Numerical simulation on property tax reform: evidence from China

This article analyses the property tax reform in China in a computable general equilibrium model that recognizes the interaction between and among housing markets in different provinces and macroeconomic development. Using real data in 2010, we present the benchmark equilibrium for reference property and income tax rates. Then, we examine different property and income tax policies and make a comparison of their production, consumption, welfare and national income. We find that the implementation of property tax would decrease the house production at the expense of welfare in taxed area. The expansion of the taxed regions may increase the total social welfare and national income. Even though property tax policy may not be able to change the income distribution in China, increasing income tax rate could narrow the income disparity. Finally, this article shows the reliability of the conclusions when sensitivity analysis on optimal condition of equilibrium computation is performed under varied property tax policy.     

Optimal income taxation with tax avoidance

We determine the optimal income tax schedule when individuals have the possibility of avoiding paying taxes. Considering a convex concealment cost function, we find that a subset of individuals, located in the interior of the income distribution, should be allowed to avoid taxes, provided that the marginal cost of avoiding the first euro is sufficiently small. This contrasts with the results of Grochulski who shows that, using a subadditive cost function, all individuals should report their true income. We also provide a characterization of the optimal income tax curve.     

Border tax adjustments and tariff‐tax reforms with consumption pollution

We develop a model of a small open economy, where pollution per unit of consumption between domestically produced and imported quantities of the same good differs. We show that the first‐best policy combination calls for consumption taxes on all polluting goods, and border tax adjustment (BTA) measures, that is, tariffs or import subsidies. We identify conditions under which well‐known tariff‐tax reform policies for developing economies, such as a consumer‐price‐neutral piecemeal reform of trade and a consumption tax, and a consumer‐price‐neutral reform of all trade and consumption taxes improve welfare. We also evaluate whether reforms of trade taxes alone are superior to consumer‐price‐neutral reforms of trade and consumption taxes.     

Kleptocracy and tax evasion under resource abundance

Evidence has shown that petroleum wealth is associated with less transparency and at the same time less tax collection. In this paper, we find that the two issues are linked through the citizens’ tax evasion behavior. We develop a model to explain this link and conduct extensive empirical tests of its validity. The explanation is that officials tradeoff greater transparency to improve tax compliance against less transparency to increase gains from corruption. Oil windfalls diminish tax revenue needs, causing officials to optimize on less transparency. Seeing this, citizens optimize on a lower level of tax compliance. At equilibrium, both decline with a positive oil shock. We also study the alternative channel in which tax compliance responds to enforcement. Transparency is found to be the more robust channel. Ignoring citizens’ strategic behavior would lead to predicting suboptimal investment in state capacity for tax enforcement. Using giant oil discoveries data combined with oil price data, we develop a dynamic composite instrument and estimate the model with a dynamic panel system generalized method of moments. We find robust support for our explanation and the model's deep structure for 130+ countries and the 1980–2010 period.     

Estimating the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance: the case of the Czech Republic

International corporate tax avoidance by multinational enterprises likely lowers the Czech Republic’s corporate income tax revenue, but it is not clear by how much. To clarify this I first review existing estimates of the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance to government revenue worldwide. I then discuss revenue estimates relevant for the Czech Republic and develop a few new, albeit only illustrative, ones. None of the existing research focused on the Czech Republic nor did the six recent international studies I examine provide reliable estimates for the Czech Republic. The extrapolations from these studies result in a revenue loss of a quite wide range with a median of 10% of current corporate income tax revenues. The other newly prepared estimates, based on firm-level and aggregate data, are of similar magnitude. I conclude with a discussion of these rough estimates as well as questions for further research and policy recommendations.     

Growth effects of a revenue-neutral environmental tax reform

This paper analyzes tax-policy measures within a two-sector endogenously-growing economy with elastic labor supply. Pollution is either modeled as a side product of physical capital used as a production factor in the final-good sector or as a side product of production. The framework allows us to analyze the consequences of isolated tax changes or of a revenue-neutral environmental tax reform for economic growth. Although pollution does not directly affect production processes, it can be shown that a higher pollution tax as well as a revenue-neutral environmental tax reform boost economic growth, whereas a tax on capital, consumption, or labor reduces the long-term growth rate of the economy.     

Consumption tax revenue and personal income tax: analytical elasticities under non-standard tax structures

This article models the elasticity of consumption taxation faced with changes in disposable income. Its calculation makes clear the importance of the design of the personal income tax and of the changes caused to the consumption of taxpayers. The modelling is performed for both individual taxpayers and the population as a whole.     

Building a computable general equilibrium tax model for Italy

In this paper, we develop a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium tax model for Italy allowing for a number of fiscal tools. We illustrate the methodology for modelling and accommodating the full range of direct and indirect taxes into the national general equilibrium model. In particular, we build a commodity tax matrix by commodity, source, user and tax type; and a production tax matrix by industry and tax type. We also put a special emphasis on the institutional sector accounts, incorporating a detailed system of equations. Our model provides a powerful tool for acquiring new insights in fiscal policy analysis, through the assessment of tailored tax reforms, which can consist of either changes in tax rates and tax bases for indirect and direct taxes. Finally, to validate the model we perform an equalizing Value-Added-Tax rates reform. We find that a budget-neutral uniform tax rate reform would be GDP and welfare improving. However, results across agents and sectors vary.     

税收征纳博弈及其行为解析

税收漏洞是促使税制完备与系统一致性的推动力。在不完备的税收制度与非一致性的税收环境中，纳税人与税收征管主体双方都必然存在对策筹划与行为抉择的战略空间。正是在这一对策均衡与非均衡的不断演绎过程中，税制才得以不断完善，从而达到系统一致性的理想境界。基于上述认识，本文着重在宏观层面上对税收漏洞问题进行行为解释与策略均衡分析，旨在从原理上构建一个税收征纳的博弈格局和对策框架。     

On Teaching a Fractured Macroeconomics

One of the most interesting results in the tax evasion literature is that an increase in the income tax rate would increase tax compliance. Despite its peculiarity, this result has gained acceptance as a cornerstone for further developments of the rational tax evasion model. However, because of the mathematical format by which it is conveyed, this counterintuitive result has remained inaccessible to undergraduate students as well as to noneconomists. The author first introduces the rational tax evasion model in a nonmathematical style that is accessible to any reader. Second, he shows that the behavioral predictions of the rational tax evasion model can easily be obtained using a simple graphical representation of the optimum condition that involves the derivation of a demand curve for tax compliance.     

Strategic nonlinear income tax competition with perfect labor mobility

Tax competition between two governments who choose nonlinear income tax schedules to maximize the average utility of their residents when skills are unobservable and labor is perfectly mobile is examined. We show that there are no equilibria in which there is a skill type that pays positive taxes to one country and whose utility is larger than the average utility in the other country or in which the lowest skilled are subsidized. We also show that it is possible for the most highly skilled to receive a net transfer funded by taxes on lower skilled individuals in equilibrium. These findings confirm the race-to-the-bottom thesis in this setting.     

个人所得税缩短贫富差距的作用分析

随着经济的发展,我国人民的生活水平不断提高,一部分人已经达到较高的收入水平,因此,有必要对个人收入进行适当的税收调节。在保证人们基本生活费用支出不受影响的前提下,高收入者多纳税,中等收入者少纳税,低收入者不纳税,以此缩短贫富差距。无论国家的正常运转,还是创建稳定和谐的社会,都离不开纳税人缴纳的税款。     

关于增值税会计的几点思考

增值税是对商品生产和流通中各环节的增值额进行征税。按照增值税对购进固定资产所含进项税额扣除时间的不同,分为生产型、收入型和消费型。我国自1994年实施税制改革以来,有关增值税会计的问题一直是人们议论较多的话题,这除了因税收法规的不断变化而对会计产生的影响以外,主要原因还在于人们对增值税会计属性的认识以及在实际工作上所存在的财务会计与税务会计的矛盾所致。针对日常业务的几个比较难以理解的问题,提出自观点和看法。     

所得税会计核算辨析

《企业会计准则第18号——所得税》在我国大中型企业以广泛应用。但据调查了解,对于企业特殊事项要确认、计量递延所得税有些无所适从。因此,以具体案例的形式着重分析企业发生的特殊交易如何确认、计量递延所得税。相信在会计实践中会有一定的指导意义。     

从公平原则审视我国的个人所得税

税收是国家财政收入的重要来源,个人所得税又是税收中重要的税种。国家可以也应该通过个人所得税调节国民收入,缩小国民贫富差距,这就需要一个公平的且能起调节作用的个人所得税税制。     

浅谈如何加强对高收入者税款的征收

由于目前高收入阶层税收流失严重,导致贫富差距进一步加大,因此,需要完善税收法律及税制结构,从制度的设计上保障能加强对高收入者税款的征收;同时,要执行有效的税收征管措施实现对高收入者税款的征收。     

On the impact of a tax shock in Portugal

In 1999, Cavaco Silva, the Portuguese Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, proposed a comprehensive tax reform package, which is to this day the basic reference in the tax policy debate in Portugal. A tax shock would consist of 4pp cuts in the corporate income tax and in the firms social security contribution rates, and a 5pp reduction in the highest personal income tax rate. These cuts would be financed by combating tax evasion, curbing wasteful public expenditure and, if necessary, by increasing the VAT rate by up to 2pp. Using a dynamic general equilibrium model to evaluate the effects of this tax shock, we find that the long-term GDP gains would be between 0.72% and 2.91% while the effects on lifetime private welfare would range between -0.99% and 0.9%. The efficiency of this tax reform package depends critically on the way the tax cuts are financed to ensure deficit neutrality. Because investment is subject to adjustment costs, to alleviate the long-run trade-off between GDP and welfare, tax policy changes must induce a significant increase in net labor income.Received: July 2001, Accepted: March 2002, JEL Classification: C68, D58, E62, H21, H30Correspondence to: Alfredo M. PereiraA previous version of this paper was presented at the Society of Computational Economics and SPiE conferences. Thanks are due to Fernando Chau, Emanuel Santos, and two anonymous referees for very insightful comments and suggestions. The views in this article are of the authors alone and do not reflect the position of the Portuguese Ministry of Finance.     

Reported gross income and marginal tax rates: estimation of the behavioural reactions of Spanish taxpayers

This article estimates, for the Spanish personal income tax, the elasticity of reported gross income to marginal tax rates. The identification of this elasticity has been performed using the reform approved by Law 35/2006, which came into force in January 2007. The elasticities obtained suggest the existence of important efficiency costs, with significant regional differences. The average elasticity estimated for Spain as a whole is 0.676. However, this elasticity is highly dispersed throughout the Spanish administrative regions, which indicates the unequal power of distortion of the tax. Thus, households whose principal source of income is salary display an elasticity of 0.337, compared to 0.682 for households whose main income source comes from business or savings. Lastly, a positive correlation is also detected between elasticity and income level: an elasticity of 3.6 is reached for taxpayers with an annual gross income exceeding 100 000€.     

Income Underreporting and Tax Evasion in Italy: Estimates and Distributional Effects

The paper estimates the extent of evasion of personal income tax (PIT) in Italy by integrating two methods that the literature has previously applied separately. The consumption-based method introduced by Pissarides and Weber (1989) is used to estimate misreporting of income in micro data collected in the household IT-SILC survey. We adopt an econometric specification close in spirit to that of Feldman and Slemrod (2007), which allows us to estimate income misreporting at different rates for different income sources. The misreporting estimates are then used in the discrepancy method to correct the incomes compared with administrative registered data. The comparison provides new estimates of evasion of personal income tax by type of income, region and income class. The estimates are used to improve microsimulation analyses of the distributional impact of tax evasion.     

The effect of marginal tax rates on taxable income: a panel study of the 1988 tax flattening in Canada

Federal tax reform in 1988 flattened the Canadian personal income tax schedule, changing the marginal tax rates for many individuals. Using methods similar to those applied by Auten and Carroll [Rev. Econ. 81(4) (1999) 681] in the study of the effects of the 1986 U.S. Tax Reform Act, we estimate the responsiveness of income to changes in taxes to be substantially smaller in Canada. However we find evidence of a much higher response in self-employment income, in the labor income of seniors and from those with high incomes.