{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DIME","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2024-10-30","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"David Pineda Pinto","affiliation":"Utah State University","email":"david.pineda@usu.edu"},{"name":"Jose Carlo Berm\u00fadez","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"jcbermudez@uc.cl"},{"name":"Thiago Scot","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"tscot@worldbank.org"}],"output":[{"title":"VAT Refunds and Firms\u2019 Performance: Evidence from a Withholding Reform in Honduras","type":"Working Paper","authors":"David Pineda Pinto, Jose Carlo Berm\u00fadez, Thiago Scot","description":"Policy Research Working Paper (PRWP) WPS10996","uri":"http:\/\/documents.worldbank.org\/curated\/en\/099933312112427212\/IDU1159620611a9821440d189681c5d134f6a158","doi":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1596\/1813-9450-10996"}],"datasets":[{"name":"Administrative tax data","note":"Source: Honduran tax authority, Servicio de Administraci\u00f3n de Rentas (SAR)\nLocated at: \\Data\\rawdata\\ Base_IM_ATC_CGIT_IT_AE1.dta, Base_Mensual_ISV_201101_201912.dta, Base_Mensual_SER_201101_201912.dta, ISRPN11_20_initialclean.dta, Recaudaci\u00f3n_ISV_2016-2019.dta, risk_score.dta\n\nThe data were made available exclusively for this research project through the corresponding author and government agency collaboration agreements. The authors can provide access for replication purposes of this study (conditional on the signing of a confidentiality agreement and a security agreement). Individuals interested in accessing the data for replication purposes can contact Thiago Scot (tscot@worldbank.org). Researchers interested in obtaining the data for their own analyses can directly contact SAR.","access_type":"Restricted and not included in the package."},{"name":"B-Ready data on VAT delays","note":"Source: World Bank Enterprise Surveys\nLocated at: rawdata\\Bready.xlsx","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package","uri":"https:\/\/www.enterprisesurveys.org\/en\/data\/exploretopics\/taxes"},{"note":"Source: Tax administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT)\nLocated at: Data\/rawdata\/base_TADAT.xlsx","uri":"https:\/\/www.tadat.org\/","name":"TADAT data","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package"}],"software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"18 MP"}],"scripts":[{"file_name":"RR_HND_2024_208.zip","zip_package":"RR_HND_2024_208.zip","title":"Reproducibility package (partial data and code) for VAT refunds and firms\u2019 performance: Evidence from a withholding reform in Honduras","date":"2024-10","dependencies":"All dependencies are stored in the ado folder. ","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DIME) Analytics team, World Bank."}],"title_statement":{"idno":"RR_HND_2024_208","title":"Reproducibility package for VAT Refunds and Firms\u2019 Performance: Evidence from a Withholding Reform in Honduras"},"acknowledgment_statement":"This study was prepared with support from the Honduras Revenue Administration Service (SAR) and valuable Global Tax Program (GTP) funding. We are grateful to Antonis Tsiflis, Lucas Zavala, Dario Tortarolo, and Tom\u00e1s Rau for their helpful discussions and suggestions. We also appreciate comments from seminar participants at the NBER Public Economics Program Meeting Fall 2023, the 78th IIPF Annual Congress, the 45th Meeting of the Brazilian Econometric Society, TaxDev seminar at the IFS, FAD Seminar Series at the IMF, LCR Economics Seminar Series, DIME Lightning Seminar, DEC Half-Baked Seminar, CAF seminar, and Applied-Micro Seminar at PUC Chile. We thank Monica Mogollon Plazas for superb research assistance. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of SAR, the World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. Opinions and errors are all those of the authors.","abstract":"Late or unreliable refunds of credits undermine the best traits of Value-Added Tax (VAT) systems and might affect firms\u2019 growth and investment opportunities. In this paper, we use administrative tax records in Honduras to study a tax reform that decreased the withholding rate of VAT liabilities by credit card providers, with the goal of curbing unrefunded credits. Using a differences-in-differences approach exploiting differential exposure to the reform, we document that it caused a decrease in excessive withholding and was equivalent to a cut in effective tax rates faced by treated firms. We then evaluate the effects on firms\u2019 economic performance and estimate null effects on several indicators of economic growth and investment. Our results challenge the premise that unrefunded VAT credits are an important constraint to firm growth in certain settings.","geographic_units":[{"name":"Honduras","code":"HND","type":"Country"}],"topics":[{"id":"H20","name":"General","parent_id":"H2","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel"},{"id":"H27","name":"Other Sources of Revenue","parent_id":"H2","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel"},{"id":"H32","name":"Firm","parent_id":"H3","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel"}],"keywords":[{"name":"VAT refunds"},{"name":"withholding"},{"name":"firms\u2019 performance"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"data_statement":"Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file.","reproduction_instructions":" Access to some of the data required to reproduce this project is restricted. If users gain access to the restricted data, they can reproduce the results by following these steps:\n1. Store the data files in the Data\/rawdata folder, ensuring that the filenames match those mentioned in the README.\n2. Update the file path in the main do-file.\n3. Run the main do-file.","technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced in a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2013 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2013 Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 CPU @ 2.60GHz\n\u2013 Memory available: 15.7 GB\n\u2013 Software version: Stata version 18.0 MP","technology_requirements":"~1 hour","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"Modified BSD3","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/bsd-3-clause\/"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Jose Carlo Bermudez","email":"jcbermudez@uc.cl","affiliation":"World Bank"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2024-11"},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"}],"schematype":"script"}