Tanzi Inflation Effect on Iran Tax System Performance

One of the main policies for solving the problem of economic growth obstacles and eliminating the sole dependence of the economy on oil revenues is to improve the country's tax system performance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factors affecting the tax system performance in Iranian economy with special reference to Tanzi inflation effect. In order to achieve the research objectives, an Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) was used to estimate the short-term as well as long-term effects of macroeconomic variables on tax system performance for the period 1984-2014, emphasizing on the Tanzi inflation effect as substantial factor. The results showed that in the long term and short term, the inflation rate and agriculture sector's value added have negative significant effects, while human development indicator, industry and service sector's value added and government's expenditures have positive significant effects on tax system performance in Iran during the period of the study.Therefore,effective measures are required to be adopted for the extension of tax bases in the industry as well as service sectors on the one hand, and timely collection of tax revenues through shortening the courses of tax collection is also recommended on the other. These steps along with removal of unnecessary tax exemptions would certainly cause strengthening the efficiency level of tax system performance in the Iranian economy.