Business Commons^™

Tax Reform In Rhode Island: Developing A High Quality Revenue Stream, Nicholas A. Denice

Honors Projects in Accounting

The present study explores the current state of taxation in Rhode Island in relation to its sales tax. An analysis of the literature will examine how the current sales tax system compares with other alternatives and if it hurts the state's economic competitiveness as shown in tax burden studies. Using Rhode Island tax data from the Annual State Audit and Consumer Expenditure Survey, this study will analyze the current sales tax system in the state and determine whether an alternative model would lead to a higher-quality revenue stream. Data from the State of Rhode Island General Audit Report and the …

Gaming In Britain And America: Some Historical Comparisons, Nicholas Tosney Ph.D.

Occasional Papers

This paper compares the development of gambling in Britain during the late 17th and 18th centuries with the emergence of gambling in Nevada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing on the existence of similar themes and ideas in different contexts, the author demonstrates several benefits of comparative studies of gambling. Focusing principally on gambling games played with cards and dice, this paper begins by examining approaches to taxing gaming before moving on to consider regulatory strategies.

Developing A Culturally Responsive Classroom Collaborative Of Faculty, Students, And Institution, Paul J. Colbert

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

Culture is integral to the learning process. It is the organization and way of life within the community of students and teachers and directs the way they communicate, interact, and approach teaching and learning. Although founded in particular values and principles, the academy, like most organizations, is impacted day-to-day by its culture. Yet, the traditional higher education institution has not been designed to operate within a racially or ethnically diverse student population. The social, political, economic, and cultural forces that support the institution influence the teaching and learning environments. To better address cultural diversity in the classroom, faculty must first …

Simple Pigovian Taxes Vs. Emission Fees To Control Negative Externalities: A Pedagogical Note, Robert S. Main

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Many economics texts introduce their analysis of negative externalities by examining a tax on the output of polluting firms, sometimes called a "simple Pigovian tax," often pointing out that taxing pollution directly is superior to taxing output and proceeding to discuss an emission tee as an alternative. They do not show how and why an emission fee is more efficient than an output tax. This note presents a numerical example allowing comparison of the welfare effects of the two approaches, as well as showing why simply reducing the pollution intensity of polluters' output would be inferior to an emission fee.

Políticas Públicas Para Enfrentar Los Desafíos Proporcionados Por Las Rentas Económicas: El Caso Del Impuesto Específico A La Minería, Andrew Linville

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La economía chilena es fuertemente dependiente en la explotación y exportación de productos primarios y en sectores de recursos naturales, como los sectores minero, forestal, pesquero, y frutícola. El modelo de desarrollo emprendido por Chile en los últimos treinta años, uno de apertura unilateral y bilateral a flujos de bienes y capital, ha dado importancia especial a las políticas impositivas y reguladoras entorno a esos sectores. Sin embargo, la explotación de recursos naturales escasos proporciona un rango de desafíos únicos debido a la existencia de rentas económicas y los efectos de competencia, distribución y desarrollo regional que las acompañan. Mi …

Effects Of A Taxation Ethics Intervention On Hong Kong Undergraduates' Attitude Towards Tax Avoidance And Evasion, Richard S. Simmons

Hong Kong Institute of Business Studies Working Paper Series

Increasing public concern over the ethical behaviour of accounting professionals, including those involved in providing tax services, has focused attention on the effectiveness of educational responses to the problem. Accordingly, this study investigates whether a tax ethics intervention imbedded in an undergraduate taxation course influences the attitudes towards tax avoidance and evasion of accounting major business students at a university in Hong Kong. The research also considers whether the intervention changes students' attitudes towards the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility (CESR).

The study adopts a survey approach incorporating a pre-test/post-test data collection methodology. The surveys include case studies …

Business Taxes And International Competitiveness: Understanding How Taxes Can Distort Capital Ownership And Designing A Nondistortive International Tax System, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

Around the world, policymakers are obsessed with the competitiveness of their domestic companies and domestically based multinational corporations (MNCs). Such concerns frequently influence policy, especially tax policy. In this paper, I develop a theory of how taxes affect the international competitiveness of businesses. I then use that theory to evaluate basic tax policy decisions, such as the choice between residence- and source-based taxation and the level of tax rates, and to understand the impact various provisions in the U.S. Internal Revenue Code are likely to have on the competitiveness of U.S.-based corporations and MNCs.

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Ben Bernanke, Joint Economic Committee, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Question and answers from Ben Bernanke's appearance before the Joint Economic Committee as distributed to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board.

The Political Economy Of Taxation: A Critical Review Of A Classic, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This book review reexamines Henry Simons famous contribution to the tax policy literature, "Personal Income Taxation: The Definition of Income as Problem in Fiscal Policy" (1938). It argues that while Professor Simons was concerned with tax fairness and the redistribution of income, he adopted a definition of income that worked to undermine the interests of many of the poor individuals in society that he sought to support.

Tax Theory And "Mere Critique": A Reply To Professor Zelenak, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

In this symposium essay, I briefly explore the usefulness of critical scholarship generally and then point to the manner in which this type of analysis can (and does) advance Professor Zelenak's aim of devising technical solutions to difficult policy problems. I then turn to Zelenak's critique of my article, "Taxing Housework." I argue that far from undermining my proposal to tax imputed income, Zelenak's work highlights several reasons for considering the proposal as an alternative to the existing tax structure. Importantly, I do not claim that taxing women's household labor is a perfect solution to the social and economic problems …

The Theory And Practice Of Taxing Difference, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This is a review essay that examines Professor Edward McCaffery's important book, "Taxing Women." It argues that while McCaffery provides a detailed and nuanced analysis of the feminist and economic issues, his work is problematic in several ways. First, it is not clear that the optimal theory of taxation leads to the policy reform he proposes-it may be both underinclusive and overinclusive. Second, even if McCaffery has identified a clear economic rationale for taxing married women at a lower rate than men and single women, feminists may object to this proposed tax structure on a number of grounds. Finally, McCaffery's …

The Hidden Costs Of The Progressivity Debate, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

In this Article, I argue that.by reaching the agreement that the poor should have no tax liability, the contest over progressivity has centered improperly on the rights and responsibilities of relatively wealthy citizens. The wealthy are widely perceived to have valuable property that, if shared with society, will enable the smooth operation of the democratic state. At the same time, the wealthy are perceived to have liberty interests, which if violated, could lead to the ruin of the domestic economy

Although the debate over progressivity has lasted for more than a century, traditional tax theorists have limited their discussion to …

Taxing Housework, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This article examines the tax policy rationale for excluding non-market household labor from the tax base and argues that the conventional rationals no longer withstand scrutiny. The article goes on to argue that it is possible to include non-market household labor into the tax base, while at the same time avoiding the imposition of costs upon the (mostly) women who supply the labor. Moreover, and mort important, tax policy reform along these line would increase householder laborers' access to public retirement benefits and signal the important of the work to society generally.

Site Value Tax, Tom Dunne

Articles

Tom Dunne discusses some of the issues surrounding property taxation in Ireland

Will Cash For Clunkers "Trickle Up"?, Anthony J. Cataldo Ii, Anthony P. Curatola

Accounting Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Taxation And Gendered Citizenship, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This essay notes that the feminist tax policy theorists have made numerous important contributions to our understanding of tax policy's affect on women's lives and experiences. It argues that in doing so, the extant literature has also prioritized the idea of citizenship rights but has failed to acknowledge the importance of citizenship obligations and duties.

Constitutional Politics And Balanced Budgets, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

Unbalanced budgets have sparked decades of debate among legislators, scholars, and the public at large. Although the controversy has abated somewhat in recent years, many continue to believe that Congress has a tendency to pursue a level of public debt that is both inefficient and unfair. Foremost among those who criticize the federal budgeting process are fiscal constitutionalists, a group of public choice scholars who believe the constitutional constraints are the only means by which the public will obtain protection from legislative fiscal irresponsibility. This article explores the public choice argument for a balanced budget amendment and argues that it …

Taxation Without Representation, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

Poll taxes are unconstitutional and yet Americans continue to link political rights to economic status. When taxpayers claim, "We pay taxes and therefore should decide how public monies are spent," they claim a privileged position in society based on their monetary contributions to the state and federal fiscal position that, by implication, nontaxpaying Americans should not have. Not only do taxpayers claim they deserve special political privileges, but the law itself continues to couple political rights to taxpaying status in ways that legal scholars have largely left unexplored. This article examines a range of political benefits tied to the payment …

American Economic Development, Managerial Corporate Capitalism, And The Institutional Foundations Of The Modern Income Tax, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Histories of the modern American income tax have generally focused on the role that social and political forces have played in the development of a new tax system. This article seeks to move beyond the social and political determinants to examine the economic factors that facilitated the adoption of the modern, graduated income tax. Without marginalizing the importance of social and political factors, the central aim of this article is to make a modest contribution to the legal and political historiography of the U.S. income tax by highlighting how changing material economic conditions afforded social groups, political reformers, and lawmakers …

Are Family Firms More Tax Aggressive Than Non-Family Firms?, Shuping Chen, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Terry Shevlin

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Taxes represent a significant cost to the firm and shareholders, and it is generally expected that shareholders prefer tax aggressiveness. However, this argument ignores potential non-tax costs that can accompany tax aggressiveness, especially those arising from agency problems. Firms owned/run by founding family members are characterized by a unique agency conflict between dominant and small shareholders. Using multiple measures to capture tax aggressiveness and founding family presence, we find that family firms are less tax aggressive than their non-family counterparts, ceteris paribus. This result suggests that family owners are willing to forgo tax benefits to avoid the non-tax cost of …

The Corporate Income Tax And The Competitiveness Of U.S. Industries, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

Hit hard by the financial crisis and recession, U.S. auto producers are seeking a massive bailout from the U.S. Congress. Many reasons are given for the U.S. auto industry’s lack of competitiveness including the U.S. corporate income tax. Although it is regularly asserted that there is a direct connection between the corporate income tax and competitiveness, what that connection is has not been carefully spelled out. In this essay, I describe how the corporate income tax directly harms the competitiveness of U.S. industries. I show that the mechanism differs depending upon whether the U.S. industry is defined as the global …