احمد چهرقانی

The purpose of this qualitative and documentary research paper is to compare the economic systems of capitalism, socialism and Islam from the point of view of Shahid Motahari. To this end, according to the thoughts of Shahid Motahari, which are available in written form, the components or characteristics of each of these three economic systems, which are explicitly mentioned in his writings, were chosen. They comprise (1) ownership, (2) inheritance, (3) the difference of people in wealth and ownership, (4) Riba, and (5) the formation of cartel and trust. We first examined the position of each component in each of the three separate economic systems and finally compared them in the three economic systems. The results show that the economic system of Islam relies on Islamic ayahs and traditions, while confirming the advantages of capitalism and socialism and rejecting their weaknesses. Based on this, the economic system of Islam provides a better framework for human development both in this world and in the hereafter than the two other systems mentioned.

This paper has been written in order to investigate the economic effects of corporate income tax rate adjustment in Iran’s economy. For this purpose, the Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE) has been used. The data has been taken from the latest Iranian Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), prepared by the Parliament Research Center and has been analyzed using GAMS software. The policy analysis has been done in the form of three scenarios: a 10%, 15% and 20% reduction in the corporate income tax rate. The results showed that the reform of the corporate income tax rate led to an increase in investment, employment, GDP and household consumption expenditures, as well as a reduction in government revenue and inflation. According to the findings of the paper, which show the positive effects of policy implementation outweigh its negative effects, it is suggested that the government reduce the corporate income tax rate by 15%.

Taxes are one of the main sources of the government revenue. An important source of taxation is payrolls. In recent years, payroll tax revenues have accounted for a large share of tax revenues. Thus, one way in which the government can establish the superiority of tax revenues over oil revenues is through payroll taxes. Increasing the payroll tax rate, as the tax policy discussed in this paper, will have effects on economic variables that need to be studied. Economic growth is an important macroeconomic variable that indicate the economic development index of a country. In Iran, economic growth has always been the focus of governments and economic policy makers. So, in any development program, an indicator of development is economic growth. Therefore, this research seeks to examine the effect of increasing the payroll tax rate on Iran's economic growth.
In this study, the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) method is used to investigate the economic effects of implementing the payroll tax. In CGE model, the application of each policy in the model occurs by changing the exogenous parameters. In CGE model, the source of data is usually a matrix called the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). A social accounting matrix is ​​a square matrix in which each account is located at the intersection of a row and a column. This matrix examines the numerical information of the economy comprehensively. Each currency represents the payment from the account on the column to the account on the row. The social accounting matrix shows the relationships between the main actors of each economy, including producers, factors of production, consumers, and institutions. There are also foreign actors in the form of classified accounts, including production account, factors of production account, institutions account, accumulation account (saving), and the account of the other world. The latest SAM of Iran is related to the year 2011, which was prepared by the Parliamentary Research Center. In this paper, it is used as a source of information. Based on above data, the model is calibrated to ensure the validity of the research. Then, the solution of the calibrated model is used as the basis equilibrium with which the results of the experimental test of the model are compared. Finally, the simulation of the policy of increasing the payroll tax rate is done in the research model, which includes several steps including the selection of  the policy parameter in the model (payroll tax rate), determination of the initial value of the policy parameter, calibration of the initial values, change of the policy parameter in the model (applying scenarios of 5%, 10% and 15% increase in the payroll tax rate), reimplementation of the model, determination of the new amount of endogenous variables (including economic growth), and  calculation of the percentage of changes in endogenous variables (analysis of the effects of higher payroll tax rates on economic growth). All the above operations are performed in the programming space of the GAMS software.
In the first step, by estimating the model and using SAM data, the parameters of the production and trade block of the research model, including substitution elasticity, share and transfer parameters in CES and CET functions, were obtained. In the next step, the simulation of research scenarios was done. It showed that increasing the payroll tax rate can reduce the supply of the factor of production and increase wages. Also, the effect of increasing the payroll tax rate on wages and employment is negative, but this effect is not significant. Increasing the payroll tax rate and reducing the level of employment reduce the gross domestic product (GDP) and the economic growth. Of course, like the change in the level of employment, the change in the economic growth is not as significant as the change in the payroll tax rate. Increasing the rate of payroll tax increases the government's tax revenues and, consequently, increases the total government revenue. So, by applying higher rates, the government revenue increases even more. The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the research model is not very sensitive to different elasticities, and the differences are not significant. Therefore, the model is highly accurate, and one can rely on the results of the impacts of increasing the payroll tax rate on the economic growth and the other variables under the research model.
It is shown that increasing the payroll tax rate leads to increased wages and imperceptible reduction of the employment and economic growth. On the other hand, the positive economic effects of implementing this tax policy are an increase in tax revenues and government revenues. The policy makers' goal of increasing the payroll tax rate is mainly to increase government tax revenues and get rid of the oil economy. With regard to the heavier weight of the positive effects than the negative effects of the variables involved, it is concluded that the implementation of this policy as a whole can be beneficial for the Iranian economy if the increased revenues from the increase in the payroll tax rate are properly managed. The policy of whether or not to increase the payroll tax rate depends on the macroeconomic conditions of the country. In the current situation of Iran's economy, given the negative economic growth in recent years, on the one hand, and the realization of 100% tax revenues and even above the forecast, on the other hand, it seems that the government should postpone the implementation of the increase in the wage tax rate, so that the economy can recover in terms of production and achieve positive and continuous growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic effects of rising of payroll tax rate in Iran economy. For this purpose, the Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE) has been used. Data are taken from the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Iran in 2011, prepared by the Parliamentary Research Center in 2015, which is the latest SAM in Iran. The data are analyzed in the form of standard computable general equilibrium model (CGE) by Lafgren et al. (2002) using GAMS software. The policy analysis has been done in the form of three scenarios of 5%, 10% and 15% increase in the payroll tax rate. The results show that increasing the payroll tax rate, increases the level of wages, reduces the level of employment, increases inflation, reduces GDP, increases government revenues and expenditures, reduces household expenditures and increases total absorption. Based on the above results, it is suggested that the government refrain from raising the payroll tax rate in the current condition of the Iran economy.

The purpose of this paper is Investigating the Impact of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Iran's Current Account. To do this, Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE) is used. Data is based on the latest social accounting matrix (SAM) of Iran in 2011, which is provided by Islamic Parliament Research Centre of Iran in 2015. Policy analysis has been carried out in the form of nine scenarios: the VAT with the rates applied in Iranduring the years 2008 to 2019 (3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 8% and 9%) and the applicable rates (10%, 15% and 20%). In all scenarios, the VAT rate in agriculture sector is considered zero. The results indicate that VAT has positive impact on Iran's export and import, but negative impact on current account. Likewise result of sensitivity analysis show the high precision of the research model and confidence of policy analysis’ results.

Governments mainly obtain income from a variety of sources so as to support their expenditures. Among them, receiving tax from goods and services is one of the most important sources of governments’ revenues. The Value Added Tax (VAT) has been thus considered in many countries around the world as a new tax method by creating a massive tax base. The VAT, as a multi-step tax applied on goods and services, is the taxation on the added value of the produced goods or provided services at the various steps of production and distribution. It is, indeed, obtained as a percentage of the price in each step in which the burden of taxation is on the final consumer. In effect, this tax is derived from the added value of firms as the difference between the earnings from the sale of goods and services and the total costs incurred in purchasing production inputs, excluding human resources. There are two general methods for calculating the VAT: cumulative and subtractive. Each of the cumulative and subtractive methods is, in turn, categorized in two ways: direct and indirect. On the other hand, the VAT can be applied in two different ways based on the principle of origin and destination. Depending on how the capital goods are purchased, in the base of VAT, this tax can be introduced in three different bases: the VAT on the basis of gross domestic production (production type); the VAT on the basis of net domestic production (income type); the VAT on the basis of consumption (consumption type). In Iran, in order to reform the tax structure, the VAT law has also been implemented experimentally since the second half of 2008, and many legal efforts have been made to convert it from an experimental legislation to a permanent one. The study of the effects of VAT on the macroeconomic variables has, thus, special importance. Accordingly, this paper investigates the implementation effects of the experimental law of VAT on the macroeconomic variables of Iran including inflation, Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and consumption. This quantitative research was, indeed, performed using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model (Lafgren et al., 2002) which is often applied to examine a wide range of policy issues including tax policies. It can, in turn, provide a comprehensive framework for examining the effects of such policies. This model’s equations were divided into four sections or blocks including price block, production and trade block, institution block, and system constraint block. Moreover, the necessary modifications were made to the standard model equations to align it with the Iranian economy. In the CGE model, the data source is usually a matrix called the social accounting matrix (SAM). SAM, indeed, as the square matrix where each account is placed in a row and column collision, examines the numerical information of the economy comprehensively. The last Iranian social accounting matrix is related to the year 2011, which was prepared by the Islamic Parliament Research Center of Iran in 2015. This matrix was, thus, used as a source of data in this paper. The economic activities were, then, divided into seven sectors as agriculture, oil, mining, industry, energy, buildings, and services. Policy analysis was, in turn, conducted in two scenarios including the VAT at the rate of 6% and 9%. In both scenarios, the VAT rate in the agricultural sector was set to zero. The results showed that the implementation of the VAT in Iran increased inflation, which, in turn, led to a decrease in the GDP and household consumption expenditure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Iran's economic growth. For this purpose, Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE) has been used. Data are derived from the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Iran in 2011, prepared by the Parliament Research Center in 2015, which is the latest SAM of Iran. Policy analysis has been carried out in the form of nine scenarios: the VAT with the rates applied in Iran (3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 8% and 9%), and the applicable rates (10%, 15% and 20%). In all scenarios, the VAT rate in agriculture sectore is considered zero. The results indicate that VAT has positive impact on Iran's economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic effects of amendment of law of value added tax in Iran. The research method is quantitative and standard CGE model of Lafgren et al (2002) is used for analyzing. Data are derived from the latest Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Iran in 2011, which is provided by the Research Center of the Parliament. The data are analyzed in the form of the research model using the GAMS software. The conclusion shows that implementation of VAT increases the tax revenue and government revenue, total savings, total investment and total absorption. On the other hand, implementation of this law increases the inflation; reduce the GDP and households' incomes and expenditures. According to the the prevalence of positive effects on negative effects, the implementation of VAT Law has been relatively successful during the experimental period.