhelmed by the problem. Bolivia has the proportionately largest tax-avoiding black economy in the world (at least of countries that gather statistics on these things). Katy Watson reports from a hilltop flea market where paying tax is simply considered bad for business.

Meanwhile Greek economist Nicholas Economides discusses his country's clampdown on the 30% of the economy that operates below the tax radar by encouraging a shift away from cash towards electronic payments that can be more easily monitored.

But are all these efforts being directed at the wrong targets? Most of the tax burden falls on labour in the form of income tax, but comedian and author Dominic Frisby says wealth, land and capital are let off far too lightly.

(Picture: Bolivian woman carrying her baby; Credit: hadynyah/Getty Images)

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