Inflation distorts income taxes in many ways, but primarily by redistributing the tax burden among taxpayers. This study analyses in detail the effects of inflation on income tax systems in many countries. It examines some of the more important distortions of income tax systems caused by inflation and discusses possible corrective measures, ranging from automatic adjustments (indexation) to ad hoc responses. These corrective measures are compared with the actual experiences of many countries that have pursued policies aimed at neutralizing the effects of inflation. By treating the problem of inflation and income taxes in a comprehensive manner and from an international perspective, this book fills an important gap in the income tax literature and will prove valuable to professional economists, policy makers concerned with tax problems, tax lawyers and accountants.

Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, their exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America provides its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, shortchanging maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America's Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities--like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways that is sure to inform future decisions and policies for U.S. infrastructure.

The increasing international mobility of capital, firms and consumers has begun to constrain tax policies in most OECD countries, playing a major role in reforming national tax systems. Haufler uses the theory of international taxation to consider the fundamental forces underlying this process, covering both factor and commodity taxes, as well as their interaction. Topics include a variety of different international tax avoidance strategies - capital flight, profit shifting in multinational firms, and cross-border shopping by consumers. Situations in which tax competition creates conflicting interests between countries are given particular consideration. Haufler addresses the complex issue of coordination in different areas of tax policy, with special emphasis on regional tax harmonization in the European Union. Also included is a detailed introduction to recent theoretical literature.

In 1914, taxation was about 10 per cent of GNP; by 1979, taxes had risen to almost half of the total national income, and contributed to the rise of Thatcher. Martin Daunton continues the story begun in Trusting Leviathan, offering an analysis of the politics of acceptance of huge tax rises after the First World War and asks why it did not provoke the same levels of discontent in Britain as it did on the continent. He further questions why acceptance gave way to hostility at the end of this period. Daunton views taxes as the central driving force for equity or efficiency. As such he provides a detailed discussion of their potential in providing revenue for the state, and their use in shaping the social structure and influencing economic growth. Just Taxes places taxation in its proper place, at the centre of modern British history.

Professor Martin Daunton's major study of the politics of taxation in the 'long' nineteenth century examines the complex financial relationship between the state and its citizens. In 1799, taxes stood at 20 per cent of national income; by the outbreak of the First World War, they had fallen to less than half of their previous level. The process of fiscal containment resulted in a high level of trust in the financial rectitude of the government and in the equity of the tax system, contributing to the political legitimacy of the British state in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result, the state was able to fund the massive enterprises of war and welfare in the twentieth century. Combining research with a comprehensive survey of existing knowledge, this lucid and wide-ranging book represents a major contribution to our understanding of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Property tax revolts have occurred both in the United States and elsewhere. This book examines the causes and consequences of such revolts with a special focus on the California experience with Proposition 13. The work examines the consequences of property tax limitations for public finance with a detailed analysis of the tax system put into place in California. Theoretical approaches and evidence from a comprehensive empirical study are used to highlight the equity and efficiency of property tax systems. Since property taxes are the primary source of revenue for local governments, the book compares and contrasts the experiences of several states with regard to the evolution of local government following property tax limitations. Finally, the book considers alternatives for reform and lessons to avoid future tax conflicts of this kind.

While this volume presents the important writings of James M. Buchanan on taxation and debt, Geoffrey Brennan makes it clear in the foreword that the thrust of Buchanan's work in this area has been to integrate theories of taxation and debt with public-expenditure theory. Therefore, the editors strongly urge that the present volume on taxation and debt be read in tandem with the subsequent Volume 15, 'Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory'. Included in this present volume are thirty-five important writings by Buchanan on taxation and debt. These are grouped into the following major subject categories: taxation, politics, and public choice; earmarking and incidence in democratic process; analytical and ethical foundations of tax limits; the fiscal constitution; confessions of a burden monger; Ricardian equivalence; the constitution of a debt-free polity. As Geoffrey Brennan points out in the foreword to this volume, "Although James Buchanan's interests are wide-ranging, the core of his professional reputation as an economist and the origin of much of his broader thinking lie in public economics -- in engagement with the questions of what governments do and how governments should properly finance what they do." This volume together with its partner subsequent volume present clear and accessible insights into the rich economic work for which Buchanan is best known.

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.

Should government's power to tax be limited? The events of the late 1970s in the wake of California's Proposition 13 brought this question very sharply into popular focus. Whether the power to tax should be restricted, and if so how, are issues of immediate policy significance. Providing a serious analysis of these issues, the authors of this 1980 book offer an approach to the understanding and evaluation of the fiscal system, one that yields profound implications. The central question becomes: how much 'power to tax' would the citizen voluntarily grant to government as a party to some initial social contract devising a fiscal constitution? Those in office are assumed to exploit the power assigned to them to the maximum possible extent: government is modelled as 'revenue-maximizing Leviathan'. Armed with such a model, the authors proceed to trace out the restrictions on the power to tax that might be expected to emerge from the citizen's constitutional deliberations.

Anne Schafer presents proposals for the reform of the definition of a company's residence, the definition of the permanent establishment, the possibilities of profit allocation and the methods to avoid international double taxation. In addition, the interrelations between these issues are taken into account. Amongst others, the author argues for an extension of the definition of a permanent establishment for employees working permanently abroad and for an implementation of formula apportionment in the European Union.

This is a political history of Labour's use of the tax system from 1906 to 1979: an epilogue brings the story up to the present, surveying New Labour's tax policies and dilemmas. Richard Whiting's broad-ranging, lucid and readable study examines how Labour used tax to further its political aims of funding welfare, managing the economy, promoting fairness and achieving greater equality. Whiting also shows the limits of Labour's ability to achieve a more equal society in this way, assesses the ability and standing of key figures in the Labour movement, and delineates the problems caused by the political role of the trade unions. This study provides an original perspective on Labour's history, and is a valuable contribution to understanding both the tax structure and the politics of twentieth-century Britain more generally.

The U.S. corporate income tax is based on worldwide economic activity. If all of a corporation's economic activity is in the United States, then tax administration and compliance is, relatively, straight-forward. Many corporations, however, operate in several jurisdictions, which creates complications for tax administration and compliance. Further, corporations may actively choose where and how to organise to reduce their U.S. and worldwide tax liabilities. Some of these strategies have been referred to as expatriation, inversions, and mergers. This book examines them in light of recent expansion of their use and growing congressional interest. This book also focuses on the global issues relating to tax rate differentials between the United States and other countries. It provides tax rate comparisons; discusses policy implications, including the effect of a corporate rate cut on revenue, output, and national welfare; and discusses the outlook for and consequences of a revenue neutral corporate tax reform.

Tax scholars traditionally emphasize economics and assume that all tax systems can be evaluated in more or less the same way. By applying the insights of anthropology, sociology, and other social sciences, Michael A. Livingston demonstrates that tax systems frequently pursue different values and that the convergence of tax systems is frequently overstated. In Tax and Culture, he applies these insights to specific countries, such as China and India, and specific tax issues, including progressivity, tax avoidance, and the emerging area of environmental taxation. Livingston concludes that the concept of a global tax culture is, in many cases, merely a reflection of Western hegemony, and is unlikely to survive the changes implicit in the rise of non-Western nations and cultures.

This book is the resuh of a research project commissioned by the "IBC BAK In- ternational Benchmark Club"(R), an initiative by BAK Basel Economics, and car- ried out by Zentrum fiir Europaische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research), Mannheim. It contributes to the IBC's effort to evaluate and compare economic performance and location factors across European regions. The report provides the background to the headline figures presented at the International Benchmark Forum on June 11* and 12*, 2003, in Basel, as well as a large number of additional results. This work has benefited from the help of many institutions and individuals. Above all, we are indebted to the sponsors for financing the project in times of limited fiscal resources. We also would like to thank the members of the Steering Committee of the IBC module on taxation for their enduring support. Special thanks go to Kurt Diitschler of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration who was al- ways ready to provide information on detailed aspects of the Swiss tax system. We are grateful to Christoph Koellreuter and Martin Eichler from BAK Basel for or- ganising and promoting research on taxation inside the IBC. Our colleagues Christina Elschner and Gerd Gutekunst, ZEW, gave many detailed and very help- ful comments. Finally, we owe thanks to Ulrike Nicolaus and Monika Jackmann who provided able help in preparing the final draft of this report. Of course, all remaining errors are our sole responsibility.

The mainstay of federal business taxation, the US corporate income tax, is riddled with distortions and inequities. As a means of taxing the richest Americans ? a popular goal ? the corporate income tax is a hopeless failure. Many companies pay no corporate tax, and among those that do the burden is highly uneven. Meanwhile, the richest Americans command income from numerous sources besides corporate dividends. The distortions and inequities are amazing. Under pressure from business lobbies, Congress legislates deductions and exemptions that twist the corporate tax base far from any plausible financial definition; then Congress enacts ?targeted? tax credits to carry out ersatz industrial policies. Faced with a tax terrain of mountains and ravines, corporations employ armies of lawyers and accountants to devise avoidance strategies. This book proposes to replace the corporate income tax with a tax that has a much broader base at a much lower rate. Two alternatives are explored: the National Retail Sales Tax (NRST) and the Corporate Activity Tax (CAT). To address the issue of regressivity, both alternatives are coupled with measures to preserve the real spending power of households at the lowest income levels.

Das europarechtszentrierte Werk analysiert die grenzuberschreitende Sitzverlegung von Gesellschaften anhand der Dogmatik der Niederlassungsfreiheit, ohne dabei nationale Gesichtspunkte auszublenden. Der Autor analysiert eingehend die gesamte EuGH-Rechtsprechung von Daily Mail bis zu den neusten Urteilen Kornhaas und Polbud. Das Ergebnis zeigt eine bei derzeitigem Stand der Binnenmarktharmonisierung konsistente Linie, die im Hinblick auf die Auslegung der Niederlassungsfreiheit aber auch kritikabel ist. Der Autor schliesst das Werk mit einem eigenen rechtfertigungsbasierten System der "Mobilitatsfreiheit" ab. Dabei zeigt er eine an den aufgezeigten Problemfeldern orientierte, dogmatisch stringente, grundfreiheitskonvergente und mobilitatsbezogene Loesungsmoeglichkeit auf.

Taxes on the highly skilled are an important cost factor for companies competing internationally for talent. This book provides an international comparison of the effective level of taxes and social security charges imposed on highly qualified employees. Based on a newly developed inter-temporal simulation model, the attractiveness of 7 EU member states, 12 Swiss cantons, and the United States is assessed. Several compensation packages including old-age provision, fringe benefits, and long-term incentives as well as various income levels and family situations are considered in the analysis. The book also contains a comprehensive survey of social security and tax systems in the countries studied.

This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO). It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries - double the present development assistance from abroad. Examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different sources of funding, applying the tools of modern public economics to identify the key issues. It examines the role of new sources of overseas aid, considers the fiscal architecture and the lessons that can be learned from federal fiscal systems, asks how far increased transfers impose a burden on donors, and investigates how far one can separate raising resources from their use. In turn, the book examines global environmental taxes (such as a carbon tax) the taxation of currency transactions (the Tobin tax), a development-focused allocation of Special Drawing Rights by the IMF, the UK Government proposal for an International Finance Facility, increased private donations for development purposes, a global lottery (or premium bond), and increased remittances by emigrants. In each case, it considers the feasibility of the proposal and the resources that it can realistically raise. In each case, it offers new perspectives and insights into these new and controversial proposals.

Property tax circuit breakers can be used to increase tax equity by reducing the most onerous property tax burdens as measured in relation to income. This is particularly important for households at the lower end of the income distribution, and for households in states with high property taxes. By targeting property tax relief to those most in need, circuit breakers promote tax equity at minimal cost to state and local budgets, while preserving the basic nature and strengths of this tax as a source of local revenue. Although circuit breakers have great potential for improving property tax fairness, many programs fall short of ideal.
This report covers the rationale for providing property tax relief to those who have a high relative tax burden. It compares the fairness of various criteria used by states for eligibility, and illustrates types and key features of property tax circuit breakers. Ten pitfalls with existing tax circuit breakers are described along with solutions to address inadequate property tax relief for those with the highest tax burden. It covers three approaches to administer property tax circuit breaker programs to provide greater relief to those in need. Guidelines for elected representatives and tax policy advocates to improve tax circuit breaker rules are provided. Recommendations for the best design for property tax circuit breakers are included in this policy focus report.
Although circuit breakers have great potential for improving property tax fairness, many programs fall short of ideal. Recommendations for the best design for property tax circuit breakers are included in this policy focus report.

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.

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.

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.