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This volume explores topics relating to tax reform in the United States by presenting varied expert opinions that examine many of the different aspects that comprise these issues. Tax reform refers to the process of changing the way taxes are collected or managed by the government. The viewpoints are selected from a wide range of highly respected and often hard-to-find sources and publications. Allows the reader to attain the higher-level critical thinking and reading skills that are essential in a culture of diverse and contradictory opinions

Die Untersuchung setzt sich zunächst mit Problemen der Unternehmensbesteuerung in der VR China auseinander. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auf die unterschiedliche Besteuerung unterschiedlicher Eigentumsformen, die mangelnde Steuerehrlichkeit sowie auf Überschneidungen mit anderen Bereichen der Verteilungspolitik hingewiesen. Hier sollte das Projekt einer vereinheitlichten Einkommensbesteuerung Abhilfe schaffen. Unklarheiten bestehen jedoch weiterhin hinsichtlich der Abführung von Gewinnen. Weitere Aspekte der chinesischen Steuerreformpolitik betreffen die Umsatzsteuer, die Besteuerung individueller Einkommen sowie die Aufteilung des Steueraufkommens zwischen Zentralregierung und Regionen. Abschließend werden aktuelle Finanzprobleme sowie die steuerliche Behandlung von Exporten und Auslandsinvestitionen angesprochen. (BIOst-Wpt)

After brief individual presentations, panelists discuss among themselves and with the audience a broad spectrum of issues regarding various taxes and tax reform proposals. The discussion includes such issues as privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating income tax withholding, and the merits and demerits of income taxes, consumption taxes, value added taxes, sales taxes, and taxes on resources that have an inelastic supply. One panelist relates his recent experiences using his tools as an economist to deal with tax and related issues as a current member of the Canadian Parliament. Another cites practical problems of implementing tax reform from his long experience advising governments, especially in Latin America. A major focus of the exchange of views is on public choice problems involved in passing and implementing a so‐called flat tax. However, the discussion also deals with economic efficiency and equity considerations and with nearly all other types of taxes. The discussion includes not only the impact on the country within which tax reform occurs, but international implications, as well.

The paper presents an endogenous growth economy with a representation of the tax rate system in the Baltic countries. Assuming that government spending is a given fraction of output, the paper shows how a flat tax system balanced between labor and corporate tax rates can be second best optimal. It then computes how actual Baltic tax reforms from 2000 to 2007 affect the growth rate and welfare, including transition dynamics. Comparing the actual reform effects to hypothetical tax experiments, it results that equal flat tax rates on personal and corporate income would have increased welfare in all three Baltic countries by 24% more on average than the actual reforms. This shows how equal, balanced, flat rate taxes can be optimal in both theory and practice. Further, movement towards a more equal balance between labor and capital tax rates, through changing just one tax rate, achieved almost as high or higher utility gains as in actual law for all three countries under both open and closed economy cases. This shows benefits of moving towards the optimum.

Ghana's tax reforms constitute the major policy instrument needed to accelerate growth and poverty reduction. Over the past two decades, the government has consistently spent more revenue than it is able to generate and the gap is often financed with foreign aid which has perpetuated the country's aid dependency. Two options can be explored to reduce the gap between government revenue and expenditure; generate more revenue or reduce government expenditure. Although the latter sounds reasonable, the government needs to spend more on key sectors like education, health and infrastructure if the country is to significantly reduce poverty. The critical issue has been how to generate the needed resources domestically, using tax instruments that are least harmful to the poor. This will obviously involve reforming the tax system to ensure efficiency by widening the tax net without necessarily increasing the tax rate. This paper provides an assessment of the changing structure of the tax system in Ghana over the last two decades and suggests ways to improve tax administration in the country.

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was widely heralded as the most significant change in our nation's tax law since the income tax was extended to the masses during World War II. It was the crowning domestic policy achievement of President Ronald Reagan, who proclaimed it "the best antipoverty measure, the best pro-family measure and the best job-creation measure ever to come out of the Congress of the United States" (Reagan, 1986). This journal published a symposium on the Tax Reform Act in its first issue. The law's rate reductions and base broadening reforms were mimicked throughout the countries belonging to the OECD (Sandford, 1993; Owens, 2005). Even at the time, however, reading the paeans to this legislation was like watching a Tennessee Williams play: something was terribly wrong, but nobody was talking about it. Two decades later, the changes wrought by the 1986 act have proven neither revolutionary nor stable.

Reform of the United States tax system has become a central political issue. Assessing Tax Reform is a concise, nontechnical book to help general readers and students understand the tax reform issues Congress is now debating. Henry Aaron and Harvey Galper lay out the major alternative proposals and analyze principles of taxation that can be used for judging them. They explore the issues surrounding a move to a comprehensive income tax, a cash-flow tax, and the value-added tax or other consumption-based taxes. They show the conflicts and opportunities resulting from large current government deficits and the move for tax reform. In addition to clarifying the problems that must be solved if large-scale, long-term reform is to be achieved, the authors describe alternative strategies for increasing revenues quickly. They also present their own program for a fair, efficient, and less complex tax structure. They conclude with an examination of the political pitfalls that continue to make any major improvements in the tax system hard to enact.

Intro -- U.S. TAX REFORMCHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS -- U.S. TAX REFORMCHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Tax Reform: An Overview of Proposals in the 112th Congress -- Summary -- Introduction -- Fundamental Tax Reform Options -- Base-Broadening -- New Tax -- Broad-Based Consumption Tax -- Value-Added Tax -- Retail Sales Tax -- Flat Tax -- Environmental Tax -- Framework of Evaluation -- Equity -- Efficiency -- Simplicity -- Other Tax Reform Issues -- Alternative Minimum Tax for Individuals -- Business Taxation -- International Taxation -- Fundamental Tax Reform Legislation -- in the 112th Congress -- Representative David Dreier's Proposal -- Representative Rob Woodall/Senator Saxby Chambliss Proposal -- Representative Chaka Fattah's Proposal -- Senator Ron Wyden's Proposal -- Representative Michael C. Burgess's Proposal -- Senator Richard C. Shelby's Proposal -- Other Legislation in the 112th Congress Relevant to Fundamental Tax Reform -- H.R. 462. (Sponsor: Representative Bob Goodlatte) -- H.Con.Res. 34. (Sponsor: Representative Paul Ryan) -- FY2013 House Budget Resolution -- Other Major Fiscal Reform Proposals -- President Obama's April 2011 Fiscal Reform Proposal -- President's Fiscal Commission Updated Estimates -- End Notes -- Chapter 2 The Challenge of Individual Income Tax Reform: An Economic Analysis of Tax Base Broadening -- Summary -- Introduction -- Tax Expenditures and Base Broadening -- Allocational and Efficiency Effects -- Saving -- Business -- Owner-Occupied Housing -- Consumption -- Health -- Charitable Contributions -- Labor Supply -- Government -- Exemption of Medicare and Social Security Benefits -- Subsidies for State and Local Governments: Deductions for Income Taxes and Exclusion of Tax Exempt Bonds -- Structural -- Other Notable Tax Expenditures -- Distributional Issues -- Saving

This Review will focus primarily on the conceptual issues affecting the composition of the tax expenditure list and their relevance to current proposals for new tax legislation. In this context,the tax expenditure theory has been preeminently successful in shaping tax reform. The Review will not delve into the other aspect of Surrey's thesis, which calls for executive and congressional action to alter the budget procedure by integrating direct spending programs with the indirect tax expenditure programs and by adopting one amalgamated budget for the purpose of controlling overall federal spending. This facet of the Surrey thesis has not yet gained widespread congressional acceptance on the practical level.For those concerned with tighter control of the federal budget to reduce the deficit, however, this latest work amply describes and persuasively advocates the value of such an integrated budget policy.

Proposals for tax reform must be appraised against the subjective criteria of fairness and social policy regarding redistribution of income and wealth and the objec tive criteria of steady economic growth and administrative simplicity. Controversy over the individual income tax cen ters on the tax base and the rate structure. A fundamental change would involve the adoption of a comprehensive income tax base, including not only all capital gains but also various items of imputed income and even gifts and bequests. This concept of income breaks down the distinction between capital and income, would conflict with accepted concepts in all other fields, and would also have undesirable economic effects. High marginal individual income tax rates produce little revenue but distort decisions on personal activity and investment. Though some progression in rates is almost universally accepted as fair, confusion about the effect of rate changes at different levels has led to excessive top rates. Estate and gift taxes might be com bined into a single progressive transfer tax, but this would dis courage gifts before death and hence be undesirable. The inci dence of the corporation income tax is not known, but theorists and businessmen increasingly believe that it is shifted forward. As such, it is a capricious excise tax, and it also holds a price umbrella over less efficient producers. Partial substitution of a value-added tax would be a major reform. Under present inter national agreements, it could also improve the balance of payments.