A New General Equilibrium Welfare Measure, with Application to Labor Income Taxes

In this paper we extend the Hicksian compensating variation welfare measure in two directions. First, we adjust the size of the compensating variation in order to account for the fact that the compensating transfers will result in changes in output, as well as in prices, because labor and, in dynamic models, capital will adjust in response to these transfers. Second, we extend the measure to a dynamic setting with possibly time non-separable preferences. We find that these considerations become more significant for the welfare cost of higher labor income taxes as one moves from static to dynamic models, to models with time non-separable preferences, and finally to models with uncertainty.

Financing framework for local governments: diagnosis and change proposals

Motivation: The best way to widen access to public services at the local level is to increase efficiency of local government spending. However, an increase in efficiency may refer to output or inputs. In the latter case it does not widen access to public services. Moreover, factors conducive to spending efficiency may be detrimental to local cohesion. Finding a way so that the financing framework for local governments would reconcile the efficiency condition with the conditions of access to public services and local cohesion respectively, is an issue of great importance for economic policy. It seems to be so especially in a country like Poland, where there are large differences in the level of development between regions for historical reasons. These differences, if left accumulating, could easily jeopardize efficiency due to distorted capital flows, not to mention political tensions they may cause. Aim: The article aims at identifying basic features of the financing framework for local governments in Poland that hinder efficiency of their spending and at proposing feasible changes to that framework that would improve the efficiency but not at the expense of local cohesion or access to public services. Results: The article argues that the financing framework of local governments in Poland would better meet conditions of both efficiency and access to public services, if local governments relied mostly on revenues from income taxes instead of transfers from the central government, and some elements of tax competition between local authorities, although restricted to PIT-free allowance, were introduced. Such a shift in local governments revenue composition would not weaken local cohesion, if it was accompanied by an appropriate solidarity subvention financed by the richest voivodeship and the central government, and non-recurring central government revenues were allocated to investments exceeding financial capacity of local governments.

The Importance of the Direct Individual Income Taxes in the Structure of the Tax System

The optimal functioning of a country’s economy depends on the implemented tax policy, which in turn depends on the degree of the development of the tax system. A specific role among the tax forms, included in the tax system, is played by direct income taxes, which are levied on natural persons. These taxes are the subject of the research in this paper, particularly their organization. The article also pays attention to the preferences introduced, leading to changes in the direct individual income taxes.

Rising markups and optimal redistributive taxation

This study explores the implications of rising markups for optimal Mirrleesian income and profit taxation. Using a stylized model with two individuals, the main forces shaping welfare-optimal policies are analytically characterized. Although a higher profit tax has redistributive benefits, it adversely affects market competition, leading to a greater equilibrium cost-of-living. Rising markups directly contribute to a decline in optimal marginal taxes on labor income. The optimal policy response to higher markups includes increasingly relying on the profit tax to fund redistribution. Declining optimal marginal income taxes assists the redistributive function of the profit tax by contributing to the expansion of the profit tax base. This response alone considerably increases the equilibrium cost-of-living. Nevertheless, a majority of the individuals become better off with the optimal policy. If it is not possible to tax profits optimally, due, for example, to profit shifting, increasing redistribution via income taxes is not optimal; every individual is worse off relative to the scenario with optimal profit taxation.

Pengenaan Pajak Penghasilan Terhadap Pelaku Usaha Jasa Promosi Melalui Media Sosial

Income tax is a tax imposed on individuals/business entities on income earned in the tax year. Promotional service business actors are tax subjects who earn income that exceeds the non-taxable income and the income is obtained from activities promoting goods or services through social media, such as Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp or other types of social media. The purposes of this study are to examine the regulation of income tax in promotional services business activities through social media as well as the mechanism for collecting income taxes against business actors in promotional services through social media. This study uses normative legal research methods, with legal materials consisting of primary legal materials and secondary legal materials. The collection of legal materials in this study was carried out by the recording method. The legal material analysis method used is argumentative technique. The result of the study shows that the regulation of income tax in promotional service business activities through social media, in this case YouTubers or Celebrities, is subject to income tax for those whose income exceeds Non-Taxable Income (PTKP) based on the Regulation of the Director General of Taxes Number PER-17/PJ/2015.

A neoclassical perspective on Switzerland’s 1990s stagnation

We study Switzerland’s weak growth during the 1990s through the lens of the business cycle accounting framework of Chari et al. (Econometrica 75(3):781–836, 2007). Our main result is that weak productivity growth cannot account for the 1993–1996 stagnation episode. Rather, the stagnation is explained by factors that made labour and investment expensive. We show that increased labour income taxes and financial frictions are plausible causes. Holding these factors constant, the counterfactual annualized real output growth over the 1993Q1–1996Q4 period is 1.93% compared to realized growth of 0.35%.

Income Taxes: Objective Values or Subjective Values as They Result from Financial Statements that Contain Subjective Data or Values Determined Subjectively by Financial Reporting Preparers?

Research on more than 1500 Italian companies from 2016 to 2019 shows that the inclusion of tax values in financial reporting without any economic content is a widespread accounting practice. Tax interferences in financial reporting have various motivations and prove consequences both inside and outside the company. In the following pages, we will illustrate the results of the analysis carried out, the motivations leading to the incorrect accounting behaviour of the implementation of tax interferences and the consequences resulting from this widespread practice. It should be noted that tax interference causes problems both inside and outside the company. Such tax contamination of financial reporting affects the rights of third parties outside the company, and creates the conditions for challenges to financial reporting due to invalidity of the document. It also creates a basis for incorrect accounting data that can lead to wrong decisions by management.

The Impact of Educational Assortative Mating on Income Inequality: Evidence from Argentina

This paper seeks to quantify the impact of educational assortative mating on income inequality among households in Argentina. We use microdata from two household surveys conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Census: The Permanent Household Survey and the National Survey of Risk Factors. We construct contingency tables and perform a regression analysis to study the existence of educational assortative mating. We also present counterfactual simulations of random re-matching of observations. The results show that a sizeable proportion of couples are educationally homogamous (45%). Comparing the Gini coefficients calculated in the real matching and the simulated scenarios, we observe a reduction of up to 4 points. Thus, the educational assortative mating represents a relevant dimension to explain income inequality. Our results recommend considering this matching pattern when defining optimal income taxes; this is, if there is a high positive covariance between the income of both members of the couple, it seems appropriate, from a redistributive point of view, to define income taxes at the household level and not at the individual level (as is currently the case in most countries, including Argentina).

The detection of earnings management through a decrease of corporate income tax

This paper explores the manner in which Dutch and German listed companies were able to manage earnings by the decline in corporate income tax toward the end of the 2000s. In addition, a recent article examines the existing state of earnings management at a European level in the Netherlands and Germany. This empirical study sampled 1350 firm-years for the Netherlands and 1850 firm-years for Germany between 2000 and 2018. The study indicated that those firms with larger prospect tax savings appeared to exercise earnings management to hasten discretionary accruals. In view of the income-reducing impact these discretionary deductions have on financial statements, the findings show corporate income taxes are a significant incentive. Since companies can reduce tax costs by deferring income tax to a subsequent year and lower the tax tariff cycle, theoretically, this tax reform incentivizes management to manage their earnings with the purpose of minimize tax payments. More research is needed into the impact of tax compliance on declining earnings management in this area.

Fiscal capacity in ‘‘responsible government’’ colonies: the Cape Colony in comparative perspective, c. 1865–1910

This study contributes to debates on the efficacy of institutions in settler colonies by comparing the Cape Colony’s fiscal path to the experiences of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. I find that the Cape’s fiscal trajectory was divergent. Agricultural and mining taxes were important surrogates of income taxes in other colonies, but the Cape’s narrow interests pushed for insulation from direct taxes. This made the Cape’s fiscal path unsustainable with comparatively low per capita taxes, high deficits, and the highest level of indebtedness. I argue that the instrumentality of ‘‘responsible government” status was conditional on how imported self-government institutions were endogenized.