I had the pleasure of working with Agustin Redonda of the Swiss think-tank, Council on Economic Policies (CEP), on the institutional issues of tax expenditure reporting in the G20 and OECD countries. The new CEP working paper, Assessing Tax Expenditure Reporting in G20 and OECD Economies, is available at this <link>.
Although there are many issues with the identification, valuation and cross-country comparisons of tax expenditures, there should be little question about the importance of countries being transparent in their reporting of these government incentives and subsidies. We analyze 11 dimensions of tax expenditure reporting, and divide countries into three groups: non-reporting, basic reporting, and detailed comprehensive reporting. There is significant room in all countries to improve the transparency and analysis of tax expenditures.
Agustin has compiled a Global Tax Expenditure Database for these countries, so you will see more information soon about countries use of their tax systems in ways that could be done through direct expenditures or government lending.