Estimating Tax Lags and Price Elasticity in Tax Groups of Golestan Province

Due to the importance of tax revenues compared to oil revenues in supplying government budget, it is necessary to study tax system efficiency. The decline in real tax revenues is affected by two factors i.e. tax lags and inflexible tax system. If tax Collection Lag is long and the tax system is inflexible, inflation will make the real tax income cut. So, in this study, we tried to use the data from 1380 to 1390 and the cointegration method of Johansen-Juselius to calculate the tax lags and price elasticity of various tax income groups in Golestan province. The results indicate that during the study period, the average tax collection lags were 11 months (companies’ tax lag was 15 months, tax income lag was about 15.3 months, and tax wealth lag was about 2.13 months and the indirect tax lag was about 3/5 months. In other words, the average direct tax collection lags were 79/10 months (11 months). However, during the study period, indirect taxes collection lags were 5.32 months which is less than the direct tax collection lags.