Responding to a deepening economic crisis, serious structural problems with the tax system, a long and deep-seated opposition to even modest tax increases, and a weak tax administration, the Guatemalan government introduced a comprehensive tax reform program in 1992. In this concise volume, Roy Bahl, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Sally Wallace review the data that supported the creation of the reform program and evaluate the first round of revenues and tax-burden effects.Focusing their theoretical and empirical analysis on revenue yield impacts, on effects of relative prices and relative tax treatment of different types of companies, and on the distribution of tax burdens by income class, the authors factor in individual and company income taxes, value-added tax, taxes on international trade, and property tax. In each case, they describe the existing tax system and evaluate it against the traditional norms; in addition, they analyze alternative structural reforms within the Guatemalan context.Comprehensive tax reforms in less developed countries are infrequent, and the Guatemalan experience provides a fascinating case study of how modern analytic techniques can be used by policymakers to formulate tax structure changes. The authors also draw contrasts with experiences in other countries and revisit many of the principles that have been laid down for guiding tax reforms in developing nations.

In the winter of 1996, Steve Forbes--publisher, heir, and presidential candidate--captured the American imagination with his proposal for a flat tax. But while Mr. Forbes claimed that such a tax would level the economic playing field by eliminating countless loopholes and miles of red tape, his actual proposal betrayed such claims to fairness by overtaxing workers and undertaxing financial capital.

In the face of recent proposals for dramatic and far-reaching tax reform, Taxing America takes a critical look at the way the federal government collects its revenue and exposes the bias at the heart of a system which claims to be objective and fair. Contrary to traditional tax scholarship, these writers argue that an awareness of disability discrimination, economic exploitation, heterosexism, sexism and racism is crucial to any analysis of tax policy.

Gathering together essays whose topics range from federal housing policy to environmental clean-up costs to tax treaty policy making, Karen B. Brown and Mary Louise Fellows present a philosophy that is as simple as it is radical: economic arrangements contribute significantly to the creation of social hierarchies and the perpetuation of discrimination. Given this reality, Brown and Fellows maintain that the goal of the federal tax law should be social justice and the disruption of discriminatory and exploitative practices.

Taxation has been seen as the domain of charisma-free accountants, lawyers and number crunchers - an unlikely place to encounter big societal questions about democracy, equity or good governance. Yet it is exactly these issues that pervade conversations about taxation among policymakers, tax collectors, civil society activists, journalists and foreign aid donors in Africa today. Tax has become viewed as central to African development. Written by leading international experts, Taxing Africa offers a cutting-edge analysis on all aspects of the continent's tax regime, displaying the crucial role such arrangements have on attempts to create social justice and push economic advancement. From tax evasion by multinational corporations and African elites to how ordinary people navigate complex webs of 'informal' local taxation, the book examines the potential for reform, and how space might be created for enabling locally-led strategies. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

An engaging and enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British ignited a rebellion in Sierra Leone by imposing a tax on huts-and, in repressing it, ended up burning the very huts they intended to tax. Sometimes they succeed astonishingly, as when, in eighteenth-century Britain, a cut in the tax on tea massively increased revenue. In this entertaining book, two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, provide a fascinating and informative tour through these and many other episodes in tax history, both preposterous and dramatic-from the plundering described by Herodotus and an Incan tax payable in lice to the (misremembered) Boston Tea Party and the scandals of the Panama Papers. Along the way, readers meet a colorful cast of tax rascals, and even a few tax heroes. While it is hard to fathom the inspiration behind such taxes as one on ships that tended to make them sink, Keen and Slemrod show that yesterday's tax systems have more in common with ours than we may think. Georgian England's window tax now seems quaint, but was an ingenious way of judging wealth unobtrusively. And Tsar Peter the Great's tax on beards aimed to induce the nobility to shave, much like today's carbon taxes aim to slow global warming. Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue is a surprising and one-of-a-kind account of how history illuminates the perennial challenges and timeless principles of taxation-and how the past holds clues to solving the tax problems of today.

This book has been written while the author was a member of the long-term research program "Internationalization of the Economy" (Sonderforschungsbereich 178) at the University of Konstanz. Its subject, the harmonization of commodity taxes in the European Community's internal market, has been intensely - and controversially - debated among both economists and legal scholars. The interdisciplinary contacts in the research program have contributed to the shape of the present study, even though the analysis is confined to the economic aspects involved. lowe sincere thanks to my academic teacher, Professor Bernd Genser, who con- stantly supported this work with both general advice and detailed comments and who created within his research unit a stimulating and cooperative environment. Professor Albert Schweinberger shared some of his expertise on trade issues with me and made a number of valuable suggestions. I am also grateful to Professor Hans- Jurgen Vosgerau for his successful efforts to create favorable working conditions, and for support on several occasions. I have further benefitted from discussions with both members and non-members of the research program in Konstanz. Helpful comments and suggestions were re- ceived from Max Albert, Professor John Chipman, Karl-Josef Koch, Professor Wil- helm Kohler, Jurgen Meckl, Gunther Schulze, Professor John Whalley, and Professor Wolfgang Wiegard. Stefan Menner introduced to me the legal perspective on tax har- monization and helped me to overcome at least some of the barriers of specialization.

Should the rich bear the brunt of the tax burden, or should it be shared proportionately among the population? This issue has dominated recent public debates over the tax system, and is a controversial issue among economists. This book contains nine essays by economists on tax progressivity--how the tax burden is borne across income classes--and how the tax system affects the inequality of income. It presents the basic facts about how tax progressivity in the U.S. has changed in the 1980s, and assesses its role in exacerbating or offsetting the overall trend toward increased income inequality.

Restoring America's Fiscal Constitution estimates the potential impact of new fiscal rules on the U.S. economy over the next two decades. The new rules would require a cyclically balanced budget and an expenditure limit. The study shows that over the forecast period, the budget could be balanced and the total debt-to-GDP ratio reduced to the 60 percent tolerance level under this scheme, but this fiscal consolidation can only be achieved using a combination of fiscal reforms that go far beyond what has been proposed by Congress and the President. The first chapter explores the theoretical foundations of a fiscal constitution. The orthodox public finance view of public debt is contrasted with a public choice perspective. This is followed by chapters surveying the new fiscal rules enacted in other countries to address debt issues. Several chapters provide a historical perspective on U.S. debt, including a critical appraisal of our fiscal rules. New laws are proposed to address the debt crisis, and a dynamic simulation model is used to estimate the impact of the proposed laws on the U.S. economy. The final section provides a roadmap for enacting the proposed constitutional and statutory fiscal rules.

Redistribution is one of the most fundamental issues in welfare economics. In connection with this term the following questions directly arise: What is a good redistribution ? Which (governmental) instruments should be used to attain it ? Is there a "best instrument" if several of them are available? Or, to express it more generally, which allocations are at all attainable if special instruments are at hand ? All these questions are formulated in an extremely vague way. It will be the task of the following work to make these questions precise and to give answers - as far as possible. It is a matter of course that these answers will not be exhaustive because redistribution is too wide a field. I have used the word "instrument" intentionally. In doing so, Iwanted to indicate that it is not necessary to restrict oneself to income - or commodity taxes as is common place in public finance when aiming at redistribution.

Not everyone complies with the United States Internal Revenue Code. Many individuals and organizations fail to file timely tax returns, assess their tax liability correctly, or pay taxes when due. To improve compliance, tax administrators must choose among alternative strategies, such as increasing evaders' risks of punishment, motivating social norms, and making compliance easier. Concerned with these choices, the IRS asked the National Academy to assess previous research on the determinants of taxpayer compliance and to highlight the most promising areas for future research. The Academy's panel authored the two-volume Taxpayer Compliance. Volume 2 is a collection of eight background papers commissioned by the panel. They present novel theories and research ideas proposed by scholars from many social sciences to improve the understanding of taxpayer compliance. The varied topics addressed include: the political and institutional context of the American tax system; a typology of noncompliance; a study of the way the visibility of noncompliance affects patterns of taxpaying in the house-painting profession; and theories of ways tax practitioners may affect their clients' compliance. These papers not only illustrate for a general audience what various disciplines can add to knowledge but also suggest for specialized researchers the opportunities that taxpayer compliance offers for extending and testing the theories of their disciplines. Taxpayer Compliance will be a valuable reference for tax practitioners and others concerned with noncompliance problems, and for scholars and students of law and sociology, political science, social psychology, and economics.

Not everyone complies with the United States Internal Revenue Code. Many individuals and organizations fail to file timely tax returns, assess their tax liability correctly, or pay taxes when due. To improve compliance, tax administrators must choose among alternative strategies, such as increasing evaders' risks of punishment, motivating social norms, and making compliance easier. Concerned with these choices, the IRS asked the National Academy to assess previous research on the determinants of taxpayer compliance and to highlight the most promising areas for future research. The Academy's panel authored the two-volume Taxpayer Compliance. Volume I presents the panel's report, which critically reviews previous research on the subject, reaches conclusions about the findings, and recommends future research programs to fill gaps in knowledge. The report also recommends ways to maintain and develop the intellectual, financial, and data resources devoted to taxpayer compliance research. Volume I presents the panel's report, which critically reviews previous research on the subject, reaches conclusions about the findings and recommends future research programs to fill gaps in knowledge. The report also recommends ways to maintain and develop the intellectual, financial, and data resources devoted to taxpayer compliance research. Taxpayer Compliance will be a valuable reference for tax practitioners and others concerned with noncompliance problems, and for scholars and students of law and sociology, political science, social psychology, and economics.

This book aims to include the effects of a progressive personal tax into the deterministic dynamic theory of the firm. To this end the author investigates the impact of a progressive personal tax on the optimal dividend, financing and investment policy of a shareholder-controlled, value-maximising firm. More specifically, the principal aim is the justification of the thesis that during each stage of their evolution, firms will be controlled by investors in different tax brackets. With this aim in mind, the author develops a dynamic equilibrium and portfolio theory under certainty, which considers: - the market value of an arbitrary firm such that no excess demand for or supply of shares exists, - the portfolio selection of differently taxed investors, - the succession of differently taxed investors, who possess the shares of any value-maximizing firm, in the course of time, - the optimal resulting policy string and corresponding evolution of a firm in the course of time.

The most disturbing aspects of the growth of underground economies are the interrelated problems of unreported and unrecorded income. A large and growing underground economy can thwart fiscal efforts to establish budget balance and may significantly undermine the veracity of a nation's economic information system. The notion that economic information is itself endogenous raises the possibility that at least part of the economic malaise observed in most Western nations during the past two decades is essentially the result of a statistical illusion. The essays in this 1989 volume examine the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of the underground economies that have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Empirical chapters examine the conceptual problems of how to measure a phenomenon that attempts to defy detection. Alternative measurement procedures are evaluated. Specific studies are included for the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Canada, France, the Soviet Union and Hungary.

You are paying much more in tax than you think you are What Everyone Needs to Know About Tax takes an entertaining and informative look at the UK tax system in all its glory to show you just how much you pay, how the money is collected and how it affects ordinary people every day. Giving context to recent controversies including the Panama Papers, tax avoidance by multinationals, Brexit and more, this book provides a straightforward explanation of tax and the policy behind it for non-specialists no accounting or legal knowledge is required. The system's underlying logic is illustrated through three 'golden rules' that explain many of the UK tax regime's oddities, and the discussion focuses on the way things are rather than utopian ideas about how they might be. Case studies show how the VAT on a plumber's bill all adds up; why fraudsters made a movie to throw HMRC off their scent; how a wealthy couple can pay so little tax on a six-figure income; and the way tracing the money you paid for your iPad sheds light why the EU is demanding Apple pay billions extra in tax. Ever the political battlefield, tax is too important for you to rely on media hype for information. It affects everyone, every day, and it pays for voters and taxpayers to know more. This book leaves aside technical detail and the arcana of the tax code to give you a real-world look at how tax works. * Learn about the many ways that the tax system separates us from our money * Discover how Brexit could change the way we pay taxes * Understand how changing tax policy affects people's everyday lives * See through the rhetoric surrounding controversies in the media With tax, we have to admit that there are no easy answers. No one enjoys paying them, but without them, the Government would shut down. Seeing through politicians' cant and superficial press coverage is critical for your ability to make the decisions that benefit you; What Everyone Needs to Know About Tax gives you the background and foundational knowledge you need to be a well-informed taxpayer.

The core concern of this book is the potential use of taxation and related measures to foster climate-helpful, large-scale change within East Asia. The contributing authors examine key cases such as how Greater China, for instance, confronts severe environmental problems which are a direct product of several decades of remarkable economic growth. The detailed analysis in this book identifies a range of green taxation guidelines for East Asia as it seeks to drive down striking levels of environmental degradation - and address the climate change challenge. Addressing an important need in the public policy debate, this book will appeal to academics, students, government policy makers, regulators and practitioners in environmental law, taxation law and policy, as well as, comparative environmental law and comparative taxation law and policy. Public policy commentators and journalists with an interest in the above areas will also find this book worthwhile and informative. Contributors include: A. Cockfield, M. Derlen, S. Griffiths, W. Gumley, J. Lindholm, J. Milne, S. Phua, N. Stoianoff, J. Vanderwolk, Y. Xu

This rigorous yet lucid book is concerned with the analysis of tax design and the problems involved in choosing a tax and transfer structure. John Creedy discusses fundamental problems which are then illustrated using relatively simple models. Following a comprehensive introduction, part II is concerned with the link between economic theory and tax policy, and considers why it is so difficult to design a tax and transfer structure that receives widespread support. Part III explores particular types of tax and transfer structure, and alternative approaches to the choice of tax rates within these systems. Part IV examines tax revenue and its variations, including the concepts of tax revenue elasticity and the elasticity of taxable income, whilst part V offers an examination of two wide-ranging reviews of tax structures. The author argues that economists can make a valuable contribution to rational policy debate by clarifying the nature of the interdependencies and relationships involved. This comprehensive book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in public finance, public economics and taxation, as well as economists in governmental departments and international organizations. Contents: Part I: Introduction 1. Introduction and Outline Part II: Theory and Policy 2. Tax and Transfer Tensions 3. Income Tax Structure: Theory and Policy Part III: Tax Functions and Choices 4. The Linear Tax Function 5. Choosing a Linear Income Tax Rate 6. A Loglinear Tax Function 7. A Tax-Free Threshold 8. In-Work Payment With Hours Threshold 9. Welfare-Improving Tax Reforms 10. Policy Evaluations and Value Judgements Part IV: Tax Revenue 11. Fiscal Drag and Tax Revenue Elasticities 12. The Elasticity of Taxable Income 13. Changes in Income Tax Revenue 14. Diagrammatic Treatment of Tax Revenue Part V: Tax Reviews 16. The IFS and Tax by Design

The first edition of Adams' study of the history of taxation had heads turning across the nation, with excited reviews appearing in dozens of national newspapers and magazines in addition to local papers in almost every state. Adams makes a convincing case for taxes being the cause of many of the landmark events in civilization's history. Starting in ancient Egypt, Adams surveys how governments established and collected their taxes, and how these procedures led to the fall of Rome, the rise of Islam and the Arabs' successful conquests, the signing of the Magna Carta, the American Revolution and Civil War, and many other momentous events. Adams also offers suggestions for governments wishing to avoid the fate of previous nations destroyed by ignorant tax policies, something every American will no doubt read with much interest.

Modelling Corporation Tax Revenue examines the revenue growth properties of corporate income taxes and how firms respond to changes in corporation tax. It provides a companion volume to the authors' Modelling Tax Revenue Growth, which explores the revenue growth and behavioural response properties of income and consumption taxes.

This monograph is principally the work of the late Martin Norr. He completed a draft of the entire monograph but had not yet revised it when he died in late 1972. At that time, the integration of corporate and shareholder taxation was just beginning to become of widespread interest in the United States. With the increasing interest thereafter, the International Tax Program began to revise his manuscript, making as few changes as possible in the original draft. We had the benefit of criticism and analysis from Professor Richard M. Bird of the University of Toronto, now Director of the Institute of Policy Analysis there. In addition, Mr. Mitsuo Sato of the Ministry of Finance in Japan gave freely of his time in carefully suggesting changes throughout the manuscript. The present version of Chapter 3 owes a great deal to his additions and suggestions. Thanks are also due to Professor Hugh J. Ault of Boston College Law School for the Appendix, containing his description of the German integration system that became effective in 1977, which was first published in Law & Policy in International Business. Mr. Norr's interest in the subject of corporate and shareholder taxation developed while he was writing the International Tax Program's World Tax Series volume Taxation in France, published in 1966. The integration of French taxes on corporations and shareholders took place just after that volume was finished, but had been under discussion in France for some time before then.

Die gegenwartige Einkommensbesteuerung wird vielfach mit dem Schlagwort "Steuerchaos" charakterisiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund drangt sich die Notwendigkeit einer Neuorientierung auf.
In diesem Band werden, ausgehend von den Problemen der Einkommensbesteuerung, konsumorientierte Steuersysteme hinsichtlich verschiedener Aspekte und Problemfelder thematisiert. Die einzelnen Beitrage geben zum einen den Stand der wissenschaftlichen Forschung wieder und zeigen zum anderen Ansatzpunkte fur aktuelle Steuerreformdiskussionen in Deutschland und Osterreich auf."

Lehrbuch der finanzwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der Stabilisierungspolitik. Das Werk ist vor allem fur Studierende der Betriebs- und Volkswirtschaftslehre geschrieben worden. Man mochte sich freilich wunschen, dass es auch z.B. Politiker durcharbeiten wurden. Eben nur ein Wunsch "

Corporate income taxation in the Netherlands Antilles is embodied in a law of a total of 57 articles, i.e. Articles" 1 to 54 and Articles 8A, 9A and 14A. The law is divided into nine chapters. Chapter I (Articles 1 to 16) contains the substantive portion of the law and Chapters II to IX are the procedural articles, the penal sanctions, transistory and effectivity provisions. Articles 8A, 9A, 14 and 14A are the Articles which substantially regulate the taxation of off-shore or non-resident companies. It should be noted however, that all the other articles of the law together with additional legislation, e.g. Guaranty Law of 1969, (exept when specifically excluded) are likewise applicable to off-shore com panies. Thus, rules on allowable and allocable deductions, loss carry forward, assessment and collection are identical for both off-shore and on-shore companies. It is a tribute to the legislators who drafted and enacted the present law and the officials who execute it that two totally divergent taxation regimes work in acceptable harmony. History and Background Prior to the introduction of the law on corporate income taxation in 1940, there existed one law on personal income and on profits of entities, regulated in the Income Tax law of 1906."