Understanding Public Financial Management: How Is Your Money Spent? Archives - Page 2 of 4

Case study: the Malawi ‘cashgate’ scandal

Cases of bad public financial management are, unfortunately, not uncommon: the financial and business press often report stories from around the world of misappropriation and misallocations that attract public attention, …

What is Auditing and Assurance?

Auditing is a social practice. It’s a formal process carried out by accounting and legal professionals according to explicit and codified procedures, and it has increasingly gained in importance in …

Mars: Getting the financial house in order

“Mr Ferrari, thank you for your hospitality,” began Sophie. “The meeting was very helpful and clarified the current financial management practices at Mars Colony administration. I will report to Earth …

Mars: Digging for sources of revenue

A massive cargo aircraft passed over the directorate where the meeting was held. “This is one of the latest additions to our cargo fleet,” the Director explained. “Mining has been …

What is Tax Competition?

It’s a concept known as ‘tax competition’ – tax measures that governments adopt to make a country more attractive, especially towards businesses, investors and high net-worth individuals (or HNWI: those …

Can taxation change behaviour and influence business?

Not only do taxes provide the main source of income for governments; in addition, they can be used to attain particular policy goals. Does taxation influence behaviour? The argument is …

How do taxes serve public policy objectives?

From the redistribution of wealth to improving public health and the environment, taxation can bring many benefits which serve the public good. Professor Tony Allan examines the effectiveness of using …

Indirect taxation: What can be taxed?

What can be taxed? Think of taxes on tobacco and fuel. Typically, indirect taxes are paid to tax authorities by companies who can, in turn, pass the cost of the …

Direct taxation: progressive, regressive and flat

Direct taxation is one of the main sources of income for most governments around the world. These are taxes levied directly on those who ultimately bear the cost of them, …

Should governments prefer direct or indirect taxation?

Should taxation be targeted at earnings and wealth, or spending? What are the advantages of direct taxes over indirect taxes, and do these apply in all economies? Professor Tony Allan …

Are Natural Resources a Blessing or a Curse?

Natural resources provide a valuable source of income for many countries but their exploitation comes at a high price. The exploitation of oil, gas, coal, minerals and forests account for …

What are the principles of good taxation?

Taxation: one of the clearest manifestations of the powers of a public authority. It has existed since the earliest forms of recorded government in history: from ancient Egypt, when the …

What are pros and cons of alternative sources of revenue?

As well as taxation, governments also raise public revenues through borrowing and export earnings. However, there are challenges to these approaches. Here, Professor Tony Allan outlines the drawbacks of alternative …

What are inter-governmental transfers?

There are many ways for governments to generate revenue. One such method is via inter-governmental transfers. What are inter-governmental transfers? These are transfers of financial resources between levels of government …

The main categories of public sector revenues

Governments raise revenues from a combination of revenue sources, but in most countries, however, these revenues mostly originate from taxation. How taxes contribute to government revenues As there are different …

Course: Understanding Public Financial Management: How Is Your Money Spent?

Understanding Public Financial Management: How Is Your Money Spent?