Tax Deductions and the Marginal Welfare Cost of Taxation

Recent work emphasizes the efficiency costs of tax deductions that distort the pattern of household spending. Using evidence on the sensitivity of taxable income to tax rates, this work suggests that the marginal welfare cost (MWC) of income taxes in the United States could be dramatically higher because of tax deductions, and might exceed unity. This paper develops an alternative approach for assessing the MWC using evidence on underlying parameters (e.g., labor supply elasticities, the demand elasticity for tax-favored goods). A MWC of around 0.3 to 0.5 seems more consistent with these parameter values, though this estimate is still significantly higher because of tax deductions.     

Tax Systems in the World: An Empirical Investigation into the Importance of Tax Bases, Administration Costs, Scale and Political Regime

We study the structure of taxation in a sample of 100 democratic and nondemocratic regimes over three time periods. The results provide strong support for several regularities in the world as a whole, specifically (1) scale effect: utilization of each tax source increases as the government expands, (2) base effect: tax systems rely more heavily on relatively larger tax bases, and (3) administrative cost effect: lower costs of administration lead to increased reliance on the corresponding revenue source. We also investigate the role of political regime and find that democracies rely substantially more on other income taxation, possibly because this tax source requires a higher degree of voluntary compliance. JEL Code: H2, D72, D78, E31, E51, F13, P35     

Compliance Costs of Corporate Income Taxation in Singapore

This study is the second in a series of studies investigating tax compliance costs incurred by public-listed companies. We found evidence of a size effect which is a predominant finding of similar studies. The size effect was more pronounced when absolute measures of costs were used than when a relative measure, cost/sales turnover, was used. Additional evidence was found of limited success relating to the IRAS's moves to simplify the tax system. Specifically, only large companies with sales turnover exceeding $500m benefited and considerably reduced their overall compliance costs. Most of the decrease was a result of the computational component of compliance costs. This resulted in the gap in absolute costs narrowing between Group 3 and any of the other categories of companies. There was also greater reliance on external professionals, the smaller the company. Views elicited indicate that more could be done to increase accessibility to IRAS publications for Group 1 and Group 2 companies.     

美国联邦所得税政策的变迁

美国联邦所得税是美国联邦税制结构中的主体税种,美国联邦税收政策集中体现于美国联邦所得税政策,研究美国联邦所得税政策有助于我们全面把握美国税收政策的走向。美国联邦所得税政策变迁可以划分为六个主要的阶段。     

企业购并行为中的税收政策效应

本主要分析所得税对企业市场购并行为的影响。国外学所分析企业购并时,通常假设市场完全竞争,企业的决策不受非市场因素的干扰。他们认为,企业购并中,购并方的收益率只受两个因素的影响,即企业已分配股息的纳税比率和资本利得税率。笔从两方面对以上模型进行了修正：一是修正了其中“债务利息可以全部税前扣除”的假设前提,二是修正了被购并方在交易中的交易条件。以上修正使模型能够更加准确地描述中国的现实经济环境,也得出了完全不同的结论。     

东北地区企业集团运用税收优惠政策进行纳税筹划探析

东北地区增值税转型的正式启动以及所得税政策的调整,为企业集团运用税收优惠政策开辟了更为广阔的纳税筹划空间。企业集团可使用的具体筹划方式包括获取抵扣资格、投资与税收抵免、加速折旧、研究与开发、集团公司集中理财,等等。     

Efficient Option Replication in the Presence of Transactions Costs

In the presence of transaction costs, a risk-return trade-off exists between the quality and the cost of a replicating strategy. In that context, I show how to expand the set of all possible time-based strategies through the introduction of a multi-scale class of strategies, which consist in rebalancing different fractions of an option portfolio at different time frequencies. The method, based on time-scale diversification, is to dynamic replication what investment in diversified portfoliosis to static portfolio selection: in a dynamic context, one may enjoy the benefits of diversification by using different time scales in trading the same asset. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the Costs of Excise Taxes and Income Taxes in the UK

This paper develops an analytical framework for estimating the marginal excess burden (MEB) of taxes on gasoline, alcohol, tobacco, and labor in the UK, accounting for externalities and interactions among the taxes. Under most scenarios the MEB of the gasoline tax exceeds that for the labor tax, the MEB of the alcohol tax is roughly the same, while the MEB of the tobacco tax is lower than for the labor tax. These preliminary findings suggest that the gasoline tax may be too high, the alcohol tax might be about right, and the tobacco tax might be too low.     

Environmental Tax Competition in the Presence of Multinational Firms

We study the design of environmental policy in a two country model with an imperfectly competitive polluting industry. We show that when the firms are multinational, non-cooperative policy design leads to too severe emission taxation regardless of the mode of competition. The reason is twofold. First, when firms are multinational, changes in environmental policy do not influence the market shares of the firms. Second, when designing their policies, national governments ignore profits accruing to foreign shareholders of multinational firms.     

美国财产税政策及其优惠机制

财产税是美国州政府和地方政府收入的重要来源之一,美国政府对财产税的税收优惠政策形式多样,并在实践中取得了积极的成效。其优惠政策主要包括减税和免征、“断路器”税收抵免、延期纳税和分类税率等。本文介绍了美国财产税体系及其税收优惠机制,并就如何完善我国财产税优惠政策提出了相关建议。     

新旧企业所得税税收优惠政策比较

《中华人民共和国企业所得税法》将内、外资企业的企业所得税征缴放在了同一条起跑线上。此项税制改革最重要的意义就是统一了内、外资企业的税前扣除办法、标准及税收优惠政策。本文侧重从税收优惠政策的角度,对新旧企业所得税制度做一个系统的比较。     

The Distributional Effects of Indirect Tax Changes in Italy

This paper evaluatesthe distributional and welfare effects of two recent changesof Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise taxes in Italy applying andcomparing two related and complementary methods of analysis:the first based on the distributional characteristics of Feldstein(1972) and recently applied by Newbery (1995); the second basedon the theory of marginal dominance developed by Mayshar andYitzhaki (1996). The paper finds no evidence that the reformshave redistributed purchasing power among households. But themost striking result is that a simpler two-rate VAT structure,set according to the European directives on VAT coordination,could have replaced the present system producing the same revenueand increasing welfare. This last result provides a clear instancein which reducing the number of VAT rates can be welcome evenin the presence of distributional concerns.     

Tax Costs and Signalling Benefits: The Impact of Surplus ACT

Companies with surplus ACT are faced with additional tax costs if they use dividends to signal information to investors, hence there is a trade-off between tax costs and signalling benefits. This paper provides evidence that investors' reactions to dividend surprises are influenced by the signal generated by earnings and tax planning considerations. The results indicate that in the presence of a positive earnings signal and a binding tax constraint, decreases in dividends are value enhancing.     

海南自由贸易港销售税制度研究

科学合理的税费制度对于海南自由贸易港发展具有至关重要的作用.行将启动的简并增值税、消费税、车辆购置税、城市维护建设税及教育费附加等税费,以及已经启动的在货物和服务零售环节征收销售税的税制改革是实现海南自由贸易港税制设计目标的重要举措.海南自由贸易港销售税宜采取"窄税基、高税率"的设计思路.销售税征收宜根据不同应税商品的...     

制度经济学视野下税制变迁类型研究

在制度经济学视野下研究税制变迁类型,是从税制变迁过程中个人行为对税制变迁的影响以及在税制变迁过程中每一个特定时点上税制的静态特征对比的角度分析的。在这个意义上,税制变迁可以分为:使生产效率提高的税制变迁;改变收入分配状态的税制变迁;重新配置经济机会的税制变迁;使生产效率和社会福利降低的税制变迁,等等。     

税收政策对农村经济发展影响研究

现行税收政策对农业的调节功能较弱，税收政策调整滞后于农业经济发展的总体变化。鉴于税收对农村经济增长、农业资本投入、农业技术进步及农业产业结构都存在不同程度的影响，建议在税收政策上给予农业良好的环境空间，以形成有利于刺激农村经济发展的良性机制。     

进一步调整东北地区税收政策的思考

东北地区税收政策的调整首先必须解决理念问题。进一步调整东北地区税收政策的基本构想是:豁免企业历史欠税;制定和完善有利于经济结构战略性调整的税收政策;实行消费型增值税,促进企业设备更新与改造;调整企业所得税政策,增强企业活力,等等。     

The Complexity of Tax Structure in Competitive Political Systems

We explore the nature of tax complexity in competitive political systems. The analysis does not rely upon imperfections in the operation of the public sector. Complexity arises in the course of the struggle for office, during which political parties are induced to propose platforms that discriminate carefully among heterogeneous voters. A basic model is enriched by the addition of administration costs and self-selection, factors which limit the ability of any government to discriminate fully. The effect on complexity of inequalities in political influence is also investigated. The analysis suggests that simple tax systems (such as a flat tax or a broadly based tax without special provisions) are not compatible with vigorous political competition.     

近年来税收政策手段运用的回顾与分析

我国实施积极财政政策的过程中，在税收方面采取了一系列促进出口、投资和消费增长，促进科技进步和相关产业发展的政策。但仍然存在对纳税人行为缺乏必要分析、某些政策欠公平和缺乏透明度等问题。当前需要根据经济形势的变化，综合考虑各方面的要求，实行有增有减的税收政策。     

振兴东北老工业基地的税收政策支持

市场经济下,东北老工业基地遇到前所未有的困难和压力,如传统产业占主导地位、国有经济比重较大、资源型产业面临资源枯竭、财力缺口较大等问题都阻碍了老工业基地的经济发展。为此,有必要对目前的税收政策和制度做出相应的调整,以充分发挥税收的宏观调控作用,为振兴东北老工业基地提供有效的支持。