Evan Lieberman's analysis focuses on the politics of taxation as a way of understanding the development of governments. He compares Brazil and South Africa because of their similarities: They are upper-middle-income countries, and highly unequal--both in terms of income and racial status. Lieberman argues that different constitutional approaches to race (whether or not to grant equal citizenship to blacks) and federalism (whether to have it or not) shaped the organization of politics in the two countries, leading to the development of very different tax systems. The findings are based on extensive field research, large-scale national surveys, macroeconomic data, and various archival and secondary sources.

The current fiscal crisis faced by the American federal government represents the end of a fiscal regime that began with the financing of World War II. In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the history of American taxation and public finance since 1941 in an attempt to understand the political, social and economic forces that have shaped the current regime. Specifically, they examine the historical context of earlier tax regimes and national crises, explore the ways post-1941 governments used taxation to finance war, social security, and economic stability, and analyze the politics of post-1941 tax reform.

Our small book presents areport which has been prepared in the year 2000 for the Taxation and Custorns Union Directorate General of the European Commission, under contract no. T AXUD / 00 / 312. Some of the results form part of the report "Company Taxation in the Internal Market" of the Commission Services released in autumn 2001. We present estimates of effective average tax rates (EATR) in five EU Member States (France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK) plus the USA based on the European Tax Analyzer approach. The European Tax Analyzer is a computer based model firm approach for the computation and comparison of international company tax burdens. It has been developed in co-operation with the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). We would like to thank the ZEW for this co-operation. Furthermore, we gratefully acknowledge the help and advice of Gerd Gutekunst, Rieo A. Hermann and Thorsten Stetter in preparing the report. Special mention must be made of Gerd Gutekunst, who was also responsible for preparing the printed version of this report.

The President and leading Members of Congress have indicated that income tax reform is a major policy objective. Some itemised deductions are visible candidates for "broadening the base" of the individual income tax and cutting back on tax expenditures and primarily consist of deductions for mortgage interest, state, and local taxes, and charitable contributions. The benefits of itemised deductions are concentrated among higher-income individuals, and that is particularly the case for state and local income tax deductions and charitable deductions. Proposals for addressing these provisions fall into two general classes. One approach could include repealing or restricting all itemised deductions. A different approach would consider each type of deduction and tailor a reform to the particular objectives and merits of the deductions, such as a lower ceiling on home mortgage interest deduction and a floor for charitable contributions. This book analyses various proposals to restrict itemised deductions, both across-the-board and individually tailored, using standard economic criteria of economic efficiency, distribution, simplicity, and estimated revenue effects.

Since 1992, new issues have arisen in international taxation - for example, taxation of electronic commerce, novel means of shielding passive income, the World Trade Organization (WTO) debate over the foreign sales corporation and subsequent passage of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the problem of corporate inversions, and alleged earnings stripping by foreign-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the United States. In the meantime, US-based MNEs operating abroad have used a variety of methods to cut the effective US tax rate on repatriated foreign source income to around 2 percent. This revised study analyzes the impact of taxes on industry location and profit shifting using new panel econometric studies. It also discusses and evaluates new paradigms that have been suggested for the international tax system.

The Subcommittee on Oversight of the Committee on Ways and Means has reviewed the implementation of the tax and tax-related revenue provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Affordable Care Act has made broad-based changes to the law with respect to health insurance coverage in the individual and group markets and the law with respect to group health plans as well as laws that apply to Medicare and Medicaid. The ACA also includes a significant number of changes to the Code, including the addition of new Code sections and the amendment of previously existing Code sections. The ACA also includes off-Code revenue provisions that impose certain industry fees. This book provides a summary of health insurance changes made by the ACA and a description of the present law rules with respect to ACA revenue provisions and their implementation.

Many economists and policy-makers believe that the U.S. corporate tax system is in need of reform. There is, however, disagreement over why the corporate tax system needs to be reformed, and what specific policy measures should be included in a reform. To assist policy-makers in designing and evaluating corporate tax proposals, this book reviews the current U.S. corporate tax system; discusses economic factors that may be considered in the corporate tax reform debate; and presents corporate tax reform policy options, including a brief discussion of current corporate tax reform proposals. The current U.S. corporate income tax system generally taxes corporate income at a rate of 35%. This tax is applied to income earned domestically and abroad, although taxes on certain income earned abroad can be deferred indefinitely if that income remains overseas. The U.S. corporate tax system also contains a number of deductions, exemptions, deferrals, and tax credits, often referred to as "tax expenditures". Collectively, these provisions reduce the effective tax rate paid by many U.S. corporations below the 35% statutory rate. In 2011, the sum of all corporate tax expenditures was $158.8 billion.

On 31 December 2012, a variety of temporary tax provisions that were part of the "fiscal cliff" expired. Two days later, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) retroactively extended, and in certain cases modified, many of these provisions. The short period between the expiration of these provisions and the enactment on January 2 of ATRA retroactively meant that from the perspective of all but upper-income taxpayers, income taxes remained unchanged between 2012 and 2013. This book provides an overview of the tax provisions included in the "fiscal cliff deal", including: the permanent extension and modification of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts ("Bush-era tax cuts"); the temporary extension of certain tax provisions originally included as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA); the permanent extension of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) patch; the temporary extension of a variety of other temporary expiring provisions for individuals, businesses, and energy often referred to as "tax extenders"; and the expansion of in-plan conversions of traditional employer-sponsored retirement accounts (like 401(k) plans) to employer-sponsored Roth Accounts.

Attempts at introducing land value taxation in the United Kingdom demonstrate a long and varied history. This book considers this history and how the tax is particularly relevant today. It explores past debates over different forms of the tax, its role in generating government revenue, its practical operation, and its future prospects in Britain and elsewhere.

This book examines a key element of current federal support for manufacturing: tax benefits. More specifically, it identifies and describes current federal tax preferences that offer significant benefits for small and large manufacturing firms. Additionally, technological innovation is a major driving force in long-term economic growth, and research and development (R&D) serves as the lifeblood of innovation. The federal government encourages business R&D in a variety of ways, including a tax credit for a company's increases in spending on qualified research above a base amount. The current status of the tax credit is described, as is its legislative history, the policy issues it raises and legislation in the 112th Congress to modify or extend it.

In the face of the rising cost of higher education, families may consider a variety of ways to finance their children's college expenses. In order to make higher education more affordable, Congress enacted legislation that provides favourable tax treatment for college savings. Among the options families may choose to save for college, they may consider using tax-advantaged qualified tuition programs (QTPs), also known as 529 plans. This book provides an overview of the mechanics of 529 plans and examines the specific tax advantages that these plans offer.

Income tax rates have been at the centre of recent policy debates over taxes. Some policy-makers have argued that raising tax rates, especially on higher income taxpayers, to increase tax revenues is part of the solution for long-term debt reduction. For example, the Senate recently passed the Middle Class Tax Cut, which would allow the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts to expire for taxpayers with income over $250,000. The Senate recently considered legislation, the Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012, that would implement the "Buffett rule" by raising the tax rate on millionaires. Other recent budget and deficit reduction proposals would reduce tax rates. This book examines individual income tax rates since 1945 in relation to these arguments and seeks to establish what, if any, relationship exists between the top tax rates and economic growth, using statistical analysis.

The President and leading Members of Congress have stated that fundamental tax reform is a major policy objective for the 112th Congress. Some Members have said that fundamental tax reform is needed in order to raise a large amount of additional revenue, which is necessary to reduce high forecast budget deficits and the sharply rising national debt. Congressional interest has been expressed in both a major overhaul of the U.S. tax system and the feasibility of levying a consumption tax. Some proponents of reform argue that the tax base should be broadened by reducing or eliminating many tax expenditures. An alternative to increasing tax revenues is cutting spending. Thus, Members are faced with considering the best mix of tax increases and spending cuts in order to reduce deficits and slow the growth of the national debt. This book examines major fiscal reform proposals for tax reform with a focus on business tax reform and the extension of the "Bust Tax Cuts".

The federal government spends roughly $1 trillion on health care programs each year, so it is easy to imagine that policies that promote a healthier population could have a significant impact on the federal budget. Such policies might include initiatives that discourage smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, that promote better eating habits and physical activity to reduce obesity, or that encourage compliance with medical and dietary regimens for chronic conditions such as diabetes. In this book, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyses a policy involving smoking, a hypothetical increase of 50 cents per pack in the federal excise tax on cigarettes and small cigars, to demonstrate the complex links between policies that aim to improve health and effects on the federal budget. The emphasis is on estimating the budgetary effects that would result from improvements in the health of the population stemming from the policy.

Durch die Schaffung gemeinsamer Wirtschaftsraume kommt es sowohl auf unternehmerischer als auch auf persoenlicher Ebene zu internationalen wirtschaftlichen Verflechtungen. Vermoegen wird in verschiedenen Formen in unterschiedlichen Landern investiert, Wohnsitze und Ansassigkeiten werden verlagert. Es kommt zu grenzuberschreitenden Vermoegensbesitzverhaltnissen. Dadurch entstehen in mehreren Landern gleichzeitig steuerliche Anknupfungsmerkmale, die eine Erbschaft- bzw. Schenkungsteuer ausloesen koennen. Nationale deutsche Regelungen reichen in der Regel nicht aus, um eine drohende Doppelbesteuerung ganzlich aufzuheben. Anders als im Bereich der Ertragsteuern ist das Netz der Doppelbesteuerungsabkommen im Bereich der Erbschaft- bzw. Schenkungsteuern in Deutschland und international nicht stark ausgepragt. Dadurch gibt es selbst innerhalb der EU ein hohes Mass an Doppelbesteuerungsrisiken. Die Relevanz und steuerliche Brisanz dieser Thematik werden oft erst erkannt, wenn tatsachlich eine Doppelbesteuerung eintritt. Die Untersuchung zeigt auf, auf welcher Ebene von der Entstehung der Steuer bis zur Ermittlung der finalen Steuerschuld angesetzt werden kann, um im Verhaltnis von Deutschland zu Frankreich, zu Grossbritannien und zu den Niederlanden das Risiko der Doppelbesteuerung zu minimieren.

Taxing America provides the first historical study of Wilbur Daigh Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. The work of Mills, an extremely influential politician between 1945 and 1975, offers considerable insights into the evolution of income taxation, Social Security and Medicare--three policies at the center of today's political debates. Unlike the existing historical scholarship, Zelizer's book focuses on the role of Congress, rather than the executive branch, in the evolution of the welfare state during this seminal period.

Concern has increased over the size and sustainability of the United States' recent budget deficits and the country's long-run budget outlook. This concern has brought the issues of the government's revenue needs and fundamental tax reform to the forefront of congressional debates. Congress may choose to address these issues by reforming the set of tax benefits for homeowners. Reducing, modifying, or eliminating all or some of the current tax benefits for homeowners could raise a substantial amount of revenue, while simultaneously simplifying the tax code, increasing equity among taxpayers, and promoting economic efficiency. This book focuses on the mortgage interest deduction, the deduction for state and local property taxes and the residential energy tax credit.

This volume summarizes the substantial literature on consumption tax policy and the taxation of capital, presents the main theoretical and empirical results of the technical literature on taxation, and extends that literature in a variety of directions with new results. Chapters are self-contained as far as possible, and each uses a variety of models rather than just one to study the issue at hand.

Volume 25 features eight articles. In the lead article, Savannah Guo, Sabrina Chi, and Kirsten Cook examine short selling as one external determinant of corporate tax avoidance and find that short interest is negatively associated with subsequent tax-avoidance levels and this effect is incremental to other factors identified by prior research. Next, Mark Bauman and Cathalene Rogers Bowler examine the effect of FIN48 on earnings management activity, by focusing on changes in the deferred tax asset valuation allowance. In the third article, Anthony Billings, Cheol Lee, and Jaegul Lee study whether the lowering of dividend taxes as part of the U.S. Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 resulted in an increase in dividend payouts at the expense of R&D spending. The fourth article by Brian Dowis and Ted Englebrecht examines reasonable compensation in closely-held corporations and the impact of gender, political affiliation, and family makeup on decisions made in the U.S. Tax Court. Then, a practice-related study by Sonja Pippin, Jeffrey Wong, and Richard Mason reports on a survey of Americans living abroad on the impact of tax rules explicitly designed for these individuals. They find that Americans living abroad experience the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act as negatively impacting their lives. The next three articles in this volume have an international focus. Zakir Akhand investigates the effects of the corporate sector on the effectiveness of selected tax compliance instruments in the context of large Bangladesh corporate taxpayers. K-Rine Chong and Murugesh Arunachalam examine the determinants of enforced tax compliance behaviour of Malaysian citizens with trust in the tax agency assumed to be a mediating variable. Lastly, Bitzenis and Vasileios investigate the effect of the economic downturn in Greece on the factors determining the level of tax morale through primary data from a European Union funded research project on the Greek shadow economy.

Why were Federalists at the 1787 Philadelphia convention--ostensibly called to revise the Articles of Confederation--so intent on scrapping the old system and drawing up a completely new frame of government?

In "Redeeming the Republic," Roger Brown focuses on state public-policy issues to show how recurrent outbreaks of popular resistance to tax crackdowns forced state governments to retreat from taxation, propelling elites into support for the constitutional revolution of 1787. The Constitution, Brown contends, resulted from upper-class dismay over the state governments' inability to tax effectively for state and federal purposes. The Framers concluded that, without a rebuilt, energized central government, the confederation would experience continued monetary and fiscal turmoil until republicanism itself became endangered.

A fresh and searching study of the hard questions that divided Americans in these critical years and still do today, "Redeeming the Republic" shows how local failures led to federalist resolve and ultimately to a totally new frame of central government.

This volume collects articles from the Symposium series of the National Tax Journal from 1993 to 1998. Leading economists and other scholars discuss and debate current tax policy issues in nontechnical language and illustrate how the principles of tax analysis can be applied to real-world issues. Among the topics addressed are the practical feasibility of consumption tax alternatives to the current income tax, the rationale and implications of devolution of fiscal responsibilities to state and local governments, the effect of tax policy on economic growth, and the value of local tax incentives designed to attract and retain business.

All legally enforceable rights cost money. A practical, commonsense notion? Yes, but one ignored by almost everyone, from libertarian ideologues to Supreme Court justices to human rights advocates. The simple insight that rights are expensive reminds us that freedom is not violated by a government that taxes and spends, but requires it - and requires a citizenry vigilant about how money is allocated. Laying bare the folly of some of our most cherished myths about rights, this groundbreaking tract will permanently change the terms of our most critical and contentious political debates.

The United States tax system includes a tax on assets held at death, the estate tax and the gift tax. Among key components of the estate and gift tax are the definition of its taxable base, tax rate and exemption level. A related argument is that the tax reduces the concentration of wealth and its perceived adverse consequences for society. Critics of the estate and gift tax make two major arguments: the estate and gift tax discourages savings and investments, and the tax imposes an undue burden on closely held family businesses. Critics also suggest that the estate and gift tax is flawed as a method of introducing progressivity because there are many methods of avoiding the tax, methods that are more available to very wealthy families. This book provides an explanation of how the tax operates, analyses the arguments for and against the tax and discusses alternative policy options.

This work examines tax policies and tax systems as they arise from democratic choices, set against the background of a market economy. Professors Hettich and Winer find that democratic institutions yield complex tax systems with features that follow a varied but predictable pattern. In developing their analysis, the authors use formal modelling of voting behavior, emphasizing recent advances in the theory of probabilistic voting. This book differs from the available tax literature by relating fiscal choices directly to voting and by examining tax systems in democratic countries from a variety of perspectives. While the authors primarily focus on explaining observed features of tax systems, they also devote considerable space to the discussion of the welfare and efficiency effects of taxation in the presence of collective choice, and to a review of other models and of the related literature. In addition, they use computational general equilibrium analysis and statistical research on national and state governments in the US and Canada to link theory to empirical data.