Number of visits or required meetings with tax officials (average for affected firms) - Country Ranking

Definition: Average number of visits or required meetings with tax officials during the year. The value represents the average number of visits for all firms which reported being visited or required to meet with tax officials (please see indicator IC.FRM.METG.ZS).

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Gabon 18.80 2009
2 Dem. Rep. Congo 10.30 2013
3 Cambodia 5.80 2016
4 Albania 5.70 2019
5 Guyana 5.20 2010
6 Liberia 4.90 2017
7 Chile 4.70 2010
8 Cameroon 4.40 2016
8 The Gambia 4.40 2018
10 Tajikistan 4.30 2019
10 Central African Republic 4.30 2011
10 Bolivia 4.30 2017
13 Yemen 4.00 2013
14 Uganda 3.90 2013
14 Guinea-Bissau 3.90 2006
16 Guatemala 3.80 2017
16 Venezuela 3.80 2010
18 Nigeria 3.70 2014
18 Ethiopia 3.70 2015
18 Eswatini 3.70 2016
18 Angola 3.70 2010
18 Nicaragua 3.70 2016
23 Pakistan 3.60 2013
23 Côte d'Ivoire 3.60 2016
25 Rwanda 3.50 2019
25 Ecuador 3.50 2017
25 Colombia 3.50 2017
28 Costa Rica 3.30 2010
28 Argentina 3.30 2017
28 Grenada 3.30 2010
28 Niger 3.30 2017
28 Montenegro 3.30 2019
28 Sudan 3.30 2014
28 Zambia 3.30 2019
35 Bangladesh 3.20 2013
35 Sierra Leone 3.20 2017
35 Chad 3.20 2018
38 India 3.10 2014
38 Suriname 3.10 2018
40 North Macedonia 3.00 2019
40 Congo 3.00 2009
40 Ghana 3.00 2013
40 Zimbabwe 3.00 2016
40 Mauritius 3.00 2009
40 Mexico 3.00 2010
46 Mali 2.90 2016
46 Uruguay 2.90 2017
46 Guinea 2.90 2016
46 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2.90 2019
46 Uzbekistan 2.90 2019
51 St. Kitts and Nevis 2.80 2010
51 Lao PDR 2.80 2018
51 Belarus 2.80 2018
51 Togo 2.80 2016
51 Malawi 2.80 2014
56 Kenya 2.70 2018
56 Nepal 2.70 2013
56 Antigua and Barbuda 2.70 2010
56 Mozambique 2.70 2018
60 Bulgaria 2.60 2019
60 Egypt 2.60 2020
62 Mongolia 2.50 2019
62 Peru 2.50 2017
62 Botswana 2.50 2010
65 Mauritania 2.40 2014
65 Moldova 2.40 2019
65 Paraguay 2.40 2017
65 Kyrgyz Republic 2.40 2019
65 Sri Lanka 2.40 2011
65 Vanuatu 2.40 2009
65 Timor-Leste 2.40 2015
72 Greece 2.30 2018
72 Kazakhstan 2.30 2019
72 Czech Republic 2.30 2019
75 Cabo Verde 2.20 2009
75 Dominica 2.20 2010
75 Fiji 2.20 2009
75 Georgia 2.20 2019
75 Burkina Faso 2.20 2009
75 St. Lucia 2.20 2010
75 Hungary 2.20 2019
75 Tanzania 2.20 2013
75 Belize 2.20 2010
75 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 2.20 2010
85 China 2.10 2012
85 Samoa 2.10 2009
85 Senegal 2.10 2014
85 El Salvador 2.10 2016
85 Serbia 2.10 2019
85 Panama 2.10 2010
85 Honduras 2.10 2016
85 Dominican Republic 2.10 2016
93 Iraq 2.00 2011
93 Cyprus 2.00 2019
93 Namibia 2.00 2014
93 Solomon Islands 2.00 2015
97 Vietnam 1.90 2015
97 Azerbaijan 1.90 2019
97 Estonia 1.90 2019
97 The Bahamas 1.90 2010
101 Myanmar 1.80 2016
101 Brazil 1.80 2009
101 Burundi 1.80 2014
101 Ukraine 1.80 2019
105 Russia 1.70 2019
105 Slovak Republic 1.70 2019
105 Slovenia 1.70 2019
105 Malta 1.70 2019
105 Eritrea 1.70 2009
105 Romania 1.70 2019
105 Jordan 1.70 2019
105 Lesotho 1.70 2016
113 Lebanon 1.60 2019
113 Latvia 1.60 2019
113 Morocco 1.60 2019
113 Jamaica 1.60 2010
113 Croatia 1.60 2019
113 Benin 1.60 2016
119 Afghanistan 1.50 2014
119 Belgium 1.50 2020
119 Madagascar 1.50 2013
119 Poland 1.50 2019
119 Turkey 1.50 2019
119 Indonesia 1.50 2015
119 Barbados 1.50 2010
126 Djibouti 1.40 2013
126 Ireland 1.40 2020
126 Lithuania 1.40 2019
126 Malaysia 1.40 2015
126 Papua New Guinea 1.40 2015
126 Armenia 1.40 2020
126 Finland 1.40 2020
126 Netherlands 1.40 2020
126 Philippines 1.40 2015
126 Trinidad and Tobago 1.40 2010
126 Tunisia 1.40 2020
137 Portugal 1.30 2019
137 Tonga 1.30 2009
137 Italy 1.30 2019
140 Luxembourg 1.20 2020
140 Bhutan 1.20 2015
140 Thailand 1.20 2016
140 Denmark 1.20 2020
144 Sweden 1.10 2020
144 Israel 1.10 2013
146 South Africa 1.00 2020

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Development Relevance: Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level. The reliability and availability of infrastructure benefit households and support development. Firms with access to modern and efficient infrastructure - telecommunications, electricity, and transport - can be more productive. A strong infrastructure enhances the competitiveness of an economy and generates a business environment conducive to firm growth and development. Good infrastructure efficiently connects firms to their customers and suppliers, and enables the use of modern production technologies. Conversely, deficiencies in infrastructure, such as loss of electricity on regular basis, create barriers to productive opportunities and increase costs for all firms, from micro enterprises to large multinational corporations.

Limitations and Exceptions: The sampling methodology for Enterprise Surveys is stratified random sampling. In a simple random sample, all members of the population have the same probability of being selected and no weighting of the observations is necessary. In a stratified random sample, all population units are grouped within homogeneous groups and simple random samples are selected within each group. This method allows computing estimates for each of the strata with a specified level of precision while population estimates can also be estimated by properly weighting individual observations. The sampling weights take care of the varying probabilities of selection across different strata. Under certain conditions, estimates' precision under stratified random sampling will be higher than under simple random sampling (lower standard errors may result from the estimation procedure). The strata for Enterprise Surveys are firm size, business sector, and geographic region within a country. Firm size levels are 5-19 (small), 20-99 (medium), and 100+ employees (large-sized firms). Since in most economies, the majority of firms are small and medium-sized, Enterprise Surveys oversample large firms since larger firms tend to be engines of job creation. Sector breakdown is usually manufacturing, retail, and other services. For larger economies, specific manufacturing sub-sectors are selected as additional strata on the basis of employment, value-added, and total number of establishments figures. Geographic regions within a country are selected based on which cities/regions collectively contain the majority of economic activity. Ideally the survey sample frame is derived from the universe of eligible firms obtained from the country’s statistical office. Sometimes the master list of firms is obtained from other government agencies such as tax or business licensing authorities. In some cases, the list of firms is obtained from business associations or marketing databases. In a few cases, the sample frame is created via block enumeration, where the World Bank “manually” constructs a list of eligible firms after 1) partitioning a country’s cities of major economic activity into clusters and blocks, 2) randomly selecting a subset of blocks which will then be enumerated. In surveys conducted since 2005-06, survey documentation which explains the source of the sample frame and any special circumstances encountered during survey fieldwork are included with the collected datasets. Obtaining panel data, i.e. interviews with the same firms across multiple years, is a priority in current Enterprise Surveys. When conducting a new Enterprise Survey in a country where data was previously collected, maximal effort is expended to re-interview as many firms (from the prior survey) as possible. For these panel firms, sampling weights can be adjusted to take into account the resulting altered probabilities of inclusion in the sample frame.

Original Source Notes: All surveys were administered using the Enterprise Surveys methodology as outlined in the Methodology page which can be found from www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Firm-level surveys have been conducted since the 1990's by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Surveys implemented by the Enterprise Analysis Unit follow the Global Methodology. Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and bribery-related topics, private contractors, rather than any government agency or an organization/institution associated with government, are hired by the World Bank to collect the data. Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised. The Enterprise Survey is answered by business owners and top managers. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey. Typically 1200-1800 interviews are conducted in larger economies, 360 interviews are conducted in medium-sized economies, and for smaller economies, 150 interviews take place. The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with ISIC codes 15-37, 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72 (ISIC Rev.3.1). Formal (registered) companies with 5 or more employees are targeted for interview. Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, and IT. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in an Enterprise Survey. Occasionally, for a few surveyed countries, other sectors are included in the companies surveyed such as education or health-related businesses. In each country, businesses in the cities/regions of major economic activity are interviewed. In some countries, other surveys, which depart from the usual Enterprise Survey methodology, are conducted. Examples include 1) Informal Surveys- surveys of informal (unregistered) enterprises, 2) Micro Surveys- surveys fielded to registered firms with less than five employees, and 3) Financial Crisis Assessment Surveys- short surveys administered by telephone to assess the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The Enterprise Surveys Unit uses two instruments: the Manufacturing Questionnaire and the Services Questionnaire. Although many questions overlap, some are only applicable to one type of business. For example, retail firms are not asked about production and nonproduction workers. The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.

Aggregation method: Unweighted average

Periodicity: Annual