我国现行增值税存在的问题

作者对我国现行增值税在重复征税、征收范围、小规模纳税人的划分标准及对其政策、抵税凭证和税率设计几方面存在的问题进行了分析。     

对奢侈品征收消费税的意义

消费税对居民收入有调节作用。随着我国经济的增长,贫富差距的拉大,对奢侈品征收消费税越来越显示出其必要性。目前我国正在酝酿的消费税改革,对奢侈品准备征收消费税。本文探讨了我国当前消费税的现状。并分析了对奢侈品征税的作用和意义。     

论我国房产税的计税依据

我国将稳步推进房产税的改革,而在改革的过程中需要准确界定房产税的计税依据。为此本文首先分析和比较了面积、市场价值和租金收入三种类型的房产税计税依据的优点和缺点,在此基础上结合公平性的要求、我国现行税收征管水平以及房地产市场现状等情况,提出我国应以市场价值为基准确定房地产税税基。对于房地产市场价值的评估办法,笔者认为居住用房地产价值的评估应该采用“城乡有别”的办法——城市和县城的居住用房地产采用市场比较法进行价值评估;农村地区的房地产采用重置成本法进行价值评估;对于营业用房地产,则采用收益法评估其市场价值。     

Non-renewable resources in the long run

We model a competitive economy in which production is dependent on labor and a non-renewable resource, the stock of which is inhomogeneous. We solve the model analytically and show how—in infinite time—the economy moves away from an initial balanced growth path (b.g.p.) and towards a mature b.g.p. The characteristics of the initial b.g.p. match historical observations of slowly declining resource price and consumption growth tracking global product. The mature b.g.p. depends on the nature of the stock; the more steeply cross-sectional area declines with depth, the faster the rate of price increase. We show how the theoretical model may be adapted and parameterized to explain and predict the evolution of markets for specific resources, applying the model in two cases, copper and petroleum.     

Short run and long run causality in time series: inference

We propose methods for testing hypothesis of non-causality at various horizons, as defined in Dufour and Renault (Econometrica 66, (1998) 1099–1125). We study in detail the case of VAR models and we propose linear methods based on running vector autoregressions at different horizons. While the hypotheses considered are nonlinear, the proposed methods only require linear regression techniques as well as standard Gaussian asymptotic distributional theory. Bootstrap procedures are also considered. For the case of integrated processes, we propose extended regression methods that avoid nonstandard asymptotics. The methods are applied to a VAR model of the US economy.     

The effects of tax and regulatory changes on commercial bank dividend policy

The literature concerning the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) is extensive, but generally does not consider dividend policy changes related to TRA’s passage. One exception is Casey et al., but that work omits banking. An examination of banks is especially apt given TRA’s changes in tax rates and municipal bond categorization. Results show bank dividend policy to be different from other industries, as banks show no relation to past growth rates, beta, or an insider ownership as Rozeff’s model holds. The results support the idea that the lower the taxes, the higher the payout which is contrary to the dividend irrelevancy argument. However, the results are not robust in tests using data from a later period meant to more closely examine changing capitalization requirements’ impact on dividend policy.     

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.     

浅议案例教学法在《国际税收》课程中的应用

案例教学作为教学方法,具有极其鲜明的特点。文章着重探讨了案例教学法在《国际税收》课程教学中应用的必要性,并阐述了在教学中的应用方法。     

The responsiveness of self-employment income to tax rate changes

This paper estimates the extent to which self-employment income responds to changes in the net-of-tax share using a panel of tax returns that spans 1987–1996. The results suggest that the elasticity of reported self-employment income to the net-of-tax share is approximately .9, implying a real elasticity (net of any reporting response) of around .4. Estimated elasticities tend to be larger for higher income taxpayers, married males, and females. In addition, the elasticity of self-employment income is considerably larger than the elasticity wage and salary income estimated using the same methodology.     

Using ex-day returns to separate the tax and information effects of dividend changes

In this paper, the information content of dividends is tested by examining the abnormal return on the announcement date. To address the potentially confounding effects of the tax penalty, the abnormal exdividend day return is used to separate stocks for which dividends impose a tax penalty on marginal investors from stocks for which dividends provide a tax benefit to marginal investors. This separation uncovers results that support the information content hypothesis; dividend increases result in positive abnormal announcement day returns even for stocks whose marginal investors are averse to dividends.     

改革开放前我国营业税发展变迁

营业税政策的制定和改革是随着国家政治经济的发展而不断变化,文章重点阐述了改革开放前我国营业税政策的变迁。     

Is there a long run demand for currency in China?

The record of Chinese monetary authorities at targeting MO in the late eighties early nineties is rather poor. This paper thus first aims at determining whether the instability of currency demand is responsible for this. By so doing we show, using adequate econometric techniques, that a long-run demand for currency did exist over the 1988–1993 period, with quarterly data.Most previous studies concluded that the income elasticity of currency demand in China is very high. The second objective of the paper is to test for the robustness of this result. We show that this income elasticity is unity when proper account is taken of institutional variables representative of the transition process.Abbreviations ADF Augmented Dickey Fuller - ARCH Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity - IMF International Monetary Fund - LDCs Less Developed Countries - M0 currency - M1 narrow money - M2 broad money - PBC People's Bank of China - VAR Vector Auto Regressive Model Comments on an earlier version by my colleagues Christian Bordes and Dominique Lacoue-Labarthe and by an anonymous referee were very useful in improving the present paper. It also benefited from comments by participants at the annual conference of the (UK) Chinese Economic Society in December 1995. However, I remain solely responsible for all remaining errors.     

Do homeowners achieve more household wealth in the long run?

Despite the public’s faith in homeownership as a vehicle for wealth creation, there are surprisingly few empirical studies of the independent impact of homeownership and its duration on household wealth accumulation. This paper provides the first empirical evidence that homeownership, after controlling for other drivers of wealth accumulation, is positively and significantly associated with wealth accumulation over time. Using the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, it examines the influence of housing tenure choices between 1989 and 2001 on household net wealth levels in 2001 after controlling for initial wealth in 1989, location, income, education, and other family and personal characteristics that might influence the rate of wealth accumulation. Importantly, the models used also control for the tendency of households to accumulate wealth between 1984 and 1989 (five years prior to the studied period). This approach is used to address the possibility that an unobserved variable—the propensity to save or accumulate wealth—may be associated with both the probability and duration of homeownership and the rate of wealth accumulation. All else equal, those who owned homes and owned for longer periods of time had significantly higher household net wealth by 2001. These results are compelling because house price appreciation over the period was near its long-run average while stock gains were above and real rent increases below their long-run averages. Hence, the findings are suggestive of a positive influence of ownership over long periods on net wealth, even during a period when alternative investments produced higher than normal returns and rents grew slowly. This is especially important because the overwhelmingly majority of households do not sell their homes shortly after buying them. In our sample, those who became owners typically owned for 7 years. Furthermore, most households that bought during a period of declining real home values in the early 1990s continued to own their homes for at least eight years and came out well ahead of those who did not own.     

Local tax interaction and endogenous spatial weights based on quality of life

This paper studied the role of municipal quality of life as a driver of strategic tax interactions among local governments. A number of studies point out the existence of strategic interactions using spatial econometric models in which the spatial weights are mostly based on non-economic criteria or basic economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP). We propose the more sophisticated well-being indicator of municipal quality of life as the driver for these interactions. To deal with the potential endogeneity, we rely on instrumental variable estimators. The empirical analysis focuses on the main local tax in Spain (property) and on municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and it confirms the relevance of differentials in quality of life for the understanding of tax choices.     

The spatial effects of a tax on housing and land

This paper analytically investigates the spatial consequences of a tax on housing and land. In general, a property tax is not spatially neutral; instead it disproportionately affects certain parts of the city. The property tax can therefore create distributional inequities and can distort the pattern of residential and industrial location. We derive conditions on locational preferences and housing production that determine which parts of a city will be disproportionately affected by a property tax. Empirical estimates suggest that central locations will be disproportionately affected by property taxes.     

Growth and inequality: Dependence on the time path of productivity increases (and other structural changes)

This paper examines the significance of the time path of a given productivity increase on growth and inequality. Whereas the time path impacts only the transitional paths of aggregate quantities, it has both transitional and permanent consequences for wealth and income distribution. Hence, the growth-inequality tradeoff generated by a given discrete increase in productivity contrasts sharply with that obtained when the same productivity increase occurs gradually. The latter can generate a Kuznets-type relationship between inequality and per-capita income. Our results suggest that economies with similar aggregate structural characteristics may have different outcomes for income and wealth inequality, depending on the nature of the productivity growth path.     

The effects of the property tax: A general equilibrium simulation

This paper uses a general equilibrium model of residential land use to study the effects of the property tax in a closed city. Two different specifications of the production technology for housing are used, and are found to yield similar results. The model is too complicated to be solved in closed form, but an efficient computational technique which utilizes a simplicial search algorithm was developed to solve it numerically. This type of model and computational technique can be applied to a wide variety of practical issues in urban economics.     

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.     

The long-run effects of a residential property tax and local public services

The long-run effects of a residential property tax and local public services are analyzed in the context of an urban spatial model. An endogenous labor market allows the local wage rate to adjust, in conjunction with residential and business land prices, in response to local fiscal changes.