How to Facilitate Paying Taxes in Iran

In the context of “doing business” project، World Bank assesses the easiness of paying taxes in 185 countries annually. In this ranking، Iran is 129th country in 2013. With respect to the effects of easiness of paying taxes on the government’s tax income، the size of the informal economy and investment incentives، one may asks how it is possible to facilitate paying taxes and which policy instruments must be adopted. This paper after assessing world bank’s methodology in measuring “paying taxes” index، concludes that (1) by making electronic tax payment possible، the number of payment and the compliance time reduce significantly; (2) by developing VAT and personal income tax and reducing the burden of income tax، it is possible to increase the rank of Iran as an objective; (3) World Bank overestimates the time which is necessary for “taxpayer company” to pay social insurance contributions and labor tax.