“费改税”的目标及思路

“费改税”是针对目前中国“费大于税”的不规范的政府收入格局而提出的一项改革任务和政策主张。如果对“费改税”这种改革作更全面、更准确的称呼,实际上指的是以清理整顿预算外、制度外资金和各种收费为前提,使政府税收、使用费和非政府预算的商业性收费分流归位的一种综合性税费改革,从而形成不同性质、不同形式资金的较规范的分流归位。     

Taxes,Tuition Fees,and Education for Pleasure

The fact that education provides both a productive and a consumptive (nonproductive) return has important and, in some cases, dramatic implications for optimal taxes and tuition fees. Using a simple model, we show that when the consumption share in education is endogenous and tuition fees are unconstrained, the optimal tax/fee system involves regressive income taxes and high tuition fees. A progressive labor income tax system may, on the other hand, be a second‐best response to politically constrained, low tuition fees. Finally, the existence of individuals with different abilities will also move the optimal income tax system toward progressivity.     

我国绿色税收政策效果分析及改革设想

我国在经济快速发展过程中出现了许多社会问题,其中环境污染是最严峻的问题之一。税收政策在促进环境改善方面具有十分明显的作用,通过制定税收政策引导企业经营方式的改变,从而实现环境改善已是各国的通行作法。与欧美国家相比我国税制的绿化程度很低,且不成体系。与生态环境有关的税收政策,散见于资源税、消费税、企业所得税等税种中,许多仍以费的形式存在,有较大的空间。应在借鉴国外绿色税收政策成功作法和经验的基础上,增加现行税种的环境保护功能,实行专门的环保税种,实行费改税等。     

A Normative Analysis of Housing-Related Tax Policy in a General Equilibrium Model of Housing Quality and Prices

We evaluate an array of housing-related tax policies in a general equilibrium model with endogenous housing quality and prices. The local government facilitates the provision of local public amenities, financed by an array of housing-related taxes, including a developer gross revenue tax, a property tax, a land tax, and a development license fee. In a competitive spatial equilibrium, all households optimize and reach the same utility, all monopolistically competitive developers optimize and receive zero profit, and both housing and land markets clear. We examine the effects of various tax policies on housing quality, housing prices, land rent, as well as the population and housing density. By evaluating quantitatively the welfare of the local economy, we establish a globally optimal tax scheme in the housing market: complete elimination of the property tax and imposition of a lower gross revenue tax (possibly fully eliminated) than both development and land taxes.     

TAX REFORM

After brief individual presentations, panelists discuss among themselves and with the audience a broad spectrum of issues regarding various taxes and tax reform proposals. The discussion includes such issues as privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating income tax withholding, and the merits and demerits of income taxes, consumption taxes, value added taxes, sales taxes, and taxes on resources that have an inelastic supply. One panelist relates his recent experiences using his tools as an economist to deal with tax and related issues as a current member of the Canadian Parliament. Another cites practical problems of implementing tax reform from his long experience advising governments, especially in Latin America. A major focus of the exchange of views is on public choice problems involved in passing and implementing a so-called flat tax. However, the discussion also deals with economic efficiency and equity considerations and with nearly all other types of taxes. The discussion includes not only the impact on the country within which tax reform occurs, but international implications, as well.     

Optimal taxation in a monetary economy with financial intrmediaries

The problem of optimal taxation when the government must levy distorting taxes to meet its revenue needs is considered for a monetary economy with financial intermediaries. In contrast to most other studies of optimal taxation in a monetary economy, money is treated as an intermediate good which is held because doing so economizes on the scarce resources that must be devoted to the exchange process. Attention is focused on the roles of the inflation tax, reserve requirements, and deposit taxes. The key result is that revenue considerations do not justify taxing cash and deposits. That is, the optimal tax structure calls for adopting the optimum quantity of money rule and setting deposit taxes to zero. When the optimal tax structure is in place, reserve requirements turn out to be irrelevant from both the fiscal and welfare perspectives.     

Are international deposits tax-driven

This paper investigates the impact of tax policy on international depositing. Non-bank international deposits are shown to be positively related to interest income taxes and to the presence of domestic bank interest reporting. This suggests that international deposits are in part intended to facilitate tax evasion. At present, only part of international interest flow are covered by either non-resident interest withholding taxes or international exchange of information. This incomplete coverage may be a reason that these policies currently appear to have little impact on international depositing.     

中国矿业税费法律制度的重构——以矿产所有权出让为视角

从实证分析的角度而言,在采矿权出让中,国家出让的是矿产的所有权而非用益物权。采矿权价款作为矿产的用益物权的对价,占矿产品的实际销售收入的比例太低。按矿产品的实际销售收入征收矿产资源补偿费和税收,国有矿产资源资产和税收大量流失。我国应实行矿产所有权出让,向受让人收取矿产所有权出让金、矿区国有土地使用费、矿山环境恢复费。根据矿产所有权出让金的数学模型,确定它的合理金额。按照同矿产的可采储量等量的矿产品的销售收入,征收环境税、增殖税,取消矿产资源补偿费和资源税。     

Exchange market reform,inflation, and fiscal deficits

This paper examines the effects of exchange market reform on inflation and quasifiscal deficits in developing countries. The first part presents the conceptual framework, which identifies a variety of implicit taxes and subsidies that must be taken into account (in addition to implicit taxes on exports, as emphasized by Pinto (1991)) in assessing the fiscal and inflationary effects of exchange market reform. A formula that attempts to capture explicitly these taxes and subsidies is derived. The second part applies the formula to six countries (Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka). The results suggest that exchange market reform may lead to a significant reduction in reliance on the inflation tax.     

Withholding taxes or information exchange: the taxation of international interest flows

This paper considers withholding taxes and information exchange as alternative means to tax international interest income. For each regime, we consider the maximum level of taxation of foreign-source income that can be sustained as the equilibrium of a repeated game. The best regime is the one that brings the level of taxation in the repeated game closest to the cooperative level of interest taxation. Sustainable levels of taxation in either regime depend on the importance of bank profits and on the marginal cost of public funds, among other things. Simulations with the model illustrate the choice between withholding taxes and information exchange. An explicit possibility is the emergence of a mixed regime, with one country imposing a withholding tax and the other country providing information. The basic model is extended to allow for size differences between the two countries and to incorporate a third, outside country.     

Taxes or Fees? The Political Economy of Providing Excludable Public Goods

This paper provides a positive analysis of public provision of excludable public goods financed by uniform taxes or fees. Individuals differing in preferences decide, using majority rule, the provision level and financing instrument. The decisive voter has median preferences in a tax regime, but generally has above median preferences in a fee regime. Numerical solutions indicate that populations with uniform or left‐skewed distributions of preferences choose taxes, while a majority coalition of high‐ and low‐preference individuals prefer fees when preferences are sufficiently right skewed. Public good provision and welfare under fees exceeds that under taxes in the latter case.     

县级财政负担与地方公共服务:农村税费改革的影响

本文使用1997—2005年县级面板数据分析了农村税费改革对县级财政负担和地方公共服务的影响,并且使用倍差法来鉴别其因果效应。税费改革取消了农村地区原本不规范的征费,其中一部分转换为农业税的形式征收,从而账面上农业税收入增加并且使得总税收收入增加。但由于征费被取消,使得事实上县级政府的财政负担有所增加。由于县级政府是地方公共服务的主要供给者,我们发现税费改革在长期内降低了公共服务的供给。     

Optimal taxation of car ownership, car use and public transport: Insights derived from a discrete choice numerical optimization model

We formulated and numerically evaluated a model of car ownership, car use and public transport use for peak and off-peak hours of the day. The model was used to study the optimal tax structure for passenger transport in Belgium, with special emphasis on the optimal tax treatment of diesel versus gasoline cars. We obtained a number of interesting results. First, if the government can set all fixed and variable transport taxes optimally, the higher marginal external cost of diesel use implies that the optimal tax per kilometre for the use of a diesel car is higher than for the use of a gasoline car. Moreover, high congestion implies that the taxes on car use in the peak period are more than twice their current levels. However, the optimal tax on ownership of a diesel car is some 200€ below its current level. Second, if the government uses kilometre taxes that do not differentiate between fuel types, the optimal ownership tax on a diesel car is twice as high as the tax on a gasoline car. Furthermore, if political constraints restrict user taxes to their current levels, we find that optimal ownership taxes on diesel cars double, whereas those on gasoline cars rise by 30%. Finally, subsidies to public transport are found to be optimal as long as variable car taxes are not differentiated between periods.     

Optimal Commodity Taxes in Australia

The recent changes to commodity taxes in Australia have led to renewed interest in a classic question in public finance: should the tax rates be uniform or differentiated? This article attempts to answer this question by calculating optimal commodity taxes in Australia for a nine‐item disaggregation. The estimates point to non‐uniform commodity taxes, even from the viewpoint of an inequality‐insensitive tax planner. The optimal commodity taxes bear little resemblance with the pre‐GST or post‐GST tax rates. No less significant is our observation that even the purely efficiency‐driven optimal commodity taxes imply lower real expenditure inequality than the actual taxes.     

Controling tax evasion under direct and indirect taxation: Some notes

The purpose of the paper is to use a simple model of the firm having monopoly power in the goods market as the framework to study the relative effectiveness of unit, ad valorem and profit taxes under two alternative criteria when the taxes are changeds so as to keep either the expected utility of the monopoly firm or the expected tax revenues for government constant. Under the former policy the profit tax turns out to be best and the unit tax worst in all respects; for instance, the profit tax will give rise to higher production, lower prices, lower tax evasion and higher tax revenues for government than other taxes. The dominance of the profit tax and the inferiority of the unit tax still holds under the policy of keeping the expected tax revenues constant in terms of production, prices and the expected utility of the monopoly firm. But strikingly, in terms of effectiveness of tax evasion control the ranking of taxes is now exactly the reverse from the one obtained under the expected utility criterium; now the unit tax is best and the profit tax worst.     

中国的税收结构、经济增长与收入分配

本文通过实证分析,说明在中国现阶段的经济制度和税收结构下,流转税类、所得税类、资源税类和财产税类份额的增加会扩大资本所有者和劳动所有者市场收入的分配差距,而特定目的税类和行为税类份额的增加则会缩小资本要素与劳动要素的收入分配差距。同时,所得税类、资源税类和行为税类份额的增加会提高经济的总体规模,而财产税类和特定目的税类份额的增加则会降低经济的总体规模。这说明在现阶段的中国经济中,有必要对所得税类和财产税类进行结构和职能两方面改革,使这两种税能够体现社会公平的税收职能。单纯地从税收结构的数量调整上讲,目前应提高所得税类的税收份额,并降低财产税类(即房地产税)的税收份额。     

OPTIMAL TAXATION ON MIXED DIAMOND GOODS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRIVATE CAR OWNERSHIP IN CHINA

Abstract. The ‘diamond effect’ exists when a consumer's utility depends on the exchange value, not just on the intrinsic consumption effects of the good. Yew‐Kwang Ng has discussed the optimal tax on a pure ‘diamond’ good. This paper extends Ng's model to cover mixed diamond goods. It uses three mathematical models to show that the optimal tax on a mixed diamond good with both intrinsic and diamond effects depends on the proportion of the diamond effect. The result may explain the violation of the Ramsey Rule in practice, and may be used to formulate private car taxes in China.     

Employment- and growth effects of tax reforms

Since the mid-1990s almost all OECD countries have engaged in fundamental reforms of their tax systems. There is a trend towards higher social security contributions and lower tax rates on personal and corporate income. This paper explores whether these tax policy measures are effective means for reducing unemployment and accelerating economic growth. Using a Pissarides type search model with endogenous growth, we analyze how savings and the incentive to create new jobs are affected by revenue-neutral tax swaps between wage income taxes, payroll taxes, capital income taxes and taxes levied on capital costs. In our framework, cutting the capital income tax (reducing the double taxation of dividend income) financed by a higher payroll tax turns out to be superior, such a policy mix fosters both employment and growth. Most other tax reforms imply a trade-off between employment and growth.     

Norwegian Emissions of CO2 1987–1994 A Study of Some Effects of the CO2 Tax

Several countries have introduced taxes on fossil fuels with the aim of reducing atmospheric emissions, partly because of local environmental goals (SO₂, NO_x) and partly to participate in a global effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Many macroeconomic studies, based on both global and national models, have been made of how emissions can be reduced with the help of taxes and the consequent reduction in GDP following the introduction of such taxes. Norway has had a CO₂ tax for five years, thereby providing a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of this tax on emissions. The paper provides a counterfactual analysis of energy consumption and emissions if no CO₂ taxes had been introduced, compared with the actual situation in which such taxes exist. The effect of a CO₂ tax on oil consumption, and thus CO₂ emissions is studied on the basis of partial economic models for various sectors of the Norwegian economy. The study indicates that the CO₂ tax has had an impact on CO₂ emissions in Norway.     

VAT and the taxation of rents

Cash-flow corporate taxes can tax corporate-source rents and avoid some of the distortions on investment and financing caused by conventional corporate taxes. However, cash-flow taxes applied on an origin basis are prone to international profit-shifting, which can lead to a competitive reduction in tax rates. While this can be avoided by a destination-based cash-flow tax, most countries have opted for origin-based taxation, asserting the right to tax rents generated within their jurisdictions. Since a value-added tax (VAT) implicitly includes rents in its base, it can complement origin-based corporate taxation. We compare and contrast the use of destination and origin VATs as complements to an origin-based cash-flow corporate tax.