Is Targeted Tax Competition Less Harmful than its Remedies?

Some governments have recently called for international accords restricting the use of preferential taxes targeted to attract mobile tax bases from abroad. Are such agreements likely to discourage tax competition or conversely cause it to spread? We study a general model of competition for multiple tax bases and establish conditions for a restriction on preferential regimes to increase or decrease tax revenues. Our results show that restrictions are most likely to be desirable when tax bases are on average highly responsive to a coordinated increase in tax rates by all governments, and when tax bases with large domestic elasticities are also more mobile internationally. Our analysis allows us to reconcile the apparently contradictory results of the previous literature.     

财产税改革的逻辑

财产税与地方财政有着紧密的联系,多数划归为地方税。从财产税的性质来看,也适宜做地方税。这表明财产税的功能设计只能是以筹集收入为主,调节为辅。由此,财产税改革就应注重从宽税基、简税制和易征管,以及结合我国地方财政体制改革的要求来设计。我国财产税改革:一是替代原来已经不合时宜的相关税种;二是替代基层政府不具有地方税属性的税种。这两个”替代”若能实现,便可以”一箭双雕”,既能完善税制,又能理顺政府间财政关系。     

加强离岸股权转让税收管理

离案股权转让涉及税种较多,本文从离岸股权转让涉及的有关税种出发,逐一剖析了离岸股权转让过程中的税收问题,并从税收政策和征管两个方面对加强离案股权转让税收管理提出了建议。     

Is Tax Harmonization Useful?

It is a widely acknowledged result of the literature on international tax competition that an inefficient provision of public goods can only be avoided, if taxes are sufficiently coordinated. In this paper we use a model where governments use commodity and factor taxes in the tax competition game. We show that governments will always choose a second-best efficient tax structure in the Nash equilibrium if they have access to a residence-based capital tax and either a destination-based commodity tax or a labor tax. Moreover, we show that tax competition need not foreclose third-best efficiency in a world with a restricted tax policy toolkit.     

现行税会关系模式、企业税收差错及税会协调

本文采用2001～2004年的经验数据，分析了沪市公司的税收差错问题。发现我国上市公司税收差错涉及的家数众多、税种多元而且涉税金额巨大，对会计信息质量和国家税收资源及时入缴国库都带来了不利影响。因此，加强会计制度与税收法规的协作，减轻税收差错引致的会计信息失真，维护税收法规的尊严，已是当务之急。     

On Property Tax Coordination

This paper examines the welfare effects of inter-jurisdictional coordination of property taxes. Coordination in terms of compression, harmonization and radial changes of tax structure is considered. It is found that property tax coordination via uniform radial adjustments of taxes is in general welfare-superior to the other two types of tax changes. However, when there is a large disparity of initial tax rates between jurisdictions, harmonization of property taxes may lead to a larger welfare improvement.     

Some Equity and Efficiency Considerations of International Tax Competition

The paper uses a dynamic 2-country equilibrium model with imperfections in the labour market calibrated for the US and EU economy to investigate dynamic efficiency and equity aspects of international tax competition. We focus on tax policy where governments can only decide on the levels of corporate and labour taxes, given a constant share of government consumption and transfers in GDP and a constant VAT rate. We find that the welfare effect of a tax shift from capital to labour depends heavily on the distortionary nature of labour taxes. In contrast to existing results we find substantial positive international spillover effects of corporate tax reduction in one country, with long term gains outweighing short term losses. Results are very different, however, if one goes beyond the representative agent framework. According to our results, a tax switch is most likely not Pareto improving since net wages tend to decline in both regions even in the long run.     

完善结构性减税政策的着力点与路径选择

根据目前我国所面临的新形势、新任务,完善结构性减税政策的着力点应该放在三个方面:针对特定税种进行有增有减的调整,促进税制结构的优化;针对特定群体实行减税或增税政策,实现税收负担的公平;将结构性减税与经济结构调整对接,助推经济结构的优化。立足于这三大着力点,完善结构性减税政策的基本路径选择为:推进增值税扩围改革;调整消费税;减免部分进口环节税收;实行综合与分类相结合的个人所得税制;进一步完善企业所得税优惠政策;深化个人住房房产税改革;全面推广资源税;研究开征环境保护税等新税种。     

住宅房地产税收的功能探析

住宅房地产在购销及保有环节涉及众多的税种,这些税种的税收功能存在突出差异。营业税具有突出的财政收入功能,但在收入调节方面有制度上的缺失;土地增值税具有鲜明的产业调控色彩,但征收办法的缺憾使其不能有效发挥作用;预期征收的房产税具有调节收入的功能,但在税制设计上存在征收制度和利益分配重构等制度困扰。建议针对相关税种的功能特点进行有针对性的制度改良,以促进我国住宅房地产业的健康发展。     

Fundamental Tax Reform in The Netherlands

The Netherlands has abolished the tax on actual personal capital income and has replaced it by a presumptive capital income tax, which is in fact a net wealth tax. This paper contrasts this wealth tax with a conventional realization-based capital gains tax, a retrospective capital gains tax with interest on the deferred tax, and a mark-to-market tax which taxes capital gains as they accrue. We conclude that the effective and neutral taxation of capital income can best be ensured through a combination of (a) a mark-to-market tax to capture the returns on easy-to-value financial products, and (b) a capital gains tax with interest to tax the returns on hard-to-value real estate and small businesses.     

红利税与印花税的连通机制研究

红利税率的多元化是引致投资者对股票估价差异性的原因之一,并且催生了现金股利除息前后的套利机会和增量交易。当现金股利水平超过某一临界值时,具有税负优势的投资者将在除息前买入股票,然后在股票除息后卖掉,以进行套利。这种交易将使得红利税发生额减少,印花税发生额增加,形成红利税与印花税之间的联通机制。     

A Growth Maximising Tax Structure for New Zealand

Annual growth rates of real GDP in New Zealand have varied widely, from 18% to –8%, since World War II. During this period the tax burden (the ratio of tax revenue to GDP) has trended upward from 23% to 35%. The tax mix (the ratio of indirect taxes to direct taxes) has varied between 0.31 and 0.75, having increased recently with the introduction of the goods and services tax. In this paper we estimate a combination of the tax burden and the tax mix which would maximise the rate of growth of real GDP. We find that such a tax structure would have a time-varying tax burden with a mean of 22.5%, and a time-varying tax mix with a mean of 0.54, which implies a mean share of direct taxes in total tax revenue of 65%. We also find that a move to such a tax structure would generate nearly a 17% increase in real GDP, and while this increase would yield a 6% reduction in tax revenue to the Treasury, it would deliver a 27% increase in purchasing power to the remainder of the economy.     

我国生态税费问题分析及对策

目前我国尚未建立以保护生态环境为目的的税收体系,存在着诸如保护生态环境的主体税种缺位、现行制度立法层次低、设计税种时环保因素考虑不够、优惠形式单一等问题。建议开征专门的环保税,改革相关税种,构建以环保税为核心,以相关生态税种和生态税收优惠措施为辅助的生态税收新体系。     

法国个人房地产税体系透视

在法国,与个人房地产相关的税种包括居住税、建筑土地税、空置住宅税、财富税。法国的个人房地产税在税制要素、税基评估和税收争议等方面形成了相对合理的制度安排,其实践经验对我国开征物业税有借鉴意义。     

Tax Setting in a Federal System: The Case of Personal Income Taxation in Canada

In a decentralised tax system, the effects of tax policies enacted by one government are not confined to its own jurisdiction. First, if both the regional and the federal levels of government co-occupy the same fields of taxation, tax rate increases by one layer of government will reduce taxes collected by the other. Second, if the tax base is mobile, tax rate increases by one regional government will raise the amount of taxes collected by other regional governments. These sources of fiscal interdependence are called in the literature vertical and horizontal tax externalities, respectively. Third, as Smart (1998) shows, if equalisation transfers are present, an increase in the standard equalisation tax rate provides incentives to raise taxes to the receiving provinces. A way to check the empirical relevance of these hypotheses is to test for the existence of interactions between the regional tax rate, on the one hand, and the federal tax rate, the tax rate set by competing regions, and the standard equalisation tax rate, on the other hand. Following this approach, this paper estimates provincial tax setting functions with data on Canadian personal income taxation for the period 1982–1996. We find a significant positive response of provincial tax rates to changes in the federal income tax rate, the tax rates of competing provinces, and the standard equalisation rate (only for receiving provinces). We also find that the reaction to horizontal competition is stronger in the provinces that do not receive equalisation transfers.     

我国地方税系的重构——基于税收分布视角

地方税系重构需要在考虑地方税收均衡程度的基础上进行,所以,理清税收在各地的分布状况及其差异系数非常关键.分析表明,地方税收的差异系数决定于进入地方税系的税种类别及其在地方税收中的比重.进一步,在中央与地方税收格局不变的限定下,通过模拟计算出地方税系重构八种情景下的地方税收差异系数.同时,基于模拟结果与各种因素的权衡,认为我国地方税系重构不能仅简单依赖增值税分享比例向地方政府的倾斜来实现,而是需要将车辆购置税与部分消费税划归地方政府,之后再以增值税分享比例的调整来稳定地方税收规模.     

Response of Tax Credit Claims to Tax Enforcement: Evidence from a Quasi‐Experiment in Chile

Diesel in Chile receives different tax treatments depending on its use. If diesel is used in industrial activities, the diesel taxes paid can be fully used as a credit against VAT, but if it is used in freight or public transportation – basically trucks and buses – only a fraction of diesel taxes paid can be claimed as a tax credit for VAT payments. As a result of this different tax treatment, firms have incentives to use ‘tax‐exempted’ diesel in activities requiring ‘non‐tax‐exempted’ diesel. This tax wedge therefore generates an opportunity for tax evasion, especially for firms with multiple economic activities, one of them being transport. In this paper, we analyse the impact of a tax enforcement programme implemented by the Chilean Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where letters requiring information about diesel purchases and use and vehicle ownership were sent to around 200 firms in 2003. Using different empirical strategies to consider the non‐randomness of the selection of firms, the empirical results show consistently that firms receiving a letter decreased their diesel tax credits by around 10 per cent.     

税收征管目标及征纳双方的博弈分析

目前,国内关于税收征管目标有两种代表性观点:一是促使纳税人依法纳税;二是提高税收征管的质量和效率。应该同时吸收两种观点的合理要素,将税收征管目标重新界定为税收成本与税收流失总和最小化。在税收征纳关系中,税务机关追求的是税收成本与税收流失总和最小化,而纳税人追求的是自身利益最大化,两者根据对方的策略,做出符合各自目标的策略选择,从而形成税收征纳博弈关系。     

试论城乡通开的统一税制

现行城乡割裂的税制不可避免地存在一些弊端,如使增值税链条中断、造成农民负担沉重、使分处城乡的纳税人税负不公以及对一些经营项目的漏征,等等。建议通过废除专门对农民征收的税种、对城镇土地使用税和房产税的调整以及对城乡共同开征社会保障税等具体办法来解决。     

我国利息税税负累进程度分析——以北京地区为例

税负累进程度是指税收负担随收入数额的增加而提高的程度,它是衡量税收公平的指标.对我国现行利息税税负累进性的分析表明,当前5%的税率下,利息税的税负累进性微弱,20%的税率更能增强利息税的税负累进性.要强化利息税的公平功能,可能的政策途径有:提高利息税税率;设定起征点,采用累进税率;并入个人所得税实行合并征收;加强对利息税收入的二次分配.