The Marginal Cost of Australian Income Taxation*

When the financing of expenditure programmes involves a welfare cost, that cost should be considered part of the opportunity cost of the expenditure programme. In this paper, we explore some concepts of the welfare loss of taxing labour income. We correct some measures previously applied and estimate the marginal cost of Australian public funds. Using our measure of the cost of public funds, we explore the costs of policy options in the motor vehicle industry.     

Taxation and Wage Bargaining*

The paper analyzes the effects of personal taxes on wage bargaining It concludes that an increase in tax progressivity will normally increase union wage-bargaining pressure and so raise the equilibrium wage This is the opposite result to that recently derived by Creedy and McDonald (1990).     

Rationalizing Australian Taxation Revisited*

This paper reviews the author's (1971) tax rationalization proposal to examine whether a tax simplification scheme eliminating minor transaction taxes and reducing heavy reliance on personal income tax by introducing a general consumption tax continues to have merit for Australian tax reform. The first part of the paper points to increases in avoidance and evasion as a major change perceivable in Australian taxation between the 1960s and the 1980s and indicates other important changes that have occurred. Section II presents an equity and simplicity case for general indirect consumption taxation supplemented by personal income and wealth taxes. Section III discusses the inter-governmental financial relations implications of the proposed rationalization. The paper concludes that in the light of events in 1983 such rationalization proposals suitably modified continue to have merit.     

我国电子商务税收征管制度探析

电子商务的出现和发展,给税收征管的各项制度带来了极大的冲击。我国还没有实际规制电子商务税收征管的法律规范和相关制度。文章从税法的角度指出传统税收征管制度在电子商务环境下的局限性,比较分析国际上对这一问题的认识和对策,提出了完善我国电子商务税收征管制度的构想。     

Gambling Taxation: Public Equity in the Gambling Business

Government's intrinsic role in sustaining a viable gambling industry, and its significant revenue stake in industry profitability, can make the public effectively shareholders in the industry. An important social cost of gambling is the potential for corruption of democratic processes through close industry and government links. Government can increase gambling revenues by expanding the tax base, rather than by raising tax rates. Gambling tax rates have fallen in recent decades, while revenues have increased dramatically. This paper analyses the forces encouraging governments to give excessive priority to protecting gambling revenues. It finds gambling taxation is regressive, and increasingly so as access widens. 'Children, madmen and fools' are significant to the market. The transition to a goods and services tax, along with the recent inquiry by the Productivity Commission into gambling, provides an opportunity for gambling policy to be made in a coherent social and economic framework, rather than as ad hoc and short-term solutions to State governments' revenue problems. Such an outcome rests on the Commonwealth government playing a leadership role.     

Measuring Welfare Changes and the Excess Burden of Taxation*

This paper examines methods used to evaluate the welfare effects of tax changes, with emphasis on the measurement problems involved. Welfare changes and excess burdens are defined, along with approximations. Aggregate measures, using a social welfare function, are examined. The special case of income taxation is then examined, leading to discussion of the marginal welfare cost of taxation and the marginal cost of funds. The measurement methods examined include the use and estimation of direct and indirect utility functions, along with the algebraic and numerical integration from estimated Marshallian demand functions to the compensated demands. The use of equivalent incomes to examine tax changes, using unit record data from household budget surveys, is then discussed.     

Inventories and the Business Cycle*

This paper examines the relationship between the inventory cy and the business cycle using both macroeconomic and survey da It is argued that over the past decade and a half, the changes inventory management have reduced the amplitude of the inventc cycle. The paper also argues that the behaviour of inventories consistent with demand shocks being an important source of business cycle fluctuations.     

电子商务中税收问题及对策

电子商务是近年发展起来的不同于传统交易方式的一种全新的交易形式.它的出现,不仅给传统贸易方式和社会经济活动带来巨大冲击,同时也对税收制度、税收管理、税收规则提出了挑战.本文围绕电子商务中税务机关面临的问题,提出了较为可行的几点对策.     

The Impact of Inflation and Taxation on Tenure Choice and the Redistributive Effects of Home-Mortgage Interest Rate ReguIation*

Judy Yates (1981) notes the regressive redistributive impact of home-mortgage interest rate regulation and offers some explanations. This paper provides an alternative explanation of Yates' observations in terms of the interaction of inflation with the current tax system in Australia. A model of tenure choice in the context of inflation and taxation is developed. In explaining this phenomenon, the model also establishes the regressive nature of the tax subsidy to owner-occupation. Home-mortgage interest rate regulation is then introduced. This reinforces the redistributive bias in the housing finance market. The model is used finally to predict the impact of deregulation. It is concluded that deregulation by itself can only remove redistributive bias resulting from regulated mortgage interest rates. Reform of the tax system is required to eliminate the regressive redistributive effects of the tax subsidy to owner-occupation .     

论税收依据

以往评鉴税收依据的学说都存在一定缺陷。应从考察组织存在的必要性和国家起源入手，建立以国家类型、国家与公民关系和不同的观察视角为要素的分析框架。探究税收产生和存在的原因乃因为它是社会组织弥补运行费用的交易成本最低的方式，是国家作为社会组织的最高形态运行的内在经济逻辑要求。     

资源税在中国矿业税费金制度中的功能定位

与矿业活动有关的各项赋税方案的一揽子财政制度的总和构成了矿业税费金制度,是国家管理、调控、干预矿产资源开发利用的重要手段.资源税是以各种应税自然资源为课税对象、为了调节资源级差收入并体现国有资源有偿使用而征收的税种.资源税在中国矿业税费金制度中应当具备主导功能、杠杆功能、调控功能.但是,资源税与矿产资源补偿费性质歧义容易导致税费重复征收、资源税税率偏低难以客观体现级差地租、资源税课税范围过窄造成非应税资源被掠夺式开发、经济全球化对资源税征收提出新要求等问题,影响了资源税功能的发挥.在分析中国矿业税费金制度、尤其是资源税所面临的主要问题的基础上,提出了资源税在中国矿业税费金制度中功能定位的政策建议.     

总部经济、汇总纳税对税源流动的影响

集团公司总部汇总纳税是造成我国税收与税源背离现象的重要原因.<企业所得税法>的实施将使"总部经济"现象更加突出,分支机构区域向总机构区域的税源流动与转移有了便捷的制度通道,税收与税源背离更加严重.在分税制财政体制和税收属地管理法律原则下,为保护区域政府的税收权益,必须进行区域税收分配.目前,我国的区域税收分配制度还有很大的缺陷,因此建立规范的区域税收分配法律还需要更深入的探讨与研究.     

The Welfare Effects of Environmental Taxation

Recent literature has investigated whether the welfare gains from environmental taxation are larger or smaller in a second-best setting than in a first-best setting. This question has mainly been addressed indirectly, by asking whether the second-best optimal environmental tax is higher or lower than the first-best Pigouvian rate. Even this indirect question has itself been approached indirectly, comparing the second-best optimal environmental tax to a proxy for its first-best value, marginal social damage (MSD). On closer examination, however, MSD becomes ambiguously defined and variable in a second-best setting making it an unreliable proxy for the Pigouvian rate. Given these observations, the current analysis reevaluates these welfare questions and finds that when compared directly to its first-best value, the second-best optimal environmental tax generally rises with increased revenue requirements. Even in cases where the second-best environmental tax is lower than its first-best value, the welfare gains may be greater than in a first-best setting. These results suggest that the marginal fiscal benefit (revenue recycling effect) exceeds the marginal fiscal cost (tax base effect) over a range of environmental tax rates that, for benchmark models, extends above the first-best Pigouvian rate. These findings reinforce the intuition that environmental policy complements rather than competes with the provision of other public goods.     

我国财产税制改革的时机选择

任何税收制度的变迁、演化都是由于其所处的政治、经济和社会环境发生了变化,使得国家相关经济政策目标必须进行调整,进而导致税收政策目标发生变化。现在,我国提出建设和谐社会的战略构想,就是要更多地关注公平原则,同时兼顾效率原则。由于财产税在调节居民个人收入和财富方面具有天然的优势,因此和谐发展观的实施客观上就要求政府对财产税税收制度进行改革,以更好地实现社会发展目标。可以说,现在已经是进行税制改革的合适时机,也是对财产税制进行改革的合适时机。     

公益、救济性捐赠的税收政策分析与税收筹划初探

本文在分析公益、救济性捐赠的税收政策的基础上,提出了纳税人应充分运用现代税收优惠政策,对其捐赠行为进行税收筹划,使纳税人在完成公益善举的同时,又能减轻税负.     

Taxation In The Two‐Sector Neoclassical Growth Model With Sector‐Specific Externalities And Endogenous Labour Supply*

This paper examines the long‐run impacts of selective (or sector‐specific) commodity, payroll, and profit taxes in a two‐sector endogenous growth model with sector‐specific production externalities, in which one sector produces consumption goods and the other produces investment goods. The novelty of the model is that it allows not only for endogenous labour supply but also for the intersectoral allocation of resources, which may together lead to indeterminacy. We analytically show that the stability properties of the long‐run equilibrium critically affect the long‐run effects of these selective taxes, which may reverse the standard results of the growth effects of distortionary taxes.