A column in Canada’s Globe and Mail reviews the successful shift to flat tax systems and appropriately notes that tax competition is a key reason for the adoption of better tax policy:

In one of its first acts last year as an independent country, Macedonia (population: two million) legislated radical tax reforms. On Jan. 1, 2007, the country introduced a flat-rate tax of 12 per cent on both personal and corporate income, matching the rate introduced two years ago by Georgia (population: 5.6 million). On Jan. 1, 2008, Macedonia will cut its rate to 10 per cent — and achieve one of the lowest tax rates in the world. Macedonia’s tax revenues will almost certainly rise. The country’s new, young (age: 36 years) free-market Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, cites the phenomenon of voluntary compliance that accompanies flat-tax regimes. “This reform will decrease tax evasion,” he says, “and encourage people to meet their obligations to the state.” As Russia (population: 144 million) vividly demonstrated when it adopted a flat tax (replacing a 40-per-cent rate on personal income with a 13-per-cent rate) in 2000, low rates are persuasive tax collectors. Russia’s revenues rose 25 per cent in the first year, 25 per cent in the second year, 15 per cent in the third year. People who violently resist getting scalped will submit voluntarily for a trim. …Around the world, tax rate competition is getting keener. Countries that resist flat-tax reform are nevertheless lowering rates. Poland (population: 37.5 million) has moved three-quarters of the way to a flat tax — with a single rate of 19 per cent for all corporate income, capital gains, dividends and self-employed individuals. Spain (population: 40 million) has introduced a flat rate of 18 per cent for all income derived from savings. Effective this year, Iceland (population: 300,000) taxes all personal income at a flat rate of 32 per cent — which appears high because it includes municipal as well as national taxes. It now taxes capital gains, dividends, interest income and rental income at a flat rate of 10 per cent.