Generalized cash-flow taxation

We show the unique form that must be taken by a tax system based entirely on realization accounting to implement a uniform capital income tax, or, equivalently, a uniform wealth tax. This system combines elements of an accrual based capital income tax and a traditional cash-flow tax, having many of the attributes of the latter while still imposing a tax burden on marginal capital income. Like the traditional cash-flow tax, this system may be integrated with a tax on labor income. We also show how such a tax can be supplemented with an optional accounting for a segregated subset of actively traded securities, subjected separately to mark-to-market taxation at the uniform capital income tax rate, to permit a fully graduated tax system applicable to labor income.     

我国宏观税负构成的分析与调整

宏观税负率是衡量一个国家宏观税负水平高低的一个重要指标，本文结合我国实际情况，充分考虑收收收入及非税收入的共同作用，对我国从1994年以来不断上升的宏观税负水平加以分析。文章以宏观税负的内部构成为出发点，通过回归模型总结出宏观税负上升的内部原因，用以找到进行合理税制调整的方向。     

税收负担的结构性失衡与调整——基于结构性减税视角

当前我国税收负担结构失衡现象比较突出:在中观层面表现为税收负担的税种结构失衡、产业结构失衡、地区结构失衡;在微观层面表现为不同类型企业的税收负担失衡、各收入阶层居民的税收负担失衡。结构性减税与税收负担结构具有内在关联性:实施结构性减税是基于税负结构失衡的现实所作出的理性政策选择;同时,结构性减税的基本特征也使其具有调整税负结构的功能。今后,结构性减税应将税收负担结构合理化作为政策目标,通过全面推进"营改增"改革、实行综合与分类相结合的个人所得税制、稳步推进房产税改革等一揽子政策措施,积极调整税收负担结构,使其更加公平合理。     

The effect of tax enforcement on tax morale

In this paper we argue that tax enforcement is an additional contextual factor affecting tax morale, one of the most important determinants of tax compliance. By using a unique dataset that merges a representative sample of Italian households with administrative data on tax enforcement, we first find that tax morale is positively correlated with tax enforcement. Second, to deal with possible endogeneity of tax enforcement, we show that results are confirmed in an IV specification using the change in the tax gap at the provincial level as an instrument for tax enforcement. Finally, we provide evidence that the impact of tax enforcement and social environment is stronger at low quantiles of tax morale. Our results show that besides that of lowering the expected value of tax evasion, tax enforcement has an additional and indirect effect on tax compliance through its effect on tax morale.     

税收流失的博弈分析

从财政交易制度框架内看,税收流失其实是一种交易成本。纳税人与税务当局的非合作博弈,不存在纯战略纳什均衡,但存在混合战略纳什均衡,即税务机关和纳税人分别以一定的概率随机选择稽查和逃税,同时,税收流失也表现为征税中存在的纳税与人政府、政府与纳税人以及政府、税务机关与税务人员三种委托代理问题。因此,依法治税的激励结构设计至少应包括四个方面：保证财政交易制度中的支出面与税收收入基本对称：优化税制;税务机关激励纳税人讲实话的制度安排,对税务人员的激励。     

Tax Enforcement Policy and the Provision of Public Goods with the Presence of Tax Havens

A tax competition model is presented to investigate the effects of tax havens on the public good provision. We show that when countries facing a rise in tax havens change their tax enforcement strategies in response, the existence of tax havens may result in a higher level of equilibrium public good provision as compared to the case with no tax havens. Accordingly, tax havens could be welfare enhancing for non‐haven countries. This result offers a possible explanation for the recent empirical evidence that the corporate tax revenues in high‐tax countries have actually increased with the growth in the flow of foreign direct investment to tax havens.     

中国个人所得税的性质及其效果分析

以工资薪金税收为主体的个人所得税是一种消费者税。由于起征额的存在,个人所得税并不是一种完全的所得税,而是一种个人收入调节税。基于消费者税的理论基础,提出了关于中国代表性居民纳税人的理论平均税负的一个简单模型,以及一个关于中国个人所得税对全部税收的贡献率的理论计算公式。中国个人所得税改革应着眼于如何改善工薪所得税的累进性,增强税收的收入再分配职能,相对提高低收入劳动者的实际报酬。为此,应将个人所得税易名为个人收入调节税,减少税率档次,提高免征额。     

增值税扩围改革有助于减轻服务业税负吗?——基于投入产出表的分析

增值税扩围改革对服务业行业流转税负担的影响同时包含"税率提高的增税效应"与"进项抵扣的减税效应"。利用投入产出表数据分析并测算增值税扩围改革影响各服务业行业流转税负变动的净效应,结果发现:不同服务业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服务业行业税负变动的主要因素。为了优化服务业发展的税收环境,使增值税扩围改革有助于减轻服务业的流转税负,应根据税负平衡点审慎选择服务业行业税改后适用的增值税税率。当前制定的租赁业、交通运输业的试点税率水平偏高,有必要予以降低。     

A voluntary brain-drain tax

A major roadblock to the implementation of Bhagwati's proposal to allow developing countries to tax skilled emigrants residing in developed countries (the “brain drain”) is the administrative problems associated with collecting this tax in the absence of developed-country cooperation. This paper provides a partial solution to these problems, involving the tax treatment of emigrants who return to their countries of origin. The tax system is structured so that returning emigrants who previously paid the brain-drain tax face lower tax payments than those who evaded the brain-drain tax. Given the expected value of this tax benefit, emigrants are willing to pay the brain-drain tax. In the basic model, a source country's optimal tax system includes this brain-drain tax and does not distort migration decisions.     

A Test of Strategic Trade Policy in the Semiconductor Industry: The Impact of Japanese Policy on U.S. Firms

This paper analyzes a multinational corporation that may use tax evasion and profit shifting as a means to minimize tax liabilities. Our main finding is that profit shifting may occur even when tax rates are the same across countries. This will be the case whenever there is a tax differential in effective tax rates resulting from differences in tax enforcement. In this context, profit shifting occurs to enable tax evasion in a country where tax enforcement is less harsh. Moreover, for a given differential in tax rates, differences in tax enforcement may either accentuate or dampen profit shifting. Importantly, the predictions regarding the direction of profit shifting that would result in our set-up may contrast sharply with those of the preceding literature.     

两税合并、税收筹划与盈余管理方式选择

文章以2007年的两税合并为背景,研究上市公司出于税收筹划的目的如何选择盈余管理方式。研究发现,税率下降公司由于税率下降幅度较大,税收筹划收益较高,因此进行了显著向下的应计盈余管理,而没有选择真实盈余管理方式;而税率上升公司则由于存在5年的过渡期,税收筹划收益较低,因此既没有进行显著的应计盈余管理,也没有进行显著的真实盈余管理。这意味着上市公司在进行税收筹划时会综合权衡各种避税方式的成本收益,进而选择最合适的避税方式。政府部门在制定税收政策时必须预先考虑企业可能的税收筹划策略,以达到预期的政策效果。     

Equilibrium audit strategies against tax treaty shopping

This paper examines game‐theoretic models of tax treaty shopping. An investor can choose a direct or indirect investment route across countries to minimize tax. A tax agency can audit the investor. The audit is costly but it can give additional revenue to the tax agency. In simultaneous‐move games, regardless of whether incomplete information exists and whether a home country allows foreign tax credits, there are mixed‐strategy equilibria where the investor may choose tax‐minimizing indirect routes and the tax agency may audit the investor. This equilibrium random audit strategy helps the tax agency raise revenue and reduce treaty shopping. Comparative statics yields an implication consistent with empirical evidence. However, if the home country has a foreign tax credit system with a high tax rate, or if the tax agency observes the investor's action in a sequential‐move game, the investor always chooses the direct route, and no treaty shopping occurs in equilibrium.     

论税务管理能力与有效税制改革

衡量一项税制或税制改革是否有效,其最综合性的标志是:税制执行后,其理论税负与实际税负是否一致。而这一状况的实现,与一国税制的设计是否与其税务管理能力相匹配是密切相关的。各国税制改革的实践表明,税务管理能力本身就应成为一国有效税制改革的中心。我国当前不尽如人意的税制执行结果,以及税制与税务管理确立背景的诸多变化,都迫切要求我们进一步提高税务管理能力,以增强税制及税制改革的有效性。     

In praise of tax havens: International tax planning and foreign direct investment

The multinationalization of corporate investment in recent years has given rise to a number of international tax avoidance schemes that may be eroding tax revenues in industrialized countries, but which may also reduce tax burdens on mobile capital and so facilitate investment. Both the welfare effects of and the optimal response to international tax planning are therefore ambiguous. Evaluating these factors in a simple general equilibrium model, we find that citizens of high-tax countries benefit from (some) tax planning. Paradoxically, if tax rates are not too high, an increase in tax planning activity causes a rise in optimal corporate tax rates, and a decline in multinational investment. Thus fears of a “race to the bottom” in corporate tax rates may be misplaced.     

The unintended consequences of semi-autonomous revenue agencies

The past two decades have witnessed a fundamental change in how tax administrations are organized, from agencies within a ministry with little autonomy to organizations outside the institutional public service with separate legal status. This paper analyzes how a switch to a more autonomous tax administration affects a country's optimal tax system, consisting of the tax rate and the tax administration's effectiveness. I show that the creation of a more autonomous tax administration can have the unintended effect of dwarfing the tax administration's incentive to collect taxes in developing countries, adding a novel reason for the low tax revenue collections in developing countries.     

税收政策与居民消费需求——基于结构效应视角的新思考

本文运用税收经济效应原理系统阐释所得税、商品税与财产税对居民消费需求的作用机制,在考察我国税制结构整体状况及其对居民消费需求负面影响的基础上,通过建立动态面板数据模型与采用GMM估计方法实证估计税收政策对居民消费需求的结构效应,结果发现：一方面,财产税挤入居民消费;另一方面,商品税和所得税均挤出居民消费需求,但开征利息税能够显著降低个人所得税对居民消费需求的抑制效应。基于理论分析与实证估计结果,本文认为,政府为了提高税收政策对居民消费需求调节的针对性与激励效果,应充分发挥税收政策的结构效应,积极推进与实行“有增有减”的新一轮税制改革,构建与扩大居民消费需求相协调的税制结构。     

A Characteristics Approach to Optimal Taxation: Line Drawing and Tax‐Driven Product Innovation

Real‐world tax legislation assigns goods to different categories of tax rates on the basis of observable characteristics, allowing the tax system to handle a constantly evolving set of available goods. We recast the theory of optimal taxation in the language of characteristics, and we show how to optimally draw lines that delineate tax‐rate regimes. Such lines are associated with notches in tax liability as a function of characteristics, creating incentives to introduce goods with new combinations of characteristics in order to reduce tax liability. With a restricted set of tax instruments, such notches are in general part of the second‐best optimal tax system.     

税源专业化管理若干问题的思考

税源专业化管理是对传统税源管理的重大变革。大力推进税源专业化管理是税收工作精细化的前提,是税收工作科学化的基础。构建专业化的税源管理体系,对优化纳税服务、强化税源管理、提高征管质效等意义重大。文章针对全国税源专业化管理试点情况,对税源专业化管理的税源分类、机构设置、税源管理信息化等问题进行了探讨。     

The experience of some OECD economies on tax smoothing

Observed random walk behaviour of a tax rate does not necessarily support the tax smoothing hypothesis though the latter implies the former. This article presents a direct test of tax smoothing by showing that if the tax smoothing hypothesis holds then the future tax rate should cointegrate with the current permanent government expenditure rate even though the tax rate is a random walk. This test is a direct and robust test of a number of ‘random walk models’ available in the literature. This procedure also enables us to differentiate among ‘strong tax smoothing’, ‘weak tax smoothing’ and ‘no-tax smoothing’, all of which are consistent with the random walk behaviour of a tax rate. Application of this test to Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and the US show evidence in support of weak forms of tax smoothing.     

中国税制的国际竞争力研究

国际税收竞争是经济全球化发展的产物,是各国以税收为载体、以促进本国经济增长为目的的竞争,其实质是经济竞争。在此,基于国际税收竞争视角,重点对中国税制的国际竞争力进行评析,分析表明中国税制具有一定的国际竞争力,但诸多方面仍有待完善。在此基础上,借鉴国际经验建立具有竞争性的中国税制,确定合理的宏观税负水平,同时还需加强"税收文化"的建设,建立国际税收协调机制,以应对日益激烈的国际税收竞争。