Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tax policy'

Mestrado em Finanças
Esta dissertação analisa o impacto da política dos benefícios fiscais para as regiões do interior em Portugal. Mais especificamente, avaliamos o efeito desta mudança de política na entrada de novas empresas e em duas características regionais sócio-demográficas: taxa de natalidade e taxa de divórcio. Estudos anteriores sugerem que a redução de impostos aumenta a rendibilidade das empresas e, portanto, a entrada de novas empresas. Também sugerem que em períodos de prosperidade económica, as condições de vida melhoram e a taxa de divórcio aumenta, enquanto que não há evidências conclusivas sobre a relação exata entre o rendimento e a natalidade. Para testar estas hipóteses, usámos uma base de dados empregador-empregado (QP - "Quadros de Pessoal") para avaliar as empresas estabelecidas entre o período de 1997 e 2007. Os dados regionais sócio-demográficos foram recolhidos do INE ("Instituto Nacional de Estatística"). Contrariamente ao esperado, a introdução da política reduz a entrada de novas empresas, assim como a taxa de natalidade e de divórcio. Obtemos resultados semelhantes usando uma variável instrumental. O efeito negativo na entrada de empresas persiste mesmo quando dividimos a nossa amostra nas diferentes fases da introdução da política. Estes resultados não são consistentes nas amostras restritas (concelhos vizinhos).
This study analyzes the impact of the tax benefits for inland regions in Portugal. More specifically, we evaluate the effect of this policy change on firm entry and on two regional socio-demographic characteristics: child birth and divorce rate. Previous studies suggest that reducing taxes increases the level of profit opportunities and, thus, the entry of new firms. They also find that in periods of economic prosperity, life conditions improve and the divorce rate increases, while there is no conclusive evidence about the exact relationship between income and child birth. To test these predictions, we use a matched employer-employee dataset (QP - "Quadros de Pessoal") to estimate firms entry between the period 1997 and 2007. Regional socio-demographic data come from Statistics Portugal (INE - "Instituto Nacional de Estatística"). Contrary to our expectations, we find that the introduction of the policy reduce firm entry, as well as the child birth and divorce rate. We obtain similar results using an instrumental variable. The negative effect on firm entry persists even when we divide our sample into the different stages of the policy introduction. These results are not consistent in restricted samples (nearby counties).

Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2015.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Title as it appears in MIT Commencement Exercises program, June 5, 2015: Computer aided tax evasion policy analysis: partnership calculation. Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-83).
his thesis presents a three part methodology for analyzing the ow of taxable income in large partnership structures. The method forms the basis for prototypical software which would clarify many complicated basis adjustment issues associated with partnership taxation. Partnerships, the most common form of "flow-through" tax entities, have rapidly increased in size, complexity and economic relevance between 2005 to 2015, as well as resulting in an estimated $91 billion in underreported income. Many of these partnerships have upwards of one million direct and indirect partners, as well as 100 tiers of additional large partnerships. This surge in the number of partnerships, combined with the highly complicated nature of US partnership taxation law, requires novel techniques to evaluate the tax consequences of increasingly complex financial activity. A computational methodology is presented in this thesis for understanding and analyzing the allocation of taxable income in large partnership structures, with particular focus on characterizing abusive tax behavior. First, a formal notation is established to fully describe how taxable income is allocated in partnerships, forming the basis of a functioning partnership tax calculator. Next, a simulation is described that processes transaction sequences through partnership structures, as well as a method for assigning audit likelihood to potentially suspicious combinations of financial activity. Finally, a means by which to optimize a) transaction sequences that minimize both tax liability and audit likelihood and b) auditing procedures that characterize abusive tax behavior in a compact form is established. The proposed methodology offers taxpayers, auditors and policy-makers a computational approach to resolve uncertainty in partnership taxation, lower the cost of the auditing process through automation and provide a conceptual exploration of tax policy implications.
by Jacob Rosen.
S.M. in Technology and Policy

Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines how the introduction of preferential tax regimes for Georgian micro and small businesses in 2010 affects formal firm creation and tax compliance. The results show that the new tax regime for micro businesses increased the number of newly registered formal firms by 18-30 percent below the eligibility threshold during the first year of the reform, but not in subsequent years. The analysis does not find an effect of the new tax regime for small businesses on formal firm creation in any year. Policy makers are often concerned about abuse risks stemming from differentiated tax treatment of micro and small businesses. The analysis in this paper reveals reduced tax compliance in 2010 around the micro business eligibility threshold, but does not find significant evidence of reduced compliance by Georgian firms in later years. The results also do not show any significant evidence of strategic sorting around the regime eligibility thresholds. (authors' abstract)
Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

Throughout history there have been taxes. As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said in 1904, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” From the recorded writings of the earliest civilizations to the front page of today’s newspapers, taxes have been core to human existence. Governments require revenue. In the earliest civilizations governments raised revenue to fight wars and defend their citizens. Taxes were used to build roads, ports, and fortresses. As the world economy expanded, taxes were used to promote economic development, build factories, and encourage commerce. As social needs evolved over the last two decades, taxes have been used to provide for the poor and the needy, for education, and to improve the quality of life for a nation’s citizenry.

Regardless of the spending agenda, governments all need revenue. From the first civilizations to today’s modern government, the history of taxation has followed similar patterns and governments throughout history have faced similar challenges. What to tax? Should taxes be levied on property, income, or consumption? How to measure and determine the amount of tax to be paid? How to administer and collect tax? Should tax be direct to the citizen or indirect and collected at the source? How to find a balance in the fairness of tax? And how to deal with the inevitable strategies citizens develop to avoid tax? Should citizens self-report their tax liabilities with government systems to audit those reports? Or should government invest in the infrastructure required to collect taxes at the point of source?

This thesis will explore taxes: the history, the newest ideas, the abuses, and the reasons why tax policy today has become so cumbersome and legalistic that it takes thousands of pages to explain all the complexities of our tax system. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

This thesis studies tax competition from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. In chapter 1 we develop a dynamic two-country optimal taxation model to study tax competition. We find that tax competition is costly and that the equilibrium with tax competition differs remarkably from the first-best outcome in a fiscal union, both during transition and in the long run. In chapter 2 we empirically test the relationship between taxation and agglomeration economies. In the presence of agglomeration economies firms are less sensitive to changes in tax rates, and therefore capital tax competition has a smaller effect on investment. We find some evidence that municipalities in large agglomerations set higher tax rates than municipalities in smaller ones.
Esta tesis estudia la competencia impositiva tanto desde el punto de vista teórico como empírico. En el capítulo 1, desarrollamos un modelo dinámico de imposición óptima en dos países con el objetivo de estudiar la competencia impositiva. Encontramos que la competencia impositiva es costosa y que el equilibrio con competencia impositiva difiere significativamente del mejor resultado en una unión fiscal, tanto durante la transición como en el largo plazo. En el capítulo 2, analizamos empíricamente la relación entre imposición y economías de aglomeración. En presencia de economías de aglomeración, las empresas son menos sensibles a cambios en los tipos impositivos y, por tanto, la competencia impositiva para atraer capital tiene efectos menores en la inversión. Encontramos evidencia a favor de que los municipios en grandes aglomeraciones establecen tipos impositivos más altos que los que están en pequeñas aglomeraciones.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2008.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references.
This dissertation consists of three essays studying the impact of tax policy on housing markets and elderly homeowners. Chapter One examines the potential lock-in effect of capital gains taxation on home sales, using the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA97) as a policy instrument. Before 1997, homeowners were subject to capital gains taxation when they sold their houses unless they purchased replacement homes of equal or greater value. Since 1997, homeowners can exclude $500,000 of capital gains when they sell their houses. Using zip-code level housing price indices and sales data from 1982 to 2006 on single-family houses in 16 affluent towns within the Boston metropolitan area, I find that TRA97 reversed the lock-in effect for houses with low and moderate capital gains. However, the semiannual home sale rate of houses with capital gains above $500,000 declined after TRA97, suggesting that TRA97 generated an unintended lock-in effect for houses with capital gains over the maximum exclusion amount. Chapter Two studies the relationship between property taxes and elderly mobility. This is the first study using an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity problem associated with property taxes in analyzing elderly mobility. Using household-level panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and a newly-collected dataset on state-provided property tax relief programs, I find evidence suggesting that higher property taxes raise mobility rates among elderly homeowners. Eligibility for relief programs lowers mobility rates, and the impact of these programs appears to vary with program types, program generosity, and implementation strategy.
(cont.) Chapter Three investigates the effect of property taxes on elderly homeowners labor supply decisions, using similar data and empirical strategy employed in Chapter Two. I examine both the extensive margin - whether elderly homeowners' delay retirement or reenter the labor force in the face of rising property taxes, and the intensive margin - whether elderly homeowners work longer hours when property taxes increase. I find little evidence that property taxes have a significant impact on elderly labor supply.
Hui Shan.
Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1993.
Title as it appears in the Feb. 1993 MIT Graduate List: Down payments, house prices, and saving for home purchase.
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 116).
by Gary Vincent Engelhardt.
Ph.D.

This paper examines the effects of a unilateral reform of the redistribution policy in an economy open to international trade. We set up a general equilibrium trade model with heterogeneous agents allowing for country asymmetries. We show that under international trade compared to autarky, a unilateral tax increase leads to a less pronounced decline in aggregate real income in the reforming country, while income inequality is reduced to a larger extent for sufficiently small initial tax rates. We highlight as a key mechanism a tax-induced reduction in the market size of the reforming country relative to its trading partner, resulting in a firm selection effect towards exporting. From the perspective of a non-reforming trading partner, the unilateral redistribution policy reform resembles a unilateral increase in trade costs leading to a deterioration of terms-of-trade and a decline in both aggregate real income and inequality.

In order for a pluralist democracy to function well it is necessary that the means to bring forward policy proposals should be dispersed widely among a variety of political parties, pressure groups, and institutions. The goal of this thesis is to define and solve the problems of creating a computer model of tax-benefit policy suitable for a pluralist society. Computer modelling of tax-benefit policies poses two serious problems. Firstly, can such computer models be sufficiently easy to use so that non-experts can use them without the need for computer specialists? Secondly, can they be flexible enough so that truly innovative policies can be simulated, or must the user be restricted to a narrow set of policy options? The first section of the thesis defines the major dilemmas involved in creating a tax-benefit model. Chapter 1 outlines the problems inherent in solving the aforesaid problems of usability and flexibility. Chapter 2 shows how far these problems have been solved already by describing the features of eleven existing models of the British tax-benefit system. The second section of the thesis examines the store of knowledge on which an ideal tax-benefit model should be based. Chapter 3 discusses the various principles which have been advanced as yardsticks by which to measure tax-benefit policy. Chapter 4 examines four case histories of major changes to the tax- benefit system in the past. Chapter 5 makes a detailed examination of the form of behavioural response to tax-benefit policy which has been most frequently explored by policy researchers : the extent to which work incentives are affected by tax-benefit policy. The third section describes the characteristics of a new computer model and a new computer language which have been constructed for this thesis which attempt to deal with the problems of tax-benefit modelling in a pluralist society. Chapter 6 outlines the general features of the data, the new computer language, the Policy Simulation Language, and the new model the Policy Option Model which have been created. Chapter 7 gives a detailed explanation of how the features of the Policy Simulation Language and the Policy Option Model have been implemented. Chapter 8 describes the characteristics of the Policy Option Model's user interface. Chapter 9 gives examples of the output from the Policy Option Model. In order to collect the data for chapter 10 the Policy Option Model was demonstrated to a number of people in the field of tax-benefit modelling who use other models. Chapter 10 contains a selection of the comments of these people after these demonstrations. Chapter 11 outlines possible future developments of the Policy Option Model and discusses the extent to which it has succeeded in solving the problems of tax-benefit modelling in a pluralist society.

Political Science
Ph.D.
Why have Eastern European states adopted flat tax policies? That is what this dissertation answers. This is a curious development given that flat tax policies were noticeably absent from the landscape of most of the world, including Eastern Europe. Fives cases of adoption are examined, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I argue that two simultaneous processes occur in Eastern Europe that makes adoption viable. First, at the domestic level, the idea of the flat tax is held in esteem by a number of actors, specifically: elite carriers, tax and financial ministers, think tanks and right-wing political parties. They champion this idea to its adoption, or at the least, introduce the flat tax into the policy-making apparatus. Second, at the international level, policy diffusion of the flat tax is taking place. In other words, the experience of previous adopters impacts the decisions of future adopters. Examining both cognitive heuristics theory and rational learning I argue that there are "varieties of diffusion" during the diffusion of the flat tax. Additionally, though this dissertation concerns itself primarily with adoption, I also investigate two cases of non-adoption in Poland and Hungary. What is argued is "diffusion without adoption" occurs. The idea of the flat tax diffused, but the adoption was not politically, ideologically, and economically feasible.
Temple University--Theses

This dissertation explores the effect of tax news on national and state-level economic activity. In the first chapter, I explore the effect of tax news on state economic activity. I estimate a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model, which allows us to consider the possibility that unobserved regional factors --such as credit and fiscal conditions-- might be relevant for modelling the dynamic response of aggregate and state-level economic activity. Tax news is identified as a shock to the implicit tax rate, measured by the yield spread between the one year tax-exempt municipal bond and the one-year taxable Treasury bond. My results suggest that an increase in the implicit tax rate raises national output over much of the anticipation period. In addition, anticipated tax increases give rise to expansions in state personal income and employment. I find that the variation in the responsiveness of economic activity across states is mostly explained by differences in industrial composition as well as by some demographic characteristics such as education attainment and median age. In the second chapter, I examine the impact and transmission of the effect of tax news on U.S. economic activity. I find that news related to higher federal income taxes raise the real GDP over the anticipation period. In addition, aggregate and disaggregate industrial production, employment per worker, hours worked per worker and capacity utilization rate respond positively to tax news in the short run. An historical decomposition shows that tax news and federal funds rate shocks have been the main source of fluctuations in real GDP. In particular, tax news associated with legislation in 1986, 1993, and 2001 contributed to the movements in the real GDP. In the third chapter, I investigate whether the effect of tax news shocks differs across periods of recession and expansion. I follow Jorda’s (2005) local projection method to estimate tax news effects on the economy. I find that news about future tax cuts reduces economic activity for about four quarters and has a significant effect on the U.S. economy in the short run. The behavior of output following tax news shocks is similar in both recession and expansion phases of the business cycle and indicates that news about future tax cuts are contractionary. However, the rebound in economic activity four quarters after the news shock is higher in the recessionary phase than in the expansionary phase. Finally, the state dependent model shows that news shocks have a stronger positive impact on consumption expenditures and residential investment in the recession phase than in the expansion phase.

Master of Agribusiness
Department of Agricultural Economics
Allen M. Featherstone
Since 1977, the State of Illinois has used a use-value method of assessing farmland for property taxes. The method establishes farmland value by determining a five year average of net income from the land that is capitalized using a five year average interest rate. Other real estate in Illinois follows a different procedure for assessment. For example, residential property is assessed at one-third of its market value. The differences among the methods of assessment for farmland and other types of real estate, along with recent market increases in farmland values and a strong agriculture economy, have led some to question the current method of farmland assessment. The objective of this thesis is to determine the financial impact to farmers resulting from changing from the current use-value assessment of farmland to market-value assessment. This is accomplished with two sub-objectives: determine the potential change in farmland values that could occur and to determine the impact on net farm income that could occur if property tax policy was changed to market-value assessment. To accomplish the first sub-objective, a model was developed to estimate farmland values in Illinois based on the current use-value assessment property tax policy. This model was then adjusted to estimate farmland values under a market-value assessment property tax policy. The models demonstrated that farmland values could fall 53 percent, or an average of $2,548 per acre, in the year immediately following implementation of a tax policy change. Once farmland values stabilize after implementation of the tax policy change, farmland values would be 30 percent less, or an average of $1,875 per acre less, under market-value assessment than under use-value assessment. A simulation of net farm income over a ten year time frame was then conducted to estimate the potential change in net farm income that could occur from a change to market-value assessment. Like farmland values, the greatest impact to net farm incomes occur in the first year market-value assessment is implemented. Farmland values and the resulting property taxes then stabilize during later years. The simulation of net farm income over a ten year time frame estimates that net farm income would be 8 percent lower per year, or a reduction in net farm incomes of an average of $12,721 per year, under market-value assessment. The analysis also showed the potential for an average of a 2 percent increase in the probability that net farm income would fall below zero over the simulation time frame. The analysis demonstrates that a change from use-value assessment to market-value assessment of farmland could reduce farmland values and net farm incomes. Such a change in policy is not in the best interests of farmers or the agriculture industry in Illinois, as the reduced values and incomes would have wide reaching negative consequences that could reach beyond farmers and farmland owners.

Power engineering today is the most vulnerable point of Ukraine economy. Energy Strategy of Ukraine aims to increase the share of domestic fossil fuels in the energy balance of the country to 91.8% until 2030 (Energy Strategy of Ukraine till 2030). High dependence Ukrainian industry on fossil fuels leads to significant industrial and transport emissions. The carbon dioxide CO2, carbon monoxide CO, nitrogen oxides NO, NO2, sulfur dioxide SO2 and hydrocarbons are discharged into the air as a result of combustion are. The largest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector carries out power industry. Its share is 76,06 % in 2011.

In the first essay I examine the relation between firm advertising and tax aggressiveness. Advertising increases firm visibility in both the product and the financial market. While investors would appreciate more tax savings, they are aware of the negative impact of tax aggressiveness on consumers’ views of the firm and hence its competitive positions in the product market. We find that firms that spend more on advertising have fewer tax sheltering activities, lower book-tax differences, and higher cash effective tax rates. Specifically, an increase of 1% on Advertisingi,t (ADVGPi,t), the firm pays an additional tax of $0.70 million ($10.92 million). However, the negative impact of advertising on tax aggressiveness becomes weaker (and even reverses) for firms having great transparency, more public scrutiny, or strong external monitoring. We control for endogeneity using propensity score matching and an instrumental variable approach. Our findings are consistent with the argument that advertising enhances corporate reputation and is an important determinant in firms’ tax planning. In the second essay I document a significant increase in opportunistic insider trades when retail investors are paying greater attention to the stock. Using Google SVI to proxy for their level of attention, we find that a higher (lower) SVI on a stock is associated with more insider sales (purchases) of the stock and greater abnormal returns on the sales (purchases). A value-weighted long-short portfolio mimicking insider trades would earn an abnormal return of 1.19% per month (14.28% per year), excluding transaction costs. We also fund that the SVI-related insider traders tend to be non-independent directors who have long tenures but no senior executive positions in their firm and the firm tends to exhibit weaker governance, lower reputation, and poorer social responsibility. Our results are more pronounced for lottery-type stocks but are weaker for stocks with large attention of local investors. Interestingly, the risk of SEC investigation and litigation is lower on SVI-related insider sales and this type of sales actually rises following an increase in news releases of SEC enforcement action. Overall, certain insiders appear to engage in trades to take advantage of variations of retail investors’ attention to their stock.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
We contribute to the literature addressing the cyclical behavior of tax policy. Most recent studies have relied on tax revenues and adjusted measures of tax collections to analyze this issue. We argue that such methodology is insufficient to characterize tax policy cyclicality, as tax revenues move endogenously with the business cycle. Consequently, this topic is revisited by making use of the policy instrument, tax rate, as opposed to the policy outcome, tax revenues. Using data for 13 European countries, we find that tax policy has mostly been a-cyclical over the last 30 years.

Introduction: Mexico’s prevalence of adult overweight and obesity is 72.5%, and 34.4% for school children. Mexico has one of the highest consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally. In 2012, during the transition to a new President, a new obesity strategy was proposed and developed. As part of this policy, a soda tax was implemented in Mexico in January 2014. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the soda tax emerged as a policy issue in Mexico and how stakeholders influenced its development and implementation. Methods: Thirty-three semi-structured elite interviews were conducted with stakeholders involved in the obesity policy process. Interview data was triangulated with data collected through a documentary analysis, using a systematic search of a wide range of reports, policy and organisations documents generated before and during the soda tax design and implementation phases (January 2011 to December 2015). This resulted in the analysis of 145 documents. An iterative thematic qualitative analysis of both interviews and document data was conducted, guided by the policy network approach, framing theory and multiple steams theory. Results: Many contextual factors were found to have facilitated the soda tax policy development including: the new government needing to find additional sources of revenue; increased public and government awareness of the high sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in Mexico, and its relationship to obesity and diabetes trends: greater influence gained by national NGOs through use of the media and supported by international organizations, use of existing national networks and new collaborations within Mexico. Some key relationships and links influenced the agenda setting for important policy issues. This included how conflict of interests, accountability, and representations in the formal policy process were managed. This revealed power imbalances around the policy debates and shifts in the attitude, responsibilities and actions of major actors The Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) were initially ambivalent and resisted development of a soda tax,not always being strong advocates as would have been expected. The formal policy design process followed a multi-stakeholder approach which actively involved the food and beverage industry (F&BI). They were able to influence policy actions to mitigate the soda tax impact on the F&BI, undermining some outcomes. Actions by other non-state actors (e.g. ) to influence public perception about benefits and constraints of the tax included: the use of marketing strategies, calls for action using the media, framing of arguments as “the right to health” and “the multi-causality of obesity” rhetoric and implementation of corporate social responsibility actions. The effectiveness of the soda tax was highly debated in public before and after implementation, resulting in public polarization. Until the soda tax emerged as a policy option, the influence of the F&BI on health policy had not been perceived as a conflict of interest or problematic and it continues to be ignored as such by some state policy actors. Conclusion: This thesis contributes to the debate on how power is exercised, framed and shifted throughout the health policy process. It discusses the contextual factors that facilitated the soda tax development in Mexico, including how framing of evidence about obesity as a policy problem and possible solutions influenced the agenda setting. It identifies the key organisations and networks that were instrumental in policy making. This research provides evidence about how the F&BI have wielded their influence in regulatory actions within the national strategy for obesity prevention, and specifically the soda tax in Mexico. It highlights how the soda tax also brought about new opportunities for some actors framed around the issue of provision of safe drinking water. The soda tax resulted in the empowerment of advocacy groups and networks nationally supported by international actors, which was counter-balanced by new public-private partnerships and corporate social responsibility actions. This thesis demonstrates that corporate interests continued to have an influence on Mexican health policy after the introduction of the soda tax.

This thesis investigates the impact of corporation tax on leverage, systematic risk and leasing by using the changes in corporation tax effected through the corporation tax reform of 1984. I also investigate whether there was any relationship between ownership structure of a firm and its response to the 1984 reform. Whereas theoretical models suggest that corporation tax influences corporate financial policy, extant empirical findings provide inconclusive evidence to support the tax theories of capital structure. The inconclusive findings from earlier studies are attributable to the methodology used and a failure to perfectly isolate the impact of corporation tax from that of other variables that affect leverage. I effectively curb this deficiency by analysing the effects of corporation tax on leverage, equity beta and leasing around the corporation tax reform period by using both cross-sectional and time series analysis. My empirical results show that the corporation tax reform of 1984 affected debt-equity ratios negatively. These findings imply that corporation tax influence firm's capital structure decision. Furthermore, there is evidence that taxable profits increased significantly during the reform period. Effective corporation tax rates and non-debt tax shields are found to substitute each other and both have a significant influence on firms' capital structure decisions. Similar to the findings of previous UK studies, leasing and debt financing are found to be substitutes. The results show further that the corporation tax reform of 1984 increased the attractiveness of leasing to the UK firms. Sector-based-analysis shows that in general UK manufacturing firms have high lease rate than other sectors analysed. Empirical findings show also that effective corporation tax rate has significant effect in firm's systematic risk as measured by equity beta. Concerning the relationship between the responses of firms to the reform and their ownership structures the evidence shows that the changes in debt-equity ratios and investment induced by the corporation tax reform of 1984 was related to managerial ownership. Generally, the findings of this study show clearly that corporation tax is a major factor that influences both cross-sectional and periodic variations in debt-equity ratios.

State and local governments play an important role in financing and delivering public services in the United States. In 2008, state and local governments collected 57 percent of total federal, state, and local revenue (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, Tax Policy Center, 2009). The decentralization of fiscal responsibility has enabled a high degree of variation in state and local tax structures to emerge. This dissertation presents two empirical studies that extend the positive literature on state and local tax policy. The extant literature contains evidence of a direct relationship between voter ideology and state and local tax progressivity. However, the measures of voter ideology that were used either did not capture differences in the intensity of voter liberalism across states, did not vary over time, or were beset with other limitations. This study uses the measure of average voter liberalism developed by Berry et al (1998). I find that average voter liberalism is significantly and positively-related to progressivity. However, the effect is small in magnitude. The ethnic congruence between the poor and the non-poor is positively-related to progressivity and the effects are economically significant. The degree of tension between ethnic groups, measured with an index of ethnic residential segregation, is significantly and inversely-related to progressivity. Both variables are statistically significant even with average voter liberalism held constant. It is possible that the ethnic demographic context reflects aspects of voters’ redistributive preferences that are not captured by measures of ideology. Researchers have found relationships between states’ tax exporting capacities and the tax structures they adopt. Chapter 4 is the first study to examine the relationship between state tax exporting capacities and the business sales taxes. I find that the effective sales tax rate that governments impose on business purchases is not significantly influenced by a state’s capacity to export business taxes. It is, however, significantly and positively affected by a state’s ability to export taxes on households through the deductibility of state and local taxes under the federal income tax. A decrease in this offset is predicted to lead to an increase in the effective business sales tax rate, ceteris paribus.

During the twenty-first century, why have some welfare state governments shifted their tax system towards a greater dependence upon consumption taxes, while other governments have chosen to move away from this dependence? This paper addresses that question by examining the contemporary politics of taxation in Canada and Germany. It analyzes what causes a government to choose employ specific tax policy instruments. This paper contends that, if a government is insecure and in need of enlarging its support base, it will largely ignore fiscal policies that predominantly focus on improving aggregate economic conditions in favour of policies which provide fiscal benefits to necessary constituencies, unless both dire economic conditions and adequate blame avoidance opportunities exists. While Canada chose to shift its tax burden away from consumption taxes because these necessary conditions did not exist, Germany chose to shift its tax burden towards consumption taxes because these conditions did exist.

This professorial dissertation thesis collects several empirical studies on tax distribution and tax reform in Germany. Chapter 2 deals with two studies on effective income taxation, based on representative micro data sets from tax statistics. The first study analyses the effective income taxation at the individual level, in particular with respect to the top incomes. It is based on an integrated micro data file of household survey data and income tax statistics, which captures the entire income distribution up to the very top. Despite substantial tax base erosion and reductions of top tax rates, the German personal income tax has remained effectively progressive. The distribution of the tax burden is highly concentrated and the German economic elite is still taxed relatively heavily, even though the effective tax rate for this group has significantly declined. The second study of Chapter 2 highlights the effective income taxation of functional income sources, such as labor income, business and capital income, etc. Using income tax micro data and microsimulation models, we allocate the individual income tax liability to the respective income sources, according to different apportionment schemes accounting for losses. We find that the choice of the apportionment scheme markedly affects the tax shares of income sources and implicit tax rates, in particular those of capital income. Income types without significant losses such as labor income or transfer incomes show higher tax shares and implicit tax rates if we account for losses. The opposite is true for capital income, in particular for income from renting and leasing. Chapter 3 presents two studies on business taxation, based on representative micro data sets from tax statistics and the microsimulation model BizTax. The first part provides a study on fundamental reform options for the German local business tax. We find that today’s high concentration of local business tax revenues on corporations with high profits decreases if the tax base is broadened by integrating more taxpayers and by including more elements of business value added. The reform scenarios with a broader tax base distribute the local business tax revenue per capita more equally across regional categories. The second study of Chapter 3 discusses the macroeconomic performance of business taxation against the background of corporate income. A comparison of the tax base reported in tax statistics with the macroeconomic corporate income from national accounts gives hints to considerable tax base erosion. The average implicit tax rate on corporate income was around 20 percent since 2001, and thus falling considerably short of statutory tax rates and effective tax rates discussed in the literature. For lack of detailed accounting data it is hard to give precise reasons for the presumptive tax base erosion. Chapter 4 deals with several assessment studies on the ecological tax reform implemented in Germany as of 1999. First, we describe the scientific, ideological, and political background of the ecological tax reform. Further, we present the main findings of a first systematic impact analysis. We employ two macroeconomic models, an econometric input-output model and a recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Both models show that Germany’s ecological tax reform helps to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions without having a substantial adverse effect on overall economic growth. It could have a slightly positive effect on employment. The reform’s impact on the business sector and the effects of special provisions granted to agriculture and the goods and materials sectors are outlined in a further study. The special provisions avoid higher tax burdens on the energy-intensive production. However, they widely reduce the marginal tax rates and thus the incentives to energy saving. Though the reform of special provisions 2003 increased the overall tax burden of the energy-intensive industry, the enlarged eligibility for tax rebates neutralizes the ecologic incentives. Based on the Income and Consumption Survey of 2003, we have analyzed the distributional impact of the ecological tax reform. The increased energy taxes show a clear regressive impact relative to disposable income. Families with children face a higher tax burden relative to household income. The reduction of pension contributions and the automatic adjustment of social security transfers widely mitigate this regressive impact. Households with low income or with many children nevertheless bear a slight increase in tax burden. Refunding the eco tax revenue by an eco bonus would make the reform clearly progressive.
Diese Habilitationsschrift fasst verschiedene empirische Studien zu Steuerlastverteilung und Steuerreformen in Deutschland zusammen. In Kapitel 2 werden zwei Studien zur effektiven Einkommensteuerbelastung dargestellt. Die erste Studie analysiert die effektive Einkommensteuerbelastung auf der persönlichen Ebene, insbesondere bei Personen mit hohen Einkommen. Grundlage der Analyse ist ein integrierter Mikrodatensatz aus Haushaltserhebungen und Steuerstatistik, der die vollständige Einkommensverteilung zuverlässig abbildet. Trotz erheblicher Steuerbegünstigungen und Senkungen der Spitzensteuersätze wirkt die deutsche Einkommensteuer klar progressiv, auch wenn die Belastung der Top-Verdiener in den letzten Jahren deutlich gesunken ist. Die zweite Studie in Kapitel 2 analysiert die effektive Einkommensteuerbelastung von verschiedenen funktionalen Einkommensquellen. Auf Grundlage von steuerstatistischen Mikrodaten und Mikrosimulationsmodellen analysieren wir die Anteile der Einkunftsarten an der Steuerbelastung für verschiedene Aufteilungsregeln unter Berücksichtigung von Verlusten. Die Wahl der Aufteilungsregel wirkt sich spürbar auf den Steueranteil und die impliziten Steuersätze von Einkommensarten aus, wenn Verluste berücksichtigt werden, vor allem bei den Vermögenseinkommen. Kapitel 3 enthält zwei Studien zur Unternehmensbesteuerung, die auf repräsentativen Einzeldatensätzen der Steuerstatistik und dem Mikrosimulationsmodell BizTax basieren. Zunächst wird eine Mikrosimulationsanalyse zu grundlegenden Reformmodellen für die Gewerbesteuer vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die starke Konzentration des Gewerbesteueraufkommens auf die Unternehmen mit höheren Gewinnen deutlich vermindert werden kann, wenn die Bemessungsgrundlagen verbreitert werden, durch Einbeziehung aller Unternehmen und eine Ausweitung auf weitere Komponenten der betrieblichen Wertschöpfung. Diese Reformszenarien verteilen das Steueraufkommen je Einwohner deutlich gleichmäßiger über die Regionen. In der zweiten Studie des Kapitels 3 analysieren wir das Unternehmensteueraufkommen vor dem Hintergrund der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Unternehmensgewinne. Ein Vergleich der steuerlichen Bemessungsgrundlagen mit den entsprechenden Unternehmensgewinnen der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen ergibt eine beträchtliche Besteuerungslücke. Die durchschnittliche effektive Unternehmensteuerbelastung dürfte sich seit 2001 um 20 Prozent bewegt haben. Dies ist deutlich niedriger als die nominalen tariflichen Steuersätze und die effektiven Steuersätze, die in der Literatur ermittelt werden. Mangels detaillierter statistischer Erfassung der steuerlichen Gewinnermittlung ist es derzeit nicht möglich, diese Besteuerungslücke genauer aufzuklären. In Kapitel 4 werden verschiedene Studien zur ökologischen Steuerreform dargestellt. Zunächst werden die wissenschaftlichen, ideologischen und politischen Hintergründe dieser Reform erläutert. Danach wird eine erste systematische Wirkungsanalyse dargestellt. Dabei werden zwei makroökonomische Modelle eingesetzt, ein ökonometrisches Input-Output-Modell und ein empirisches rekursiv-dynamisches allgemeines Gleichgewichtsmodell. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die ökologische Steuerreform den Energieverbrauch und die CO2-Emissionen spürbar senken kann, ohne dass dies nennenswerte Wachstumseinbußen nach sich ziehen würde. Ferner löst die Reform leicht positive Beschäftigungseffekte aus. Die Wirkungen der ökologischen Steuerreform nach Wirtschaftsbereichen und die Wirkungen der Steuervergünstigungen für Landwirtschaft und Produzierendes Gewerbe werden in einer weiteren Studie analysiert. Die Steuervergünstigungen vermeiden höhere Belastungen in den energieintensiven Produktionsbereichen. Zugleich reduzieren sie die Grenzbelastungen und somit die Anreize zum Energiesparen in diesen Branchen weitgehend. Die Reform der Steuervergünstigungen hat zwar die Belastungen für die energieintensive Wirtschaft seit 2003 erhöht. Die zusätzlichen Anreizwirkungen wurden aber durch die Ausweitung des „Spitzenausgleichs“ konterkariert. Die Effekte der ökologischen Steuerreform auf die Einkommensverteilung wurden auf Grundlage der Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe 2003 untersucht. Die erhöhten Energiesteuern wirken klar regressiv bezogen auf das verfügbare Einkommen. Familien mit Kindern werden relativ stärker belastet. Die Senkung der Rentenbeiträge und die automatische Anpassung von Sozialleistungen mildern die regressive Belastungswirkung. Bei Haushalten mit niedrigen Einkommen oder bei Familien mit vielen Kindern bleiben jedoch Nettobelastungen bestehen. Eine Rückerstattung des Ökosteueraufkommens durch einen „Ökobonus“ würde die gesamten Verteilungswirkungen der Reform deutlich progressiv machen.

The South African fiscal legislators have found it necessary to introduce anti-avoidance legislation which governs controlled foreign companies in order to counteract schemes devised by taxpayers where companies are established outside South Africa for the purpose of diverting income from the South African fiscal net. Whilst the enforcement of such legislation does have merit in that the intention behind the introduction of such domestic legislation is to prevent the erosion of the South African tax base, it is submitted that this does pose a problem from an international perspective. The objective of this treatise is to conduct a critical analysis of how compatible the South African fiscal legislation which governs controlled foreign companies is with the provisions of the double taxation agreement as prescribed in terms of the OECD Model Tax Convention (which was published in July 2010). In addition, the aim of this study is to deduce whether the purpose of the double taxation agreement is not only the avoidance of juridical double taxation but also that it addresses the avoidance of economic double taxation. This will assist in determining whether domestic controlled foreign company legislation (as embodied in section 9D of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962) conflicts with the purpose of the double taxation agreement. By conducting an extensive research study and by depicting a certain scenario which addresses the issue at hand, the following is concluded: The tax treatment of the business profits generated by a controlled foreign company resident in a State outside South Africa and which have been generated from active business operating activities, is held to be in agreement with the provisions of the double taxation agreement. By contrast, the tax treatment of the controlled foreign company’s passive income in the form of interest income, is found not to correlate with the aforesaid agreement. As will be demonstrated in the chapters that follow, the controlled foreign company’s interest income is subjected to economic double taxation in terms of the scenario depicted in this treatise. This means that such income is taxed twice in the hands of two different taxpayers in two different States. As a result of this it is submitted that the following problem arises: Because section 9D of the Income Tax Act causes economic double taxation to occur (as illustrated in the previous paragraphs) and owing to the fact that the purpose of the double taxation agreement is the avoidance of economic double taxation, it can be shown that the section 9D domestic legislation conflicts with the terms of the double taxation agreement. This conflict is considered to be an area of concern because a contravention of the purpose of the double taxation agreement is regarded as a breach of the Contracting States’ international obligations in terms of the aforesaid agreement. It is further submitted that paragraph 23 of the OECD Commentary on article 1 and paragraph 14 of the OECD Commentary on article 7 are incorrect when they express the sentiment that domestic controlled foreign company legislation does not conflict with the provisions of the double taxation agreement. It is proposed that this be corrected to state the contrary.

The development of tax policy has always been treated to the most important categories in the economic life of our country. This is the stay of our economy in recovery mode after the global financial crisis, when it is necessary to correct an economic and management processes of financial capacity, based on taxes. Today in Ukraine there are a number of misunderstandings between the state and individuals and entities on the new rules of taxation. Because the data generated by misunderstanding each other rallies of entrepreneurs who they want to defend their position. Therefore, we can literally talk about the relevance of the topic for Ukraine. The study of this paper supports the analysis of tax policy, determines its weaknesses and finding ways to improve.

1. Afanasieva I.I. Implementation of the provisions of EU directives in Ukraine. Bulletin of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, № 3 (233), 2017. P. 9-12. URL: http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi- bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?I21DBN=LINK&P21DBN=UJRN&Z21ID=&S21REF=10&S21CNR=20&S21STN =1&S21FMT= ASP_meta& C21COM=S&2_S21P03=FILA=&2_S21STR=VSUNU_2017_3_3. 2. Voronska OO Taxes in Ukraine: from theory to practice: Training course. - К.: Accent PP. - 2018. - 464 p.
The role of the tax system and tax policy, basic principles and types of taxes are analyzed. The directions of tax policy improvement will be determined, which will contribute to the effective development of the national economy.
Проаналізовано роль податкової системи та податкової політики, основні принципи та види податків. Визначено напрями удосконалення податкової політики, що сприятиме забезпеченню ефективного розвитку національної економіки.

The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) is a first of its kind wage subsidy policy in South Africa. Designed to tackle the problem of youth unemployment, the ETI differs from previous policies as it aims to address unemployment through stimulating job creation. Youth unemployment has remained above 40 percent in the past ten years and is one of South Africa's key challenges. The policy was adopted in the face of this alarmingly high level of youth unemployment and at a time where the aggregate demand was low. This thesis is an important contribution to the academic literature on the demand for young workers by providing insights into this large active labour market policy intervention. The first substantive contribution is the preparation and development of a panel dataset based on payroll tax records. The tax data panel is then used to investigate the beneficiaries of the subsidy. Large firms in retail; manufacturing and financial services sectors are responsible for the highest number and largest value of subsidy claims. The subsidy is well targeted reaching younger workers in the eligible group. The subsidy is, however, only reaching half of all subsidy eligible workers. The second contribution is the investigation of job creation at the firm level. Using a matched difference-in-differences approach, a subset of ETI firms is found to have increased their employment of youth and these results are robust to various measures of youth employment. No evidence of displacement of ineligible workers if found. The third contribution explores the labour market outcomes of individuals eligible for the subsidy. Using both tax and survey data, I estimate the intention-to-treat impacts of the ETI using a triple differences method. There are very small positive effects on earnings and entry into employment and no evidence of change on overall employment and unemployment rates for young, low-wage workers. The thesis concludes by assessing the aggregate implications from these results for understanding youth unemployment in the South African labour market and the role of active labour market policy in overcoming this problem.

From a tax policy perspective, tax avoidance creates serious problems by undermining the key objectives and features of a good tax system. Therefore, most advanced tax systems attempt to restrain abusive tax avoidance. The General Anti-Avoidance Rule (the "GAAR") is the primary Canadian control on tax avoidance in the income tax context. Despite the presence of a statutory GAAR, however, Canadian tax law struggles to clearly and consistently identify abusive tax avoidance and to distinguish it from legitimate tax mitigation. In this thesis, the author proposes a theoretical framework for identifying abusive tax avoidance and for controlling it using the GAAR. The tax system is of central importance in democracies like Canada, and certain values linked to equity, fairness, and the rule of law must be respected in distinguishing between tax avoidance and tax mitigation. Drawing on common approaches to identifying tax avoidance, the thesis proposes its own theoretical approach from a tax policy perspective. Courts in other jurisdictions have adopted a variety of judicial doctrines aimed at controlling tax avoidance, such as the business purpose test, the step transaction doctrine, an economic substance analysis, and the abuse of rights doctrine. Canadian courts confronting tax avoidance have declined to adopt any such doctrines as a matter of statutory interpretation. The GAAR is intended to mandate a break from the Canadian interpretive tradition. The GAAR creates a three-step framework to identifying tax avoidance - tax benefit, avoidance transaction, and misuse or abuse. Those concepts are related to the theoretical approaches and anti-avoidance doctrines reviewed in this thesis. The author suggests that the GAAR can be applied in a manner that preserves ideal tax policy outcomes in tax avoidance cases. The thesis examines real tax avoidance scenarios in which Canadian courts have resisted applying the GAAR - a circular financing sale-leaseback transaction, and surplus stripping. The thesis argues that these transactions are indeed abusive when viewed in terms of the theory proposed, and that Canadian courts have made key errors in applying the GAAR.
Law, Peter A. Allard School of
Graduate

碩士
東吳大學
經濟學系
89
Abstract This dissertation examines the effect of the different tax policies on irreversible investment timing problem whose returns are uncertain. In the case of monopoly we find both proportional tax and sales tax delay the firm’s investment timing. Consider the case that expected present values of proportional tax and sales tax are the same, we find that the higher the sales tax , volatility, relative wage between original and new market is , the later a monopolist invest in new market under sales tax than under proportional tax. In the case of duopoly two pattern of equilibrium emerge: joint investment and preemption. Their results is similar with monopoly.

We consider the efficiency implications of policies to reduce global carbon emissions in a world with pre-existing tax distortions. We first show that the weak double dividend, the proposition that the welfare improvement from a tax reform where environme ntal taxes are used to lower distorting taxes must be greater than the welfare improvement from a reform where the environmental taxes are returned in a lump sum fashion, need not hold in a world with multiple distortions. A small analytic general equilib rium model is constructed to demonstrate this result. We then present a large-scale computable general equilibrium model of the world economy with distortionary taxation. We use this model to evaluate a number of policies to reduce carbon emissions. We find that the weak double dividend is not obtained in a number of European countries. Results also demonstrate the point that the interplay between carbon policies and pre-existing taxes can differ markedly across countries. Thus one must be cautious in extrapolating the results from a country specific analysis to other countries.
Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Website. (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-18).

碩士
國立臺北大學
會計學系
105
This paper investigates the substitution effect between corporate tax avoidance and debt policy, and examines the sensibility of the substitution effect to three firm attributes including size, profitability and credit constraint, which capture the relative appeal of non-debt and debt related tax shields, using a sample of Taiwan listed corporations for the period of 2005- 2015. Partially consistent with prior research, Graham and Tucker (2006) as well as Rao, R. and T. R. Yu (2013), we find that the corporate tax avoidance is significantly negatively associated with leverage when leverage measured by total debt ratio, and the corporate tax avoidance is significantly positively associated with leverage when leverage measured by long-term debt ratio. To ensure robustness of our findings we estimate an equivalent model with changes in place of levels. In a changes framework, it shows a positive association between tax avoidance and leverage, which is inconsistent with Rao, R. and T. R. Yu (2013). Furthermore, the relation between tax avoidance and leverage is significant and negative for the large firms when leverage measured by total debt ratio, and is significant and positive for the smaller firms when leverage measured by long-term debt ratio. In addition, the relation between tax avoidance and leverage is significant and negative for the less profitable firms when leverage measured by total debt ratio, and is significant and positive for the profitable firms when leverage measured by long-term debt ratio. Lastly, the relation between tax avoidance and leverage is significant and negative for firms with less favorable prior credit ratings when leverage measured by total debt ratio, and is significant and positive for firms without credit ratings when leverage measured by long-term debt ratio.