We are pleased to announce the release of version 1.4.0 of the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED)!
What’s new in version 1.4.0? The improvements in this new edition concern methodological criteria and data-related features:
Data Expansion
1. New Countries: Welcome Cuba, Kosovo, and Nepal! This brings our total to 119 jurisdictions, covering over 55% of all jurisdictions listed by the World Bank.
2. All 2025 data included: All government-published TE reports as of 31 December, 2025 are now included in the database!
Methodology Updates
1. Policy Objective Reclassification: We substantially revised the classification of policy objectives to improve consistency and comparability across countries. This included adding new categories to address gaps identified as the database expanded, simplifying the names of several objectives, and reviewing the classification of existing provisions. An AI model trained on the GTED methodology was used to flag potential inconsistencies, with all final decisions made by human reviewers.
2. New Macroeconomic Data Source: We have replaced the UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset with the IMF World Revenue Longitudinal Database (WoRLD) as the source for tax revenue and GDP denominators. The GDP figures in WoRLD are drawn from the IMF World Economic Outlook database.
3. Revenue Forgone as a Share of the Corresponding Tax: In addition to presenting revenue forgone as a share of GDP and total tax revenue, GTED now reports it as a share of revenue from the corresponding tax, wherever the necessary data are available. For example, a VAT provision may now be presented as a share of GDP, total tax revenue, and VAT revenue.
4. Original Source Report Titles: To make it easier for users to locate the underlying source data, we have added the title of each original tax expenditure report in its original language. We opted not to include direct links because these frequently change or become inactive. The original report title should allow users to locate the document through a simple web search.
5. “In Latest TE Report” Field: In addition to the existing “Last Appeared” field, which identifies the most recent report in which a provision was included, we have added a field indicating whether the provision appears in the latest available tax expenditure report. We deliberately avoid describing provisions that appear in the latest report as “active,” since the absence of a provision does not necessarily mean that it has been discontinued. It may instead have been reclassified as part of the tax benchmark, omitted from reporting, or excluded for another reason.
6. Years with Revenue Forgone Estimates: We added a field showing number of years for which estimates are available and whether they are reported separately for the provision or jointly with other provisions. It also identifies provisions with no estimates.