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An Analysis of Tax Forecasting Errors in Ireland

The Economic and Social Review

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Field Value
 
Title An Analysis of Tax Forecasting Errors in Ireland
 
Creator Hannon, Andrew
Leahy, Eimear
O'Sullivan, Róisín
 
Subject tax forecasting; Ireland
 
Description This paper examines the tax revenue forecasting performance of the Department of Finance over the period 1997-2014. While the general forecasting framework used reflects standard international practice, forecasting errors are relatively large by international standards. In almost all cases, we find no evidence of bias in the forecasts when considering the major tax heads over various forecast horizons. A decomposition of the forecast errors reveals substantial contributions from sources other than errors in forecasting the macroeconomic environment or in estimating the previous year’s revenue outturn. This suggests that a formal review of specific procedures and assumptions by the Department could yield further improvements in forecasting performance. An innovative exercise examining the routine use of judgement by the Department to adjust the outcome of forecasting equations indicates that this practice often improved the quality of the forecasts.
 
Publisher The Economic and Social Review
 
Contributor
 
Date 2016-09-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.esr.ie/article/view/609
 
Source The Economic and Social Review; Vol 47, No 3, Autumn (2016); 391-423
0012-9984
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.esr.ie/article/view/609/145
 
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