Law Commons^™

Biometrics, Certified Software Solutions, And The Japanese Consumption Tax: A Proposal For The Tax Commission, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Significant change is anticipated in the Japanese Consumption Tax. The Japanese Tax Commission is recommending that the rate should double, multiple rates should be employed, and the "bookkeeping method" of accounting should be abandoned in favor of the European "invoice method."

The Tax Commission faces a tax policy dilemma. The aging population drives the need for a tax increase (making the Consumption Tax an obvious target for revenue enhancement) at exactly the same time the population is shrinking in overall size, thereby reducing the number of working-consumers who can pay the higher tax.

These are dramatic changes for the Japanese …

Digital Consumption Tax (D-Ct), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Modern technology is dramatically changing the way consumption taxes are collected, but it is also changing the way policymakers assess the operation and impact of these taxes. Whether the design is a standard credit-invoice value added tax (VAT) of European design, or a retail sales tax (RST) of American design, or the credit subtraction VAT without invoices type of consumption tax (CT) of Japanese design, technology is having a profound impact.

Government certified transaction software is in place in the United States. The Streamlined Sales Tax offers taxpayers in 18 states the option of having their retail sales tax determined …

Biometrics: Solving The Regressivity Of Vats And Rsts With 'Smart Card' Technology, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Biometric identifiers embedded in national identity cards puts a formerly impossible goal of consumption taxation within the grasp of policymakers for the first time. Never before has it been possible to design a broad-based, single rate consumption tax that is truly progressive.

No consumption tax has ever had all three of the critical attributes of a progressive consumption tax: a broad base, a single rate, and measured relief for those in greatest need. Although economists have urged that a broad base and a single rate be pursued over progressivity, most consumption taxes instead seek progressivity at the expense of both …

Carousel Fraud In The Eu: A Digital Vat Solution, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Recent reports from the UK's Office for National Statistics estimate (as of May 11, 2006) that Missing Trader Intra-community Fraud (MTIC) may exceed 10 billion pounds this year.

Carousel fraud, a variant of MTIC where the same goods are sold over and over again, exploits the lingering non-certified, non-digital attributes of the EU VAT. The UK believes that carousel fraud cost the Exchequer between 1.12 and 1.9 billion pounds in the 2004-05 financial year. This article proposes that carousel fraud be eliminated in the EU through selective insertion of Digital VAT functionality into the present system. In other words, it …

Minimum Contacts In A Borderless World: Voice Over Internet Protocol And The Coming Implosion Of Personal Jurisdiction Theory, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Modern personal jurisdiction theory rests on the twin pillars of state sovereignty and due process. A nonresident's "minimum contacts" with a forum state are treated as the equivalent of her territorial presence in the state and hence justify a state's exercise of sovereignty over her. At the same time, the nonresident's "purposeful availment" of opportunities within the state is seen as implying her agreement to that state's jurisdiction in exchange for the protection of its laws. This theory presumes that a nonresident directs voice communications to known places by dialing a telephone number's area code.

Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") …

The Digital Vat (D-Vat), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The most sustained U.S. tax policy debate of the past 30 years concerns proposals to replace and/ or supplement the Federal Income Tax with a consumption tax. Public finance economists and legal tax policy scholars challenged and defended the current income tax system on grounds of fairness, efficiency, and simplicity.

This debate over revamping the national taxing scheme has not been argued purely in the academic forum. Concrete legislative proposals have been advanced for a national retail sales tax, a European-style Value Added Tax, as well as a whole host of what David Bradford calls "the two-tiered consumption taxes."

From …

Chapter 3: Open Source Software: Free Provision Of Complex Public Goods, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Open source software, developed by volunteers, appears counter to the conventional wisdom that private provision of public goods is socially more efficient. But complexity makes a difference. Under standard models, development contracts for specialized software may be difficult to write and ownership rights do not necessarily elicit socially optimal effort. I consider three mechanisms that improve the likelihood that firms can obtain the software they need: pre-packaged software, Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and Free/Open Source software (FOSS). I show that with complex software, some firms will choose to participate in FOSS over both "make or buy" and this increases social …