Does Atlas Shrug?

Does Atlas Shrug? PDF Author: Joel Slemrod
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674001541
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
Since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, controversy has raged about how heavily to tax the rich. Opponents of high tax rates claim that heavy assessments have negative incentives on the productivity of some of our most talented citizens; supporters stress the importance of the rich shouldering their "fair share," and decry the loopholes that permit many to escape their obligations. Notably absent from this debate is hard evidence about the actual impact of taxes on the behavior of the affluent. This book presents evidence by leading economists of the effects of taxes on the formation of businesses, the supply of labor, the form of executive compensation, the accumulation of wealth, the allocation of portfolios, and the realization of capital gains. Among its findings are that the labor supply of the rich remained unchanged in the face of large tax cuts in 1986, and that in late 1992 executives exercised billions of dollars' worth of stock options in order to beat the tax increases expected in 1993. The book also presents a history of efforts to tax the rich, a demographic snapshot of the financially affluent, and a road map to widely used tax-avoidance strategies. Does Atlas Shrug? will be of great interest to policymakers and interested citizens who want to know how much tax revenue could really be gained by increasing tax rates on the rich, or whether low capital gains tax rates really spur economic growth.

Does Atlas Shrug?

Does Atlas Shrug? PDF Author: Joel Slemrod
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674001541
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 540

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, controversy has raged about how heavily to tax the rich. Opponents of high tax rates claim that heavy assessments have negative incentives on the productivity of some of our most talented citizens; supporters stress the importance of the rich shouldering their "fair share," and decry the loopholes that permit many to escape their obligations. Notably absent from this debate is hard evidence about the actual impact of taxes on the behavior of the affluent. This book presents evidence by leading economists of the effects of taxes on the formation of businesses, the supply of labor, the form of executive compensation, the accumulation of wealth, the allocation of portfolios, and the realization of capital gains. Among its findings are that the labor supply of the rich remained unchanged in the face of large tax cuts in 1986, and that in late 1992 executives exercised billions of dollars' worth of stock options in order to beat the tax increases expected in 1993. The book also presents a history of efforts to tax the rich, a demographic snapshot of the financially affluent, and a road map to widely used tax-avoidance strategies. Does Atlas Shrug? will be of great interest to policymakers and interested citizens who want to know how much tax revenue could really be gained by increasing tax rates on the rich, or whether low capital gains tax rates really spur economic growth.

Optimal Tax Administration

Optimal Tax Administration PDF Author: Mr.Michael Keen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475570309
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
This paper sets out a framework for analyzing optimal interventions by a tax administration, one that parallels and can be closely integrated with established frameworks for thinking about optimal tax policy. Its key contribution is the development of a summary measure of the impact of administrative interventions—the “enforcement elasticity of tax revenue”—that is a sufficient statistic for the behavioral response to such interventions, much as the elasticity of taxable income serves as a sufficient statistic for the response to tax rates. Amongst the applications are characterizations of the optimal balance between policy and administrative measures, and of the optimal compliance gap.

Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century

Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century PDF Author: Alan J. Auerbach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139464515
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
This book was first published in 2007. Most countries levy taxes on corporations, but the impact - and therefore the wisdom - of such taxes is highly controversial among economists. Does the burden of these taxes fall on wealthy shareowners, or is it passed along to those who work for, or buy the products of, corporations? Can a country with high corporate taxes remain competitive in the global economy? This book features research by leading economists and accountants that sheds light on these and related questions, including how taxes affect corporate dividend policy, stock market value, avoidance, and evasion. The studies promise to inform both future tax policy and regulatory policy, especially in light of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission that are having profound effects on the market for tax planning and auditing in the wake of the well-publicized accounting scandals in Enron and WorldCom.

The Costs of Taxation and the Marginal Cost of Funds

The Costs of Taxation and the Marginal Cost of Funds PDF Author: Mr.Joel Slemrod
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451954549
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
It is argued that taxation causes three kinds of deadweight losses and two types of direct costs. The deadweight losses arise from substitution, evasion, and avoidance activities while the direct costs are administrative and compliance costs. Some of these social costs tend to be discontinuous and/or nonconvex. Because most models of taxation ignore some components of the social costs of taxation, their conclusions cannot be of a general nature. An alternative approach to policy evaluation is to rely on a marginal efficiency cost of funds rule which can indicate appropriate directions of reforms. The paper discusses its merits, applicability, and limitations, as well as its relationship to other concepts.

Empirical Foundations of Household Taxation

Empirical Foundations of Household Taxation PDF Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226240978
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Tax policy debates—and reforms—depend heavily on estimates of how alternative tax rules would affect behavior. Yet there is considerable controversy about the key empirical links among tax rates, household decisions, and revenue collections. The nine papers in this volume exploit the substantial variation in U.S. tax policy during the last two decades to investigate how taxes affect a range of household behavior, including labor-force participation, saving behavior, choice of health insurance plan, choice of child care arrangements, portfolio choice, and tax evasion. They also present new analytical results on the effects of different types of tax policy. All of this research relies on household-level data—drawn either from public-use tax return files or from large household-level surveys—to explore various aspects of the relationship between taxes and household behavior. As debates about the effects of proposed tax reforms continue in the 1990s, this volume will be of interest to policy makers and scholars in the field of public finance.

How Taxes Affect Economic Behavior

How Taxes Affect Economic Behavior PDF Author: Henry J. Aaron
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Conference report on the economic implications of fiscal policy in the USA - examines taxation effects on labour supply, industrial investment in machinery and equipment, financial policy at the enterprise level, financial market prices, capital gains and financial losses, savings, etc. Graphs and references. List of participants. Conference held in Washington 1979 October 18 and 19.

Tax Systems

Tax Systems PDF Author: Joel Slemrod
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262319012
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
An approach to taxation that goes beyond an emphasis on tax rates to consider such aspects as administration, compliance, and remittance. Despite its theoretical elegance, the standard optimal tax model has significant limitations. In this book, Joel Slemrod and Christian Gillitzer argue that tax analysis must move beyond the emphasis on optimal tax rates and bases to consider such aspects of taxation as administration, compliance, and remittance. Slemrod and Gillitzer explore what they term a tax-systems approach, which takes tax evasion seriously; revisits the issue of remittance, or who writes the check to cover tax liability (employer or employee, retailer or consumer); incorporates administrative and compliance costs; recognizes a range of behavioral responses to tax rates; considers nonstandard instruments, including tax base breadth and enforcement effort; and acknowledges that tighter enforcement is sometimes a more socially desirable way to raise revenue than an increase in statutory tax rates. Policy makers, Slemrod and Gillitzer argue, would be well advised to recognize the interrelationship of tax rates, bases, enforcement, and administration, and acknowledge that tax policy is really tax-systems policy.

Top Incomes

Top Incomes PDF Author: A. B. Atkinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199286892
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 799

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Book Description
This volume brings together an exciting range of new studies of top incomes in a wide range of countries from around the world. The studies use data from income tax records to cast light on the dramatic changes that have taken place at the top of the income distribution. The results cover 22 countries and have a long time span, going back to 1875.

Why People Pay Taxes

Why People Pay Taxes PDF Author: Joel Slemrod
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780472103386
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Experts discuss strategies for curtailing tax evasion

The Elasticity of Taxable Income

The Elasticity of Taxable Income PDF Author: Creedy, John
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1802209603
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This timely book analyses the elasticity of taxable income, a central concept in public finance with a rapidly growing wealth of literature. Combining original empirical research with rigorous theoretical modelling of tax revenue and optimal tax policy, this innovative study examines the complexities and new methods of estimating the elasticity of taxable income.