United States Tax Reform in the 21st Century

by Edited by George R. Zodrow , Peter Mieszkowski

• ISBN13: 9780521084901
• ISBN10: 0521084903
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Tax reform debates in the United States have for some time been dominated by the question of whether the existing corporate and individual income tax system should be replaced with some form of a national consumption tax. This book contains essays by a group of internationally recognized tax experts who describe the current state of the art in economic thinking on the issue of whether fundamental tax reform is preferable to continued incremental reform of the existing income tax. The collection covers a wide range of tax policy issues related to consumption tax reforms, including their economic effects, distributional consequences, effects on administrative and compliance costs, transitional issues and the political aspects of fundamental tax reform, and international comparisons.

Table of Contents

The fundamental question in fundamental tax reform

Behavioral responses to a consumption tax

The economic impact of fundamental tax reform

Capital income taxation in tax reform: implications for analysis of distribution and efficiency

International aspects of fundamental tax reform

Distributive analysis of fundamental tax

The role of administrative issues in tax reform: simplicity, compliance, and administration

Evaluating NRST from a VAT perspective

Transitional issues in the implementation of a flat tax or a national retail sales tax

Historical and contemporary debate on consumption taxes

The politics and ideology of fundamental tax reform

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.