Tax reform: Analyzing a comprehensive income tax

This paper includes an analysis of the general costs and benefits associated with the introduction of a comprehensive income tax. The introduction of a comprehensive income tax may result in such benefits as simplicity, horizontal equity, and neutrality that may, in turn, be offset by the costs in vertical equity, implementation losses, and efficiency losses. The solution to the question of the desirability of the comprehensive income tax may turn upon the nature of these costs and benefits as well as the philosophy of tax reform that is adopted.     

From the global income tax to the dual income tax: Recent tax reforms in the Nordic countries

The paper discusses the recent drive toward a system of dual income taxation (DIT) in the Nordic countries. The pure version of this system combines progressive taxation of labor and transfer incomes with a proportional tax on income from capital at a level equal to the corporate income tax rate. The paper considers the motives for the introduction of this new income tax system, ranging from abstract theoretical arguments to very pragmatic considerations. While the Nordic DIT system violates the principles of the conventional personal income tax, it is argued that it may in fact be more in line with the philosophy of a true Haig-Simons comprehensive income tax. It is also suggested that the DIT system may cause fewer distortions to resource allocation than the conventional income tax. On the debit side, the paper points out several practical problems of taxing income from small enterprises under the differentiated income tax.     

Measuring income tax accrual quality

We develop and validate a measure of tax accrual quality. Tax accrual quality captures variation in the extent to which the income tax accrual maps into income tax-related cash flows, with lower variation indicating a higher quality tax accrual. Low tax accrual quality arises from (1) management estimation error and (2) financial reporting standards that lead to differences between income tax expense and income tax cash flows not captured by deferred tax assets and liabilities. We validate our tax accrual quality measure by showing it is associated with firm characteristics that capture both constructs and by demonstrating it predicts future tax-related restatements and internal control material weaknesses. We illustrate the importance of our measure by showing that investors view tax expense as more informative in firms with better tax accrual quality. Future researchers can use tax accrual quality to address questions related to estimation error in the income tax account.     

Beyond the labour income tax wedge: the unemployment-reducing effect of tax progressivity

In this paper, we argue that, for a given overall level of labour income taxation, a more progressive tax schedule increases employment. From a theoretical point of view, higher progressivity increases overall employment through a wage moderating effect and also because employment of low-paid workers is more elastic to wages. We test these theoretical predictions on a panel of 21 OECD countries over 1998–2008. Controlling for the burden of taxation at the average wage, our estimates suggest that a more progressive tax schedule reduces the unemployment rate and increases the employment rate. These findings are confirmed when we account for the potential endogeneity of both average taxation and progressivity. Overall, our results suggest that policy-makers should not only focus on the detrimental effects of tax progressivity on in-work effort, but also consider the employment-enhancing effects.     

Horizontal inequity under a dual income tax system: principles and measurement

Tax systems with separate taxation of wage and capital income, also called dual income tax systems, have gained relevance through the Mirrlees Review. Obviously, such tax systems are exposed to horizontal equity (HE) failures, or horizontal inequity (HI). HE and HI have a firm grip on assessment of fair tax policies, both from an academic point of view and in general public debate. The dual income tax system of Norway was modified by the tax reform of 2006 precisely because the previous schedule failed to deliver equal tax treatment of equals. This paper discusses the meaning and measurement of HI effects of dual income tax systems, and evaluates the development of HI for Norway over the time period 2000–2008 using microdata. A copula-based identification strategy efficiently establishes a framework for evaluations of HI over time. The dual income tax system and the early announcement of its impending revision during the period under examination created measurement problems which we had to account for by defining a new income concept for the empirical strategy. As expected, we find less HI in Norway after the reform of 2006.     

A growth oriented dual income tax

This paper proposes a growth oriented dual income tax by combining an allowance for corporate equity with a broadly defined flat tax on personal capital income. Revenue losses are compensated by an increase in the value added tax. The paper demonstrates the neutrality properties of the reform with respect to investment, firm financial decisions and organizational choice. Tax rates are chosen to prevent income shifting from labor to capital income. The reform decisively strengthens investment of domestically owned firms as well as home and foreign based multinationals and boosts savings. Simulations with a calibrated growth model for Switzerland indicate that the reform could add between 4 to 5 percent of GNP in the long-run, depending on the specific scenario. Given the slow nature of capital accumulation, it imposes considerable costs in the short-run. We consider a tax smoothing scenario to offset the intergenerationally redistributive effects. JEL Classification: D58, D92, E62, G32, H25     

我国个人所得税的筹划要略

“税 务筹划”一词属于舶来品,它的英文词是tax- planning。在国外,税务筹划与“避税”(taxavoidance)基本上是一个概念,它们都是指纳税人通过一定的合法手段减少或规避纳税义务的行为。例如,英国经济学家西蒙·詹姆斯在他的《税收经济学》一书中就曾指出:“会计师们把避税称为税务筹划,以强调这种行为的合法性。”不过,国内外也有一些学者认为,税务筹划与避税还是有一定区别的:避税是纳税人钻税法的空子,利用税法中的漏洞来获取税收利益的行为,这种行为虽不直接违反税法,但却违背了国家的立法精神和税收政策的导向;而税务筹划则是纳税…     

The tax benefit of income smoothing

A worker can reduce tax liability by contributing to a private pension plan when marginal tax rates are high and withdraw pension benefits when marginal tax rates are low. We quantify the tax benefit of income smoothing through the private retirement system and find that it is negligible. This conclusion is important to households, investment advisers, tax policymakers, and scholars engaged in financial retirement planning.     

楼继伟:两税合一时机成熟

内外资企业所得税合并草案已讨论多年。在进入立法程序的紧要关口,包括摩托罗拉、西门子、东芝、诺基亚、三星在内的54家知名跨国公司准备联名上书相关部委,要求将对外资企业的所得税优惠政策继续延长5￣10年。对此在前不久的“中国经济形势报告会”上,财政部副部长楼继伟做出回应,且很强硬     

关于外藉个人所得税纳税义务的判断

本文拟以纳税人取得工资薪金所得为主,在逐一剖析各影响因素基础上,试图得出有关外籍个人所得税纳税义务判断的一般规律.     

Corporate and personal income tax declarations

Decisions by firms and individuals on the extent of their tax payments have generally been treated as separate choices. Empirically, a positive relationship between corporate and personal income tax evasion can be observed. The theoretical analysis in this paper shows that a manager's decision on the firm's behaviour will be independent of his personal preferences if the gain from reducing corporate tax payments is certain, as in the case of tax avoidance. If, however, the firm evades taxes so that the manager's income depends on whether the firm's activities are detected or not, corporate and personal income tax evasion choices cannot be separated. Jel Code H 24 · H 25 · H 26     

企业所得税视同销售业务的会计处理与纳税调整

视同销售是指企业发生特定的提供商品或劳务行为后,会计上对此一般不作为销售业务核算,不确认会计收入,而税法却规定视同销售实现,要求计算销售(营业)额并计算应交税金.本文只就自产产品视同销售的一般情况加以阐释.     

论我国所得税种结构优化

税种结构，是一个国家依据本国国情和财政需要，选择若干不同性质和功能的税种组成有主次并相互配合、相互制约，结构严密的税种体系。目前我国税种结构应以流转税和所得税为主要税种。所得税种结构优化进在政府获取一定税收收入与达到一定收入再分配目的的同时，使市场效率损失达到最小和社会福利工数达到最少，从而充分实现效率与公平两大目标。个人所得税优化的内容包括：税制模式的选择，纳税人的范围、费用扣除和免税项目及税率等四个方面；企业所得税优化一是要建立法人所得税制，二是要制定统一的二档比例税率，三是要建立税前扣除制度，改变税法从属于财务制度的状况，四是进一步完善所得税的财政体制改革，将企业所得税作为中央与地方的共享税，统一税基，分别确定税率，分别征收管理，相应调整增值税在中央与地方之间的分配比例，保证财政收入的合理性，适当降低税率，巩固税基，增加企业所得税在整个税种结构中的比例。     

International tax arbitrage via corporate income splitting

Abstract

If capital for corporate finance was available from a common global pool and at zero transaction cost, then does after-tax arbitrage require harmonization of income tax rates across jurisdictions? This paper shows that the answer is in the negative. When a corporation has the choice of deciding the fraction of income that it distributes as dividends with the remainder held for future capitalization, then such choice brings about arbitrage in after-tax rates of return to investors facing a common pre-tax return but different rates of income taxes. Policy implications are drawn from this result.     

Personal income tax mimicry: evidence from international panel data

This paper investigates personal income tax (PIT) mimicry at the international level. It is the first to empirically investigate the extent to which PIT mimicry varies along the tax schedule and the first to include nations which are not part of the OECD. We use data on international personal income tax schedules from the world tax indicators to estimate marginal and average tax rates at various multiples of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). These tax rates are then used to estimate the extent to which countries respond to their neighbors’ PIT policy. We find evidence of PIT mimicry using a balanced panel of 53 countries over 24 years. This finding is strongest for tax rates at lower multiples of per capita GDP and survives several robustness checks.     

Some macroeconomic effects of income tax indexation

The effects of supply and demand disturbances on the level of real income and prices in the presence of income tax indexation are examined. The results are contrary in nature to the effects of such disturbances in the presence of wage indexation and suggest that combined indexation may have ambiguous stabilization properties.     

Trade integration and corporate income tax differentials

Building on recent contributions to the New Economic Geography literature, this paper analyses the relation between asymmetric market size, trade integration, and corporate income tax differentials across countries. First, relying on Ottaviano and Van Ypersele’s (J. Int. Econ. 67:25–46, 2005) foot-loose capital model of tax competition, we illustrate that trade integration reduces the importance of relative market size for differences in the extent of corporate taxation between countries. Then, using a dataset of 26 OECD countries over the period 1982–2004, we provide supportive evidence of these theoretical predictions, i.e., market size differences are strongly positively correlated with corporate income tax differences across countries, but crucially, trade integration weakens this link. These findings are obtained controlling for the potential endogeneity of trade integration and are robust to alternative specifications.