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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Tax Revenue Capacity Of The U.S. Economy, James R. Hines Jr.
The Tax Revenue Capacity Of The U.S. Economy, James R. Hines Jr.
Book Chapters
The United States imposes smaller tax burdens than do other large high-income countries, its 24.8 percent ratio of tax collections to GDP in 2010 representing the lowest fraction among the G-7. The United States also differs from other G-7 countries in relying relatively little on expenditure-type taxes. It follows that there is significant unused tax capacity in the United States that could be deployed to pay the country’s debts, but that the most promising source of additional tax revenue is expenditure taxation that is widely perceived to have very different distributional features than the income taxes on which the U.S. …
Protectionist Pitfalls In U.S. Tax Reform, James R. Hines Jr.
Protectionist Pitfalls In U.S. Tax Reform, James R. Hines Jr.
Book Chapters
The magnitude of current and projected U.S. budget deficits makes it appropriate for the government to cast its net wide in seeking new revenue sources. In doing so, however, there is the danger of misconstruing the role of domestic taxation in a global economy, and thereby designing a tax reform proposal with significant protectionist elements.
The Case For An Income Tax, Alan Gunn
The Case For An Income Tax, Alan Gunn
Journal Articles
Recent studies by the US Treasury Department and the Meade Committee in Britain have one thing in common. They recommend a progressive tax on personal consumption as an alternative to the income tax and discuss of the practical problems of substituting consumption for income as the tax base. These studies suggest that replacing the income tax with an expenditure tax is now being considered a serious possibility. Advocates for the expenditure tax base their arguments on considerations of equity, administrative convenience and economic efficiency. The article examines the merits of these arguments, with a focus on four important non-economic issues …
Implementing A Progressive Consumption Tax, Michael J. Graetz
Implementing A Progressive Consumption Tax, Michael J. Graetz
Faculty Scholarship
Much scholarly debate has been devoted to the theoretical merits of using an individual's consumption expenditures as the basis for measuring ability to pay tax. In this Article, Professor Graetz examines the practical problems of implementing and administering a progressive consumption tax as an alternative to the income tax. He concludes that although a consumption tax is feasible, practical implementation difficulties, together with the political unlikelihood of enacting a tax which is both administratively workable and retains the alleged theoretical advantages of a consumption-based tax, argue against its adoption.