scholarly journals Is This Tax Reform, or Just Confusion?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Slemrod
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Law ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Tax Cuts

Based on the experience of recent decades, the United States apparently musters the political will to change its tax system comprehensively about every 30 years, so it seems especially important to get it right when the chance arises. Based on the strong public statements of economists opposing and supporting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a causal observer might wonder whether this law was tax reform or mere confusion. In this paper, I address that question and, more importantly, offer an assessment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law is clearly not “tax reform” as economists usually use that term: that is, it does not seek to broaden the tax base and reduce marginal rates in a roughly revenue-neutral manner. However, the law is not just a muddle. It seeks to address some widely acknowledged issues with corporate taxation, and takes some steps toward broadening the tax base, in part by reducing the incentive to itemize deductions.

scholarly journals Policy Forum: Is Accelerated Depreciation Good or Misguided Tax Policy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Philip Bazel ◽  
Jack Mintz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Accelerated Depreciation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Jobs Act

The authors examine the implications of Canada's response to the 2017 US tax reform. Canada's focus on accelerated tax depreciation will achieve lower marginal effective tax rates on capital for taxpaying companies, well below the US levels achieved with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that came into effect on January 1, 2018. By ignoring neutrality, the government offsets some of the potential gains by reducing the tax burden on capital, thereby failing to maximize efficiency gains from a better corporate tax system. Further, Canada's approach fails to respond to competitiveness effects of US reforms on corporate tax base erosion in Canada as companies shift profits to the United States. The low US tax rate on intangible income will draw certain functions to the United States. A more comprehensive approach to corporate tax reform, including some reduction in corporate income tax rates, would have been a preferable response.

Tax Expenditures and the Tax Reform Act of 1969 in the United States

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Seiichiro Mozumi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Federal Income Tax ◽  
Federal Taxation ◽  
The Government

Abstract In the United States, tax favoritism—an approach that has weakened the extractive capacity of the federal government by providing tax loopholes and preferences for taxpayers—has remained since the 1930s. It has consumed the amount of tax revenue the government can spend and therefore weakened the possibility of the redistribution of fiscal resources. It has also made the federal tax system complicated and inequitable, resulting in undermining taxpayer consent. Therefore, since the 1930s, a tax reform to create a simple, fair, and equitable federal income tax system with the capacity to raise revenue has been long overdue. Many scholars have evaluated the Tax Reform Act of 1969 (TRA69), which Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 30, 1969, as one of the most successful steps toward accomplishing this goal. This article demonstrates that TRA69 left tax favoritism in the United States. Furthermore, it points out that TRA69 turned taxpayers against the idea of federal taxation, a shift in public perception that greatly impacted tax reform in the years to follow.

Profit Shifting before and after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1233-1266
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Clausing
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Profit Shifting ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Corporate Profits ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Tax Cuts

In recent years, profit shifting by multinational companies (MNCs) has generated substantial revenue costs to the U.S. government. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changed U.S. international tax law in several important ways. This paper discusses the nature of these changes and their possible effects on profit shifting. The paper also evaluates the effects of the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) tax on the location of taxable profits. Once company adjustment to the legislation is complete, estimates suggest that the GILTI tax will reduce the corporate profits of U.S. multinational affiliates in haven countries by about 12-16 percent, modestly increasing the tax base in both the United States and in higher-tax foreign countries. However, a per-country minimum tax would generate much larger increases in the U.S. tax base; a per-country tax at the same rate reduces haven profits by 23-31 percent, resulting in larger gains in U.S. tax revenue.

scholarly journals Corporate Inversions: The Migration Of Corporate Tax Revenue

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1137-1144
Author(s):  
Joel Barker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Tax Incentives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Revenues ◽  
Corporate Profits

Estimates of over 20 billion of tax revenue are lost to our economy because of corporate inversions. Therefore, lawmakers are actively exploring ways to stop the hemorrhaging of corporate tax-revenues, tighten restrictions on corporate inversions, and to find ways to collect on defer tax revenues. From a business prospective, corporate inversions are nothing less than prudent, innovative, business strategies to enhance corporate profits. However, it’s undoubtedly having a significant impact on U.S. tax revenues and ultimately reducing domestic investments. Ireland is now the most popular new home to many U.S. Corporations, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. The advantageous tax incentives offered by Ireland is a “no-brainer,” when compared to the heavy taxes levied upon domestic business. Since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, there has been no major tax reform to the United States Tax System. Despite the various proposals and recommendations made to address this growing economic issue, all concern parties are in consensus that the United States Tax System needs reform.

Emer de Vattel on the Society of Nations and the Political System of Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Zurbuchen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law

This chapter aims to explain why considering Vattel as a founding father of positivism rests on a misunderstanding. Despite the continuous attention Vattel received in the scholarly literature as well as in the diplomatic and juridical practice, especially in the United States, his legacy remained highly contested ever since his treatise The Law of Nations was first published in 1758. One reason is its indebtedness to the modern natural law tradition but also to Vattel’s originality, mainly due to the significance he attributed to the sovereign state as a free and independent member of the society of nations. Vattel established many dualisms to develop his very broad notion of the law of nations: he applied the law of nations to the ‘political system’ of Europe, which he considered a kind of republic instituted for maintaining order and liberty and founded on the scheme of the balance of power.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-162
Author(s):  
Calla Hummel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
State Building ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Theoretical Claim ◽  
The Law

Chapter 7 discusses the broader implications of the argument for the world’s two billion informal workers. The chapter advances the theoretical claim that when individuals break the law, they can paradoxically get help from officials to organize. It elaborates implications for effective formalization policies, using the mixed success example of a tax reform in Bolivia. It also draw parallels to policing and enforcement trends in the United States. The chapter carefully summarizes the material covered in the preceding chapters. The chapter concludes the book with implications for state intervention in civil society, as well as contentious politics, enforcement, and state building.

Individual Income Tax Erosion: By Income Class in Japan

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-322
Author(s):  
Hiromitsu Ishi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Major Conclusion ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Distributional Effects ◽  
Individual Income ◽  
Income Class

In Japan, as well as in the United States, the introduction of special provisions of the tax law has resulted in erosion of the tax base and tax yield. It is expected that tax erosion tends to destroy the equity of the existing income tax system. In this article, estimates of income tax erosion by income class for 1972 and 1975 are made from Japanese tax data. The major conclusion of this study is that the distributional effects of erosion of the Japanese income tax are quite similar to those in the United States.

Judicial Deference in Foreign Relations

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 805-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan I. Charney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Law

Disputes with foreign policy implications have often been brought to the federal courts. These cases call attention to the tension between the authority of the political branches to conduct the foreign relations of the United States and the authority of the courts to render judgments according to the law. How this tension is resolved, in turn, bears directly on the commitment of the United States to the rule of law.

scholarly journals Employment Structure and the Rise of the Modern Tax System

2022 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
Anders Jensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Income Levels ◽  
Long Run

This paper builds a new microdatabase that covers 100 countries at all income levels and long-run time series in the United States (1870–2010) and Mexico ( 1960–2010) to document how the modern tax system arises over development. I establish a new set of stylized facts, which show that the income tax exemption threshold decreases in the income distribution as a country develops, tracking growth in the employee share of employment that occurs gradually further down the income distribution. Additional evidence supports the interpretation that the rise in third-party covered income through increases in employee share drives expansions of the income tax base over development. (JEL D31, H23, H24, H71, J22, J23, N40)

Woodrow Wilson, Victoriano Huerta, and the Recognition Issue in Mexico

1984 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter V. N. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Internal Stability ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
United States Imperialism

I. The Evolution of the Law of Recognition until 1913To state that the United States imperialistically meddled in Mexican internal affairs in 1913 would scarcely surprise the scholarly community. The theme of United States imperialism in Latin America has been the subject of dispassionate scholarship and patriotic diatribes. Regardless of their perspective, writers have generally focused upon the political, social, strategic, and economic aspects of intervention. Considerably less attention has been given the United States' creative use of international law to affect the internal stability of Latin American nations. This article will contribute to bridging this gap by analyzing the manner in which Woodrow Wilson used the law of recognition to unseat Mexico's dictator, Victoriano Huerta; a man Wilson considered unfit to govern.

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