scholarly journals Addressing inequality and poverty with tax instruments

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (190) ◽  
pp. 7-26
Author(s):  
Sasa Randjelovic ◽  
Jelena Zarkovic-Rakic

There is a consensus, in both academia and economic policy circles, that the reform of the personal income tax system in Serbia is necessary one. Two frequently discussed reform scenarios are East European style flat tax and the comprehensive income tax model of Western Europe. Most Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have recently reformed their income tax systems by introducing some form of flat tax scheme, while in numerous countries of Western Europe the possibility of flat tax reform is also seriously considered. Opponents of the reform usually stress the adverse distributional effects of flat tax schemes. The aim of our paper is to contribute to the empirical literature on the distributional effects of alternative tax reform scenarios. The analysis is based on the tax and benefit micro-simulation model for Serbia (SRMOD). The results suggest that redesigning the existing income tax system so as to introduce a uniform tax rate and increase the basic allowance would somewhat reduce inequality and improve vertical inequity in taxation. On the other hand, in the case of the introduction of comprehensive income tax, considerably larger equalizing and progressivity effects would be achieved. At the same time, since in both cases redistribution will not affect the bottom decile group, no significant effects (in either cases) on poverty reduction will be achieved.

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1492
Author(s):  
Donald J. Jacobs

How can an income tax system be designed to exploit human nature and a free market to create a poverty free society, while balancing budgets without disproportional tax burdens? Such a tax system, with universal character, is deduced from the following guiding principles: (1) a single tax rate applies to all income types and levels; (2) the tax rate adjusts to satisfy budget projections; (3) government transfer only supplements the income of households with self-generated income below the poverty line; (4) deductions for basic living expenses, itemized investments and capital losses are allowed; (5) deductions cannot be applied to government transfer. A general framework emerges with three parameters that determine a minimum allowed tax deduction, a maximum allowed itemized deduction, and a maximum deduction defined by income percentage. An income distribution that mimics the United States, and a series of log-normal distributions are considered to quantitatively compare detailed characteristics of this tax system to progressive and flat tax systems. To minimize government dependency while maximizing after-tax income, the effective tax rate (ETR) as a function of income percentile takes the shape of the letter, V, inspiring the name victory tax, where the middle class has the lowest ETR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-145
Author(s):  
M. Krajňák ◽  

Legislation governing personal income taxation is often subject to changes. A significant personal income tax reform was carried out in the Czech Republic in 2021. The reform implements a progressive tax rate, changes the way the tax base is determined, and increases the tax relief for the taxpayer. The aim of the article is to evaluate the impact of the personal income tax reform on the effective tax rate and tax progressivity. To that end, methods of regression analysis have been used. The source of information for analysis was the data published by the Czech Statistical Office. It was found that in 2021, in comparison with 2020, the tax burden represented in this study by the effective tax rate, in all cases became lower, approximately by 5%. The main reason for this decline is the adjustment of the method of construction of the tax base, which, for the first time in the history of the Income Tax Act, is gross wages. Until the end of 2020, the tax base was a super-gross wage, or the gross wage increased by social security contribution borne by the employer at his costs. The second factor that reduces the tax burden is a CZK 3,000 increase in the deduction per taxpayer per year. This fact increases the degree of tax progressivity, as confirmed by the results of the progressivity analysis and the regression analysis. The changes that have taken place in the personal income tax this year have a positive impact on the taxpayer, but from the point of view of the state, this reform has reduced the state budget revenues.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Seiichiro Mozumi

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni Frish ◽  
Noam Zussman ◽  
Sophia Igdalov

AbstractThis study examines the effect of an income tax reform on wages. An Israeli reform implemented in 2003–2009 reduced individuals’ marginal income tax rate by 7–17 percentage points. We utilized the differential and non-monotonic marginal tax rate reduction, and used Israel Tax Authority panel data of wage earners, merged with Labor Force Surveys. We found that in the business sector, the elasticity of reported gross wages relative to the net-of-tax rate is about 0.1. The wage earners in the lowest wage quintile were not affected by the tax reform, those in the second and third quintiles did not respond to the tax cut, but elasticity increased with wage, reaching about 0.4 in the upper decile. We did not find statistically significant differences in elasticity by gender, ethnicity, or education.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Gregory Ballentine

In this paper, I assess the 1986 Tax Reform Act relative to the tax system that might have evolved over the several years following 1986 had that particular tax reform not been enacted. Had tax reform not been enacted, I believe that the pattern of steady tax increases, particularly corporate tax increases and tax increases on high-income individuals such as occurred in the 1982 and 1984 tax acts would have continued. I also believe that the 1986 Tax Reform Act introduced an income tax system that will be quite stable; broad changes, in particular changes that raise a large amount of income tax revenues, are unlikely for many years. So I am comparing the tax structure of the 1986 Tax Reform Act to a system that, in part, has an inferior structure, but that provides more revenues. Since I believe that the most important tax policy goal in 1986 and later should have been to raise revenues, not to revise the structure of the tax system, I believe that the 1986 Tax Reform Act was harmful. Tax reform not only did not raise revenues, it has made it more difficult to raise revenues in the future, without providing significant offsetting benefits.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Creedy ◽  
Norman Gemmell

This article considers the question of whether marginal tax rates (MTRs) in the US income tax system are on the “right” side of their respective Laffer curves. Previous attention has tended to focus specifically on the top MTR. Conceptual expressions for these “revenue-maximizing elasticities of taxable income” (ETI L), based on readily observable tax parameters, are presented for each tax rate in a multi-rate income tax system. Applying these to the US income tax, with its complex effective marginal rate structure, demonstrates that a wide range of revenue-maximizing ETI values can be expected within, and across, tax brackets and for all taxpayers in aggregate. For some significant groups of taxpayers, these revenue-maximizing ETIs appear to be within the range of empirically estimated elasticities.


1987 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A Pechman

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 is the most significant piece of tax legislation enacted since the income tax was converted to a mass tax during World War II. After decades of erosion, the individual and corporate income tax bases were broadened and the revenues were used to reduce tax rates. Loopholes and preferences that were formerly considered sacrosanct were eliminated or moderated despite the determined opposition of powerful pressure groups. Comprehensive income taxation, which had earlier been regarded as an impossible dream, carried the day with strong bipartisan support. I will trace the origins of the tax reform movement and speculate about why it was successful in 1986 after repeated failures in earlier years. I also explain what the 1986 act accomplished and what more needs to be done to achieve the objectives of comprehensive income taxation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Awadh Bin-Nashwan ◽  
Ahmed Mubarak Al-Hamedi ◽  
Munusamy Marimuthu ◽  
Abobakr Ramadhan Al-Harethi

People’s perceptions of a fair tax administration system have garnered growing interest as a decisive ingredient that can install compliance behavior among taxpayers. The tax that taxpayers wish to evade is determined by their perceptions of the various robust dimensions of fairness (i.e., general fairness, preferred tax rate structure, exchange with the government, special provisions, and self-interest). Such an important matter, like tax fairness, has been overlooked in the extant literature, especially in the Middle East context, although tax administrations still suffer from low and unsatisfactory rates of compliance. This paper aims to empirically examine the influence of fairness perceptions of the income tax system on compliance behavior of taxpayers in Yemen. The study used a survey questionnaire administered to 400 individual taxpayers in Hadhramout, one of the most prosperous business regions in Yemen. Based on the PLS-SEM analysis tool, the study found that general system fairness, preferred tax rate, exchange with the government, and the extent of self-interest are significantly related to income tax compliance, while special provisions do not affect compliance decisions. The results of the study can alert the tax authority and policymakers to consider the non-pecuniary factors, other than the measures of the coercion. Establishing a fair tax system is probably one of the most successful approaches to boost compliance among taxpayers, thus yielding more tax revenue and diminishing the administrative cost for the tax authority.


Author(s):  
◽  
Amartya Saha ◽  
Ankita Kumari ◽  
Anuradha Padhy ◽  
Anuradha Panda ◽  
...  

On 20th December, 2019, the Central Government introduced the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, which created a favourable taxing environment for the Companies. Through this Ordinance, section 115BAB, which covers all sorts of domestic companies, that is, any company formed and registered in India, was introduced in the Income Tax Act which offered a very low tax rate of 15% (17.5% including surcharge and cess) to the new manufacturing companies. This Ordinance also reduced the Tax rate for domestic companies to 22% (25.17% including surcharge and cess). Additionally under the new corporate assessment strategy, new organizations that set up assembling offices in India beginning in October and initiate creation before the finish of March, 2023 will be charged at a viable pace of 17%. This move did cause a rise in the value of the stock in India, but through this paper, we plan to delve deeper into how this new introduction affected the economy of India – ranging from the stock market to the value of rupees against dollar, the idea behind introducing this Ordinance, while also touching upon what is Corporate Tax and the Corporate Tax system that was present before the introduction of section 115BAB.


1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
J. Lowenberg-DeBoer ◽  
Michael Boehlje

Simulation was used to analyze the distribution of benefits from the 1981 and 1982 federal income tax legislation for farm types that exhibit various tax characteristics. The results indicate that distributional effects are largely attributable to the reduced progressivity of the tax rate schedule. The largest farms benefited relative to the smaller farms of all farm types. Intensive livestock farms and producers of perennial crops experience additional benefits relative to other farm types primarily because of the large reduction in useful life for tax purposes of specialized livestock facilities, orchards, and vineyards.


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