In 2001 and 2003, the Bush administration engineered two enormous tax cuts primarily benefiting very wealthy taxpayers. Most Americans supported these tax cuts. I argue that they did so not because they were indifferent to economic inequality, but because they largely failed to connect inequality and public policy. Three out of every four people polled said that the difference in incomes betwee...

The tax reform literature, pioneered by Guesnerie [1977], uses static models but implicitly views tax reform as a dynamic process, i.e., as a policy-maker implementing incremental reforms over time. This paper studies tax reform in a dynamic version of the Diamond-Mirrlees-Guesnerie model and focuses on a specific aspect of the dynamic process, namely, the implications for tax reform of agents ...

The paper studies the determinants of information sharing between Swedish tax authorities and 14 EU tax authorities for value-added tax (VAT) purposes. It is shown that trade-related variables (such as the partner country’s net trade position and population size), reciprocity, and legal arrangements are significant determinants of Sweden’s trade in tax information. Countries that are net export...

Obesity is a global problem. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are a leading contributor of added sugars in individual diets and thus to obesity. Governments have considered taxing SSBs to prevent obesity and generate revenue, but no 'one-size-fits-all' taxation approach exists. We describes three key considerations for governments interested in exploring beverage taxation: (i) what type of tax t...

Can governments increase private savings by taxing savings up front instead of in retirement? Roth 401(k) contributions are not tax-deductible in the contribution year, but withdrawals in retirement are untaxed. The more common before-tax 401(k) contribution is tax-deductible in the contribution year, but both principal and investment earnings are taxed upon withdrawal. Using administrative dat...

OBJECTIVE To assess critically the scope for public health nutrition taxation within the framework of the global tax reform agenda. DESIGN Review of the tax policy literature for global policy priorities relevant to public health nutrition taxation; critical analysis of proposals for public health nutrition taxation judged against the global agenda for tax reform. SETTING The global tax ref...

This paper examines introducing Economic Value Added as a performance measure for small manufacturing companies. Advantages and disadvantages of using Economic Value Added as a primary measure of performance as compared to sales, revenues, earnings, operating profit, profit after tax, and profit margin are investigated. The Economic Value Added calculation using data from a small company’s inco...