The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries

VAT is the most important tax in most developing and transitional countries. This book draws on a wide range of experience and research to discuss a wide range of conceptual and practical issues related to VAT in a way that is relevant both to students and to tax practitioners and officials around the world. It updates, extends, and amends the only similar book-length treatment, The Modern VAT, an authored work published by the International Monetary Fund in 2001.

Richard M. Bird is Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics and Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the International Tax Program at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and currently holds appointments as a Fellow at the C. D. Howe Institute and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy, Georgia State University. He has served in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund; been a visiting professor in the United States, the Netherlands, Australia and elsewhere; and been a frequent consultant to the World Bank and other national and international organizations, working in more than 50 countries around the world. He has written and edited dozens of books and hundreds of articles, especially on public finance in developing countries. He was awarded the Daniel M. Holland Medal of the National Tax Association in 2006 for outstanding contributions to the study and practice of public finance.

Pierre-Pascal Gendron is Professor of Economics, The Business School, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Toronto, Canada. He has served in the federal government of Canada; been a consultant in progressive positions with tax practices of professional services firms in Canada and the Netherlands; and served as consultant on fiscal matters for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development and the Forum of Federations. As a member of the Expert Roster of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, he has participated in a number of technical assistance missions on tax policy in Africa and the Middle East since 2007. He has also taught a VAT course at the African Tax Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has written extensively on public economics, especially in the area of taxation. He regularly speaks on the subject of VAT at conferences and seminars in the Americas, Europe and Africa.