Financing rapid transit—a simulation of cost sharing for extensions to BART

The initial Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was financed largely by bond issues and direct sales tax revenue from the three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, which the mass transit system now serves. It appears that if further extensions of the BART system into other jurisdictions are to be undertaken, they will be funded largely with federal government subsidies. Hence, only a small portion of the capital costs of any extension will be borne by the residents of that jurisdiction and, therefore, a significant property tax burden inequity will exist between those residents served by the original system and those residents to be served by an extension. If extension of the system into neighboring jurisdictions is undertaken, it is likely that a “sharing rule” or “buy-in rule” will be politically negotiated to equalize this burden.Unfortunately, new jurisdictions to be served by BART cannot evaluate a BART extension, as against other mass transit alternatives, since its total capital cost will involve not only the incremental land acquisition and construction costs, but an unknown cost share amount. This paper reports on the development of a decision support system (DSS) incorporating a simulation-based financial planning model, to assess the impact of various levels of federal support and alternative BART extensions upon the financial resources of the participating jurisdictions, present and potential.The utility of the DSS for planning is illustrated by examining a prominent alternative, the extension of BART to the San Francisco Airport and San Mateo County, under the assumption that the sharing rule will be based upon total assessed property valuation. Aside from its utility as a planning tool, the usefulness of the DSS in this task is further demonstrated by its identification of unforeseen tax burden inequities, which would result from one proposed sharing rule.     

上市公司税负及其影响因素分析——来自沪深股市的经验证据

本文以1994￣2004年全国上市公司9536组数据为样本,考察上市公司税负及其影响因素,结果发现:上市公司总体税负偏重;总体税负存在地区差异;总体税负存在行业差异;总体税负与所得税负担、流转税负担、资产规模、盈利能力、资本密集度和年度变量显著正相关,与负债水平和投资收益显著负相关。     

Vertical income tax externalities and fiscal interdependence: evidence from the US

Concurrent taxation is a feature of many federal systems. As a result, the tax policy of one level of government affects the tax base of the other. A way to check the empirical relevance of this hypothesis is to test for the existence of interdependencies in the tax setting behaviour of various layers of government. Following this approach, this paper estimates the reaction of US state personal income and general sales taxes to federal tax rates, taking into account the special features of the US tax system. We find that when the federal government increases taxes, there is a significant positive response of state taxes.     

Optimal taxation and intergovernmental transfer in a dynamic model with multiple levels of government

In this paper, we study the optimal choices of the federal income tax, federal transfers, and local taxes in a dynamic model of capital accumulation and with explicit game structures among multiple private agents, multiple local governments, and the federal government. In general, the optimal local property tax is zero if the local property tax is constrained to be nonnegative, whereas the optimal local consumption tax is always positive. When the local consumption tax is chosen optimally, the federal income tax can be either positive or negative. For most reasonable parameter values, our numerical calculations have shown that with a positive local consumption tax there exists a reverse transfer from local governments to the federal government.     

Tax competition in a fiscal union with decentralized leadership

This paper examines capital tax competition in the presence of an interstate transfer policy without federal commitment. Lack of commitment implies that local tax policy is chosen prior to federal transfers. The paper's main result is that ex-post federal policy neutralizes horizontal fiscal externalities, insulating tax policy from capital mobility. Federal policy, however, introduces a new source of inefficiency unrelated to tax competition. Specifically, ex-post transfer payments prove to be equivalent to an interstate revenue-sharing system which may render federal intervention in the presence of fiscal externalities welfare-deteriorating relative to tax competition.     

Vertical externalities in cigarette taxation: Do tax revenues go up in smoke?

In federal systems, where tax bases are joint property, the tax policy of one level of government affects the tax base of the other. This paper examines the interdependence of US federal and state cigarette tax rates. Our results suggest that states may reduce their cigarette tax rate by as much as 48 cents per dollar increase in the federal tax rate. Thus, a federal tax hike may reduce the amount of generated state tax revenues both directly (the overall tax rate rises and the state tax base declines), and indirectly (the state tax rate declines).     

Federal Income Tax Reform in the United States: How Did It Happen? What Did It Do? Where Do We Go from Here?

Abstract . The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1913 provided the legal basis for progressive federal income taxes. They now yield revenues of about $450 billion annually. Tax base erosion eventually produced a levy in serious violation of norms of allocation efficiency, distributional equity, and macroeconomic performance. Vested private interests influenced legislators by propaganda and campaign contributions to minimize their tax burdens at the expense of less wealthy taxpayers. The result was an irrational and badly flawed tax structure. In 1981 the maximum marginal tax rate on income from property and wealth was significantly reduced along with other bracket reductions. The income tax reform movement culminated in 1984 to 1986. It expanded the base of the tax while reducing marginal rates as well as brackets, with little change in the distribution of the burden among different income groups but achieving some greater equity in tax liabilities for those with similar incomes.     

Fiscal news and macroeconomic volatility

This paper analyzes the contribution of anticipated capital and labor tax shocks to business cycle volatility in an estimated New Keynesian business cycle model. While fiscal policy accounts for about 15% of output variance at business cycle frequencies, this mostly derives from anticipated government spending shocks. Tax shocks, both anticipated and unanticipated, contribute little to the fluctuations of real variables. However, anticipated capital tax shocks do explain a sizable part of inflation fluctuations, accounting for up to 12% of its variance. In line with earlier studies, news shocks in total account for about 50% of output variance. Further decomposing this news effect, we find permanent total factor productivity news shocks to be most important. When looking at the federal level instead of total government, the importance of anticipated tax and spending shocks significantly increases, suggesting that fiscal policy at the subnational level typically counteracts the effects of federal fiscal policy shocks.     

Tax Policy Coordination, Vertical Externalities, and Optimal Taxation in a System of Hierarchical Governments

Tax policies of two levels of government (state and federal) with overlapping tax bases are considered. This overlap leads to “vertical” fiscal externalities are considered when several different commodities are in the tax base and the tax bases of the two levels of government may not be identical. When the governments share a tax base, the mix of combined taxes is optimal. With different tax bases, combined taxes are no longer optimal as federal tax rates are adjusted to reflect state public service levels. When grants are available, a welfare-maximizing mix of taxes and public services is obtained.     

The Revenue Adequacy of Site Value Taxation in a Ricardian System of Economic Growth

A bstract . The federal administration has sought to reduce the growth of federal expenditures by shifting some government costs to state and local governments. An increased expenditure burden for the latter governments would require increased tax rates for existing types of taxes that have adverse impacts on economic incentives. Land taxes are considered as a source of revenue because of their efficiency aspects. Unfortunately this idea is all too often dismissed because of alleged revenue inadequacy. Thus an analysis is called for of the revenue adequacy of site value taxation in a Ricardian model of economic growth. The model allows analysis of revenue adequacy over time in an economic growth context that is suited for the long range tax-expenditure planning horizon with which local governments are faced. When revenue needs are primarily dependent upon the population size, and the fisc is initially operating at a deficit, for a land tax to permit attainment of balance, per capita rents must be increasing over time. Also when the economy's public service demand is primarily dependent upon income, deficits will not occur if rental share exceeds the share of income devoted to public output. Not all income goes to fiscal output, so rent eventually exceeds expenditures.     

Grants structure in an intergovernmental fiscal game

Abstract. Systems of intergovernmental grants change over time. We explain this observation in terms of political and economic shocks in a noncooperative game between federal and provincial governments. The effects on the equilibrium grants structure arising from political disagreement, fiscal burden, increased revenue instability, and federalistic behaviour are examined. Our results provide a new theoretical perspective on grants. We show that the role of matching grants may be to influence the pattern of social spending by provincial or state governments, while conditional lump-sum grants are used simultaneously to determine the composition of the tax burden across the levels of government. Received: January 2001 / accepted: April 2002 We are grateful for the helpful comments received from Richard Bird, Amihai Glazer, and two anonymous referees.     

浅议农业税取消后农民的负担

自2006年开始全国范围内取消农业税,这对于长期处于税负之下的农民和农村经济来说无疑具有重大的积极影响,然而农业税并不是中国农民唯一的负担,即取消农业税并不能完全取消农民负担。     

中国税制结构和宏观税负影响因素分析——基于时间序列数据的分析

中国税制改革必然涉及到税制结构的调整和宏观税负的变动。根据设定的模型,文章对1994年-2008年中国税制结构和宏观税负影响因素进行了分析,发现有的经济变量既影响税制结构又影响宏观税负,而有的变量仅影响税制结构,对宏观税负则没有影响。     

注册在“避税天堂”的公司确实能避税吗？——基于中国海外上市公司的实证研究

近年来,越来越多的中国企业开始在开曼群岛、百慕大群岛等“避税天堂”进行注册,其初衷一方面是降低税务负担,另一方面是利用国际避税地的各种便利条件提升企业盈利能力。这些企业税务负担的经验数据与实证研究,将为我国应对日益激烈的国际税收竞争提供决策依据。因此,利用中国海外上市公司2011年到2015年数据,对企业税负和盈利能力进行了实证研究。结果表明,在国际避税地注册的企业的税负并没有显著低于其他企业税负;在国际避税地注册的企业的盈利能力一般高于其他企业。     

The asymmetric response of the economy to tax changes before and after 1980

This paper explores the asymmetry in the response of GDP to tax shocks before and after 1980 as first noted in Romer and Romer (2010). I find that there are two main reasons why output responds more strongly to tax shocks before 1980 than after. First, a greater sensitivity of the effect of tax shocks on output to the state of the economy before 1980 explains about half of the difference between periods. Second, before 1980 the effect of tax shocks on households is indirect and lowers total personal income and nondurable goods consumption. After 1980 tax shocks affect personal tax payments directly, causing disposable income and savings to change. This finding affirms Romer and Romer’s hypothesis that households are more likely to consumption smooth. However, I find that households after 1980 consumption smooth in response to a change in their direct tax burden not, as Romer and Romer posit, because they have greater access to financial services.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Government Tax and Auditing Policies on the Size of the Underground Economy:

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This study empirically examines the impact of federal income tax rates, IRS penalties on unpaid tax liabilities, and audit rates of the Internal Revenue Service on the size of the underground economy in the United States, Recent data generated by Edgar Feige are used to measure the size of the underground economy. Based on ordinary least squares estimates, it is found that the maximum marginal personal income tax rate raises the size of the underground economy. In addition, the size of the underground economy is found to be a decreasing function of both the percentage of tax returns audited and the penalties imposed by the IRS on unpaid taxes.     

Tax Competition between Unitary and Federal Countries

We analyse taxation of capital in a two-country model, where one country is unitary while the other one is federal, consisting of two identical regions. Both national and regional governments levy a tax on capital. The countries play a noncooperative game between them, with the government of the federal country acting as a Stackelberg leader with respect to its regional governments. We show under what circumstances, at equilibrium, the federal country sets its tax rate inefficiently low, while the unitary country sets it inefficiently high.We are deeply grateful to three anonymous referees for their comments, and especially to one of them for extremely helpful suggestions. We also wish to thank participants at ESEM 2004 for fruitful discussions     

Us Debt and Deficits: Time to Reverse the Trend

This article provides a primer on budget deficits from the creation of the federal government. Today federal government spending is 24% of GDP (compared with its historical average of 8.8%), fuelling debt of historic levels. The only effective way to reduce debt levels is to cut entitlement programmes and then set a tax rate sufficient, over the course of the business cycle, to fund government spending.     

企业税负与会计信息质量关系研究

以2015—2021年沪深A股上市公司为样本，探讨企业税负对会计信息质量的作用方向、作用机制与差异化作用效果。研究发现：降低企业税负可以显著提高会计信息质量，这一结论经一系列稳健性检验后仍成立。机制分析结果表明，降低企业税负能够通过减少融资约束和代理成本两条中介路径来提高会计信息质量。异质性分析结果表明，在纳税贡献高、审计任期短以及分析师关注度高的公司中，降低企业税负对会计信息质量的提高作用更加明显。     

增值税“扩围”改革对行业税负变动的预期影响

增值税“扩围”改革将影响到各行业的流转税负担.利用投入产出表数据,测算增值税“扩围”改革对目前属于增值税征收范围的行业(即“增值税行业”)和目前属于营业税征收范围行业(即“营业税行业”)流转税税负变动的影响,结果显示:增值税行业的总体税负将有小幅下降,服务中间投入比率是影响各增值税行业减税效应大小的关键因素;各营业税行业的税负变化情况差异较大,商务服务业等大多数行业的税负将减轻,但租赁业等部分行业的税负可能会加重,税改后的增值税税率水平选择与中间投入比率是影响各营业税行业税负变动的主要因素.为了促进行业间税负公平,减少增值税“扩围”改革对行业发展的不利影响,有必要适当降低租赁业、交通运输业的税率水平.