Chapter 4 of the paper considers the use of tax incentives to encourage investment in
SMEs, reviewing arguments for and against their use; main categories of income tax
incentives; and country examples of tax incentives to encourage SME investment based on
the SME tax questionnaire responses. As noted in Chapter 1, with data showing most
businesses being SMEs, and accounting for the bulk of employment, it is understandable
that governments are keen to ensure that tax and non-tax policies do not place SMEs at a
competitive disadvantage, for example through relatively high effective tax rates.
Moreover, recognizing that large companies are typically created as small or medium-sized
companies, governments are equally keen to ensure that policies are supportive of SME
growth. The undeniable importance of SMEs in the economy raises questions over whether
SMEs should be targeted for special tax treatment.
Advocates of special tax incentives for SMEs often rely on “market failure” arguments. These
may be based on assumptions of positive spillover benefits to society of SME investment
not taken into account by private investors (leading to under-investment), or asymmetric
information, leading to various forms of capital market imperfection (involving adverse
selection or moral hazard) creating difficulties in raising finance or other impediments to
SME investment.
However, market failure arguments themselves raise certain questions and an assortment of
practical difficulties. One question is whether positive spillover benefits and asymmetric
information applies only in the case of SMEs. And even if one accepts these arguments,
consideration of how one would design and implement a tax incentive in practice to correct
market failure is fraught with many unsolvable questions. It is not clear, for example, how to
measure the degree of market failure and thus assess the level of under-investment relative
to some socially optimal level. Also required is some estimate of the sensitivity of the
relevant activity (e.g. investment) to a relevant tax indicator (e.g. the effective tax rate on
profits from investment), where plausible elasticity estimates may cover a wide range, and
where the identification of the relevant tax indicator is not certain. What is clear is that some
precision is required, as “getting it wrong” in terms of the rate of tax relief provided or the
targeting of relief may result in a misallocation of resources (implying efficiency losses), with
too much capital being directed to targeted investment, and/or capital being unwittingly
encouraged towards (or away from) non-targeted investment.
Given the difficulties in identifying and targeting instances of market failure, and limiting
tax incentive relief to just offset under-investment resulting from market failure, it must be
accepted that tax incentive regimes will cause misallocations of capital in certain areas
and corresponding efficiency losses. While the objective may be to ensure an overall (net)
efficiency gain by countering market failure, it is difficult to be confident ex ante that such
an outcome will in fact occur.
Where certain factors including possibly government policy (e.g. financial markets policy)
act to impede SMEs, it makes sense to consider first whether the relevant factors or policies
can be adjusted, and at what cost. That is, well before considering a targeted “tax fix”,