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.

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."

Taxes and Trust is the first book on taxes to focus on trust and the first work of social science to concentrate on how tax policy actually gets implemented on the ground in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. It highlights the nuances of the transitional Ukraine case and explains precisely how and why that 'borderland' country differs from the more ideal-types of coercive Russia and compliance-oriented Poland. Through nine bespoke taxpayer surveys, an unprecedented bureaucratic survey and more than fifteen years of qualitative research, the book emphasizes the building and accumulation of trust to transition from a coercive tax state to a compliant one. The context of the book will appeal to students and scholars of taxation worldwide and to those who study Russia and Eastern Europe. This title is also available as Open Access.

The Tax Rules Have Changed. Your Business Should, Too.The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 marks the biggest tax reform in more than 30 years. The changes to the tax code are complex (especially for the small-business owner), but you don't have to go it alone. CPA and Attorney Mark J. Kohler delivers a comprehensive analysis of the new tax and legal structure you desperately need to help make the new tax law work for you. In this revised edition of The Tax and Legal Playbook, Kohler reveals clear-cut truths about tax and legal planning and delivers a practical, play-by-play guide that helps you build wealth, save on taxes, and protect your assets. Using real-world case studies, tax-savvy tips, game plans, and discussion points, Kohler coaches you through the complexities of the tax game of the small-business owner. You'll also learn how to: Examine your business needs and pick the right business entity for you Build your personal and corporate credit in eight steps Implement affordable asset protection strategies Take advantage of underutilized business tax deductions Pick the right health-care, retirement, and estate plans Bring on partners and investors the right way Plan for your future with self-directed retirement funds Reading from cover to cover or refer to each chapter as needed, you will come away wiser and better equipped to make the best decisions for your business, your family, and yourself.

Taxes on land and property exist all over the world in many forms and are an important source of finance for local governments. The extent to which local governments have control over property taxes is often an important determinant of their ability to make autonomous expenditure decisions. This comprehensive Handbook explores case studies of land and property taxation in 25 countries (five in each of five regions - OECD, central and eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America), and focuses on the potential contributions of the property tax to the revenues of urban and rural governments and to more efficient land use. Introductory chapters highlight the diversity in the application of land and property taxes among the countries. Major policy alternatives with respect to taxing land and property are discussed, including the choice of tax base, exemptions, methods of determining the tax base, tax rates, differential treatment of different classes of property (such as farms, residences, commercial properties), and the process of tax administration. Other taxes levied on land, such as land transfer taxes, development charges and unearned increment taxes, are also reviewed, as is recent experience with property tax reform in a number of countries. This major reference work will provide a valuable resource and necessary addition to the libraries of government officials, municipal associations, property assessors, international agencies, teachers and students of public finance.