Reforming or Transforming the Federal Tax System: (A Review Essay)

A bstract . Several proposals to reform the federal income tax system are under active consideration. Professor Richard W. Lindholm has proposed instead that we abolish the individual and corporate income taxes and the estate and gift taxes. To replace the lost revenue he proposes a flat 15 per cent value added tax and a flat 2 per cent net wealth tax. He posits five goals for successful tax reform and discusses his proposed system in terms of them. He finds his system would be simpler and less disruptive of markets than even a simplified income tax structure.     

论个人所得税存在的问题及改革方向

我国自1980年开征个人所得税以来,特别是1994年新的“个人所得税法”颁布实施以来,个人所得税呈大幅度增长趋势,在税收中所占的比重也逐年提高,现今已经成为我国的第四大税种。但是随着我国市场经济体制的深入发展,居民收入水平的明显提高,个人所得税税制本身和征管中都存在和暴露了一些问题,对其进行改革已经势在必行。文中对我国现行个人所得税税制本身和征管中存在的一些问题进行探讨,并提出相应的改革思路。     

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.     

个人所得税制度改革的探讨

随着社会经济的高速发展，中国经济发展的市场化已经越来越深入整个经济生活。个人所得税是与百姓生活密切相关的一个税种，在我国税收体制中所占的地位也在逐渐上升，而工资、薪金费用扣除标准制度已成为我国个人所得税法的争议焦点和立法热点。本文将简单介绍我国现行的个人所得税制度及存在的问题。     

General equilibrium and optimal taxes

It is shown that if subsidies are not excessive, there exists a general competitive equilibrium in the presence of a complex tax structure. Furthermore, under certain continuity assumptions, a tax structure which is optimal from the social point of view can be determined. Procedures maximize quasi-concave after tax profit functions. Consumers have convex budget sets reflect- ing their income from sales and profits minus taxes on fixed income and progressive sales taxes. Their preferences are interdependent, intransitive and incomplete. The government provides public goods and determines the optimal tax regime on the basis of its preferences on the final competitive consumption allocation.     

浅谈个人所得税的筹划技巧

个人所得税的征收在现在社会备受关注,本文以我国现行的个人所得税法规为依据,从个人所得税筹划的思路出发,介绍了两个经典的个人所得税筹划案例,希望通过本文可以让读者在履行自身应尽纳税义务的同时,又能用合理合法的筹划手段来维护自身权益。     

关于教职工个人所得税税收筹划浅析

个人所得税是我国重要的税种之一,认真履行代扣代缴个人所得税是单位财务部门的重要工作内容。2019年1月1日实施新的个人所得税以来,个人所得税代缴工作暴露出不少问题,如漏缴、不足额代缴等问题突出。因此,如何构建合理的个人所得税税收筹划,降低职工的税收负担成为构建高质量财务管理工作的当务之急。     

Union wage setting and progressive income taxation with heterogeneous labor: theory and evidence from the German income tax reforms 1986–1990

This paper analyzes the effects of tax shifting in a model with union wage setting and progressive income taxation. The setup allows for different skill levels of the workforce and accounts for the union's distributional objective of income equality. The theoretical predictions of the model are empirically tested with a panel of German micro-data covering the period of the income tax reforms 1986–1990. It is shown that average taxes raise wages, whereas increasing the progressivity of the tax system reduces wages. The effect of progressivity on high-skilled labor tends to be less significant and smaller. Stronger preferences for equality compress the (pre-tax) wage distribution.     

THE EQUAL ABSOLUTE SACRIFICE PRINCIPLE REVISITED

Abstract.  We summarize the literature on equal absolute sacrifice income taxes, and make some extensions. We adapt the utilitarian equal sacrifice criterion to a wide class of rank-dependent social welfare functions, and find that liabilities depend on both income and position in the distribution. We investigate whether such taxes need be progressive, using a combination of analytics and simulation, and in the process uncover tax functions not previously recognized as equating sacrifices. Finally, out of horizontal equity considerations a new concept of 'the equal treatment of equals' by an income tax emerges, with implications for future work whose significance is discussed.     

Theoretical analysis and empirical measurements of the effects of the Philadelphia income tax

This study develops policy-oriented measures of optimal local taxes and their maxima which take into account the existence of macro multipliers, other taxes, and discounting. It also presents an estimate of the effects of the Philadelphia income tax on employment tax and revenues. An upper bound for the optimal tax rate is suggested. The current tax rate is found to perhaps be above both the optimal and the revenue maximizing (or monopoly) point.     

The distributional implications of tax and transfer programs in US

The distributional consequences of changes in tax laws and transfer programs in the United States are studied. Using detailed household income data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1981–91, income inequality is measured for both pretax/transfer and post-tax/transfer definitions of household income. A new statistical methodology for assessing the impact of changes in taxes and transfers on the size distribution of income is utilized. Confidence intervals are constructed for various measures of inequality, and hypothesis tests are conducted to determine whether observed changes in the distribution of income due to taxes and transfers are statistically significant. Using decomposable measures of inequality, the implications of type of tax table used are investigated.     

对非公经济业主征交个税的探索

论文运用综评论三段式研究法,对非公经济公司所得税和个人所得税征交中存在问题、形成原因和治理对策进行了创新性研究,提出了倒逼思路、倒算方法和税转股等创新见解,以期影响立法机构修订税法。     

The Built‐in Flexibility of Income and Consumption Taxes

This paper reviews, and synthesises within a uniform framework, a number of analytical results on the built‐in flexibility of taxation. Established results for income taxes are reviewed and integrated with recent results for consumption taxes. These help to provide a better understanding of the determinants of the revenue responsiveness properties of different taxes. They also provide convenient expressions for the calculation of tax revenue elasticities in practice. It is shown that the magnitude of revenue elasticities can be expected to differ substantially for alternative taxes, for different forms of the same tax, and for the same tax over time as incomes change relative to tax thresholds and as consumption patterns change. These results are especially relevant for the many industrialised countries which have undertaken major fiscal reforms in recent years with, often unintended, consequences for revenue elasticities.     

浅议我国现行个人所得税制改革

个人所得税作为调节居民收入分配的一个重要税种,在我国经济生活中起着至关重要的作用。个税调整直接关系百姓钱袋子,在通胀形势下成为关注热点。随着我国经济的增长,居民可支配收入也在逐年增多,但是作为调节贫富收入差距的"个人所得税"这一税收杠杆却滞后于我们经济的变化,这些问题不仅严重影响了税收调节经济的功能,而且对社会稳定也极为不利。本文在阐明了我国个人所得税制改革中存在的相关问题后,有针对性的提出了相关学者的政策建议。     

探析中小企业企业所得税的税收筹划

在市场经济条件下,税收筹划对企业的发展具有重要意义。中小企业应潜心钻研《企业所得税法》,用好政策给予的优惠条件,对企业进行纳税筹划。企业进行企业所得税税收筹划时,一方面可利用所得税优惠政策及准予扣除项目的限额进行税务筹划,另一方面可利用会计处理方法对企业纳税所得额进行调整。     

探析中小企业企业所得税的税收筹划

在市场经济条件下,税收筹划对企业的发展具有重要意义。中小企业应潜心钻研《企业所得税法》,用好政策给予的优惠条件,对企业进行纳税筹划。企业进行企业所得税税收筹划时,一方面可利用所得税优惠政策及准予扣除项目的限额进行税务筹划,另一方面可利用会计处理方法对企业纳税所得额进行调整。     

高校个人所得税纳税筹划方法探讨

随着中国高等教育的快速发展,国家税务局将高校教师列入了重点监管的高收入行业之一.有关个人所得税的纳税筹划就引起了人们特别是高校教职工的广泛关注.如何在依法纳税的前提下,通过筹划,减轻税负,使高校教职工揣入自己腰包的钱更多,也就成了这些高校教职工急需面对的问题.文中就以此为背景展开讨论,具体介绍了个人所得税纳税筹划的意义及必要性,个人所得税主要涉税项目的纳税筹划.     

HOW SHOULD CAPITAL BE TAXED?

This survey discusses how capital should be taxed in advanced economies. We review the theoretical optimal tax literature, survey empirical studies on the distribution of capital and the distortionary costs of capital taxation, and analyze the desirability of specific taxes on capital income, wealth, property, inheritances, and corporate profits. Our overall conclusion is that capital taxation plays an important role in an optimal tax system, but only certain ways of taxing capital are able to strike a balance between optimality and administrative feasibility.     

Income taxes and the destination of movers to multistate MSAs

We examine how differences in state income tax rates, as well as other state and local taxes and public service expenditures, influence the choice of state of residence for households (federal tax filers) moving into multistate metropolitan areas (MSAs) using data from the IRS on the migration of taxpayers. MSAs that are on borders provide a spatial discontinuity—discrete differences in state tax rates within a single labor market. These MSAs allow residents to live in one state and work in another state. We find that differences in state income tax rates have a significant impact on the relative rate of migration to the states within an MSA. However, contrary to what would be expected, this impact is only significant in MSAs in which the filing state is based on employment (states without reciprocity) and not for those states in which the filing state is the state of residence (states with reciprocity). In MSAs where states do not have reciprocity agreements, a difference of ten percent in tax rates leads to a 4.1 percent difference in the relative rate of incoming taxpayers. Analogously, we find that a ten percent difference in state tax rates in these MSAs results in a 3.3 percent difference in the rate of tax base inflow (AGI). Our results suggest that one reason that differences in state income taxes appear to have more impact in multistate MSAs without reciprocity is that only relatively large differences in state income tax rates have any impact on migration and these differences are much more pronounced in MSAs without reciprocity.     

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.