On Measuring Inequity in Taxation Among Groups of Income Units

In this paper a method for analyzing the fairness of an income tax system when portioning the population into heterogeneous socio‐economic groups is proposed. The equitable tax system is defined by the three axioms given by Kakwani and Lambert in 1998 and, as they suggest, inequity is evaluated by the negative influences on the redistributive effect of the tax associated with axiom violations. Measuring the extent of axiom violations among households belonging to different groups, we improve the Kakwani and Lambert analysis, which is able to detect only the existence of overall inequities. We propose a method that allows for evaluation of the contribution of each group to the overall inequity. Moreover, the adopted method enables disentangling the directions of violations. The obtained results allow us to judge how axiom violations discriminate among groups in their reciprocal relationships. An application to the 2010 Italian income tax reveals that inequities disproportionately penalize the household typologies. More precisely, unfairness affects households with children more severely than the other household groups.     

PROGRESSIVITY AND REDISTRIBUTION IN NON‐REVENUE NEUTRAL TAX REFORMS: THE LEVEL AND DISTANCE EFFECTS

Kakwani and Reynolds–Smolensky indices are used in the literature to measure the progressivity and redistributive capacity of taxes. These indices may, however, show some limits when used to make normative assessments about non‐revenue neutral tax reforms. Two approaches have traditionally been taken to overcome this problem. The first of these consists of comparing after‐tax income distributions through generalized Lorenz (concentration) curves. The second approach is based on the decomposition of changes in the Reynolds–Smolensky index into changes in the average tax rate and variations in progressivity. Nonetheless, this decomposition between the average tax rate and progressivity may be further exploited to obtain some information that can be relevant to assess tax reforms. The main aim of this study is to draw up some indicators that can be useful to quantify the effects of non‐revenue neutral tax reforms. These indicators are used to investigate the last personal income tax reforms that have taken place in Spain.     

A Common Base Answer to the Question “Which Country Is Most Redistributive?”*

We believe that what most authors have in mind when referring to the “most redistributive country” is a tax and transfer schedule that is most redistributive across all pre-tax and transfer income distributions. In order to measure each country's tax and transfer redistribution according to the same baseline, we suggest using the transplant-and-compare method of Dardanoni and Lambert (2002, Journal of Public Economics 86, 99–122) to establish a common base. The redistributive effects of countries’ tax and transfer schedules are illustrated by employing microdata on eight countries from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Of these eight countries, Finland is found to be the most redistributive country, according to the common base method.     

Lifetime versus Annual Tax‐and‐Transfer Progressivity: Sweden, 1968–2009

In this paper, we analyze the evolution of tax‐and‐transfer progressivity in Sweden over both annual and lifetime horizons. Using a rich micro panel covering the period 1968–2009, we calculate tax rates over a cohort's entire working life cycle. Our main finding is that taxes are considerably less progressive over the lifetime than in any single year. Social insurance transfers to transitory low‐income earners account for most of this result. We offer a number of robustness checks of the measurement of lifetime incomes and progressivity, but none of them changes our overall findings.     

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.     

Foreign direct investment in a world of multiple taxes

Governments impose multiple taxes on foreign investors, though studies of the effect of tax policy on the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) focus almost exclusively on corporate income taxes. This paper examines the impact of indirect (non-income) taxes on FDI by American multinational firms, using affiliate-level data that permit the introduction of controls for parent companies and affiliate industries. Indirect tax burdens significantly exceed the foreign income tax obligations of foreign affiliates of American companies. Estimates imply that 10% higher local indirect tax rates are associated with 7.1% lower affiliate assets, which is similar to the effect of 10% higher income tax rates. Affiliate output falls by 2.9% as indirect taxes rise by 10%, while higher income taxes have more modest output effects. High corporate income tax rates depress capital/labor ratios and profit rates of foreign affiliates, whereas high indirect tax rates do not. These patterns reveal the impact of indirect taxes and suggest the mechanisms by which direct and indirect taxes affect FDI.     

Dividend taxes,corporate investment,and ‘Q’

Taxes on corporate distributions have traditionally been regarded as a ‘double tax’ on corporate income. This view implies that while the total effective tax rate on corporate source income affects real economic decisions, the distribution of this tax burden between the shareholders and the corporation is irrelevant. Recent research has suggested an alternative to this traditional view. One explanation of why firms in the United States pay dividends in spite of the heavy tax liabilities associated with this form of distribution is that the stock market capitalizes the tax payments associated with corporate distributions. This capitalization leaves investors indifferent at the margin between a corporation's decision to pay out dividends or to retain earnings. This alternative view holds that while changes in the dividend tax rate will affect shareholder wealth, they will have no impact on corporate investment decisions.This paper develops econometric tests which distinguish between these two views of dividend taxation. By extending Tobin's ‘q’ theory of investment to incorporate taxes at both the corporate and personal levels, the implications of each view for corporate investment decisions can be derived. The competing views may be tested by comparing the performance of investment equations estimated under each theory's predictions. British time series data are particularly appropriate for testing hypotheses about dividend taxes because of the substantial postwar variation in effective tax rates on corporate distributions. The econometric results suggest that dividend taxes have important effects on investment decisions.     

企业所得税征管:问题与对策

我国企业所得税征管环节存在不少亟待解决的问题,如税源监控不到位,服务意识待提高；汇算清缴制度不规范；纳税评估流于形式等.因此,应对纳税人科学分类,加强日常监控；核实税基；优化服务以降低纳税成本；规范企业所得税征管环节的各项管理；强化纳税评估,提高信息化程度,为企业营造出公平的纳税环境.     

Tax‐deferred savings plans and interest deductibility

Abstract.  Programs that defer taxes on savings (e.g., RRSPs or 401(k)s) are supposed to move income tax systems closer to the more efficient consumption tax. Whether or not RRSPs move income tax systems away from or closer to a consumption tax depends on whether or not interest on debts incurred to make RRSP contributions is deductible for income tax purposes. If people optimize as assumed in simple life‐cycle models, then it may be that governments can convert a non‐linear income tax system to a proportional consumption tax system. I argue this is plausible for some Canadian households. JEL classification: H21, H24     

How progressive are indirect taxes in Russia?

The interplay of a differentiated indirect tax structure and the variation in expenditure patterns across households leads to a possibly unequal distribution of indirect tax liabilities across the population. This paper uses the ninth round of the RLMS survey to assess the distributional consequences of the two major components of the Russian indirect tax system: VAT and excise taxes. According to the Kakwani index, the global indirect system can be considered to be progressive overall. Decomposition into constituent terms shows that this is due not only to a progressive VAT structure, but also to progressive excise taxes. This result is partly explained by the progressivity of the excise tax on car fuel, but is also sensitive to peculiarities in the data about alcohol consumption.     

Taxation Reform and Income Distribution in Australia

This article contains an analysis of the effects of changes in the existing tax mix on the distribution of income in Australia. Shifts from direct to indirect taxes, similar to ‘Option C’ in the Government's Draft White Paper on tax reform, are considered. The general equilibrium effects of the policy changes are analysed using an extended version of the ORANI model of the Australian economy. The Shorrocks I₀ index is then used to identify the sources of inequality in the pre- and post-change distributions. The results are based on data from the ABS Income and Housing Survey for 1981–82.     

Optimal mixed taxation,public goods and the problem of high-skilled emigration

The optimal income tax model under the threat of migration of Simula and Trannoy (J Public Econ 94:163–173, 2010; Soc Choice Welf 39(4):751–782, 2012) is extended to include indirect taxes and public goods. This enables us to conclude that: (1) optimal income tax rates are higher than in the absence of indirect taxation, and may be positive at the top of the skills distribution; (2) indirect taxes, à la Corlett and Hague, may help mitigate the loss of redistributive capacity arising from income taxation caused by migration threats; (3) migration encourages the provision of the public goods preferred by the most productive workers; (4) optimal tax and public goods provision policies against the emigration of the highly-skilled are connected through the conditions for Pareto efficiency; (5) if the number of potential migrators is large, it may be desirable to violate classical tax rules to retain the most able in the home country; (6) when migration costs are exogenously given and utility is weakly separable, Simula and Trannoy’s results are restored; (7) if migration costs are endogenous, the Atkinson and Stiglitz theorem breaks down and the taxation of country-specific goods becomes desirable, even if utility is strongly separable.     

Laffer strikes again: Dynamic scoring of capital taxes

We set up a neoclassical growth model extended by a corporate sector, an investment and finance decision of firms, and a set of taxes on capital income. We provide analytical dynamic scoring of taxes on corporate income, dividends, capital gains, other private capital income, and depreciation allowances and identify the intricate ways through which capital taxation affects tax revenue in general equilibrium. We then calibrate the model for the US and explore quantitatively the revenue effects from capital taxation. We take adjustment dynamics after a tax change explicitly into account and compare with steady-state effects. We find, among other results, a self-financing degree of corporate tax cuts of about 70–90% and a very flat Laffer curve for all capital taxes as well as for tax depreciation allowances. Results are strongest for the tax on capital gains. The model predicts for the US that total tax revenue increases by about 0.3–1.2% after abolishment of the tax.     

关于完善我国环保型税收政策的探讨

环保型税收在环境保护方面具有不可替代的作用。随着我国经济发展环境问题日益凸现,运用税收手段解决环境问题已成为各国通行的做法。鉴于我国目前以流转税为主,经济发展水平不高,所以不能完全照搬西方的做法,但西方发达国家生态税有许多值得我们借鉴的成功经验。我国税制中与生态环境有关的政策,散见于资源税、消费税、企业所得税等几个税种中,有些仍以费的形式存在,有较大的空间。建议应增加现行税种的环境保护内涵,实行专门的环保税种,实行费改税等。     

Growth Effects of Taxation Under Altruism and Low Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution

An increase in the tax rate on capital income may raise the rate of economic growth when the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is low and intergenerational transfers are absent. Since the strength of the bequest motive depends on tax rates, this paper provides conditions under which taxing capital income, and then reducing the labour income tax, is more growth enhancing than the classical policy of zero taxes on capital income, and vice versa.     

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.     

Tax competition and tax structure in open federal economies: Evidence from OECD countries with implications for the European Union

Tax competition arguments suggest that governments that operate in an open economy (such as local governments) should not and will not rely on non-benefit taxes, such as the income tax. Yet we observe reliance on income taxes by local governments in many countries, and such reliance changes over time. Evidence from a panel data set of 13 OECD countries over the period 1975-1984 suggests that competition between levels of government (resulting in a vertical fiscal externality) and between governments at the same level (resulting in a horizontal fiscal externality) provide some economic rationale for these changes. Moreover, the evidence indicates that the vertical and horizontal fiscal externalities interact. These results have some interesting implications for fiscal policy in the European Union, particularly as the EU continues to evolve. One implication for the EU is that enlargement that increases tax base disparities within the EU (and is not accompanied by an EU-level income tax) will tend to lower national income tax rates, although this must be qualified because it also depends on the mobility of the population. A second implication is that fiscal expansion of the EU to include an EU-level income tax may tend to lower the reliance of national governments on income taxes through the vertical externality, but may also tend to equalize tax bases across countries, and so increase reliance on national income taxes through the horizontal externality.     

Externalities and optimal taxation

This paper reexamines the optimal tax design problem (income and commodities) in the presence of externalities. The nature of the second–best, and the choice of the tax instruments, are motivated by the informational structure in the economy. The main results are: (i) environmental levies (linear or nonlinear) differ in formula from Pigouvian taxes by the expressions for the optimal tax on private goods; (ii) externalities do not affect commodity tax formulas (linear and nonlinear) for private goods; (iii) externalities do not affect the income tax structure if commodity taxes are nonlinear and affect it if commodity taxes are linear; and (iv) a general income tax plus strictly Pigouvian taxes are sufficient for efficient taxation if individuals of different types have identical marginal rates of substitution (at any given consumption bundle).     

我国地方税主体税种选择趋势研究

当前,我国地方税体系仍然存在一些不容忽视的问题,比如,现行地方税主体税种的定位不明晰、权限受限制、辅助税源贫乏、收入不确定、税制不规范等等问题,这些问题导致了我国地方税收入增长乏力,地方税体系缺乏与经济增长密切相关的内生增长机制,同时也极大地妨碍了我国地方税体系收入功能和调节功能的发挥。因此,分析当前我国地方税主体税的现状和问题,比较各自利弊,并探讨我国地方税主体税种的选择具有重要的理论意义和现实意义。     

TAXES AND INCOME: A MICROUNIT ANALYSIS

The paper details the methodology used and the results obtained in a recently completed study of the total U.S. tax burden based on microdata survey files. The method of constructing the data base—the 1966 MERGE file—is discussed, and the needed imputations and adjustments to income and taxes to bring the file totals up to national income aggregates are described. An explanation is included of adjusted family income, a unique income concept used in the study to measure and compare tax burdens.
The study involved the evaluation of errective tax burdens under eight different assumptions regarding the incidence of the various major taxes. Those assumptions are detailed and the results of the study are presented. The essential conclusion of the study is that the overall impact of the tax system is virtually proportional for 90 percent of the families in the United States regardless of the incidence assumptions used. However, substantial differences in tax burdens were found among various subgroups of the population.