The value-added tax and growth: design matters

Previous research has shown that changes in the composition of tax revenue affect long-run growth. However, little is yet known about whether the way tax revenue is raised matters for growth. This paper examines whether, in the context of OECD countries, a revenue-neutral increase in the value-added tax (VAT), offset by a fall in income taxes, may have different effects on long-run growth depending on how the VAT is raised. We show that a revenue-neutral rise in the VAT promotes growth when it is raised through a rise in C-efficiency, while it does not when it is raised through a rise in the standard VAT rate, the rate applied to the largest portion of taxed consumption. C-efficiency measures the departure of the VAT from a perfectly enforced tax levied at a single rate on all consumption, which in advanced economies is largely due to the VAT that is not levied because of exemptions and reduced rates. Thus, our results suggest that an increase in C-efficiency, possibly reflecting the broadening of the VAT base through fewer exemptions and a more uniform rate structure with fewer reduced rates, promotes growth more than a rise in the standard rate.

Destination-Based Cash Flow Taxation

This chapter sets out and evaluates our second main proposal: the Destination-based Cash Flow Tax (DBCFT). This has two basic components: (a) a ‘cash flow’ element, which gives immediate relief to all expenditure, and (b) a ‘destination-based’ element, which introduces border adjustments of the same form as under the value added tax (VAT): exports are untaxed, while imports are taxed. This is equivalent in its economic impact to introducing a broad-based, uniform rate VAT and making a corresponding reduction in taxes on wages and salaries. A central motivation for the DBCFT is to improve economic efficiency by taxing business income in a relatively immobile location; the DBCFT should not distort either the scale or the location of business investment. It also has the considerable advantage of being robust against avoidance through inter-company transactions.

Tryb ratyfikacji decyzji Rady 2020/2053 z 14 grudnia 2020 r. w sprawie systemu zasobów własnych Unii Europejskiej oraz uchylającej decyzję 2014/335/UE, Euratom

The Council’s decision regarding a uniform rate of collection for the unrecycled mass of plastic packaging waste, the digital fee and the incurrence of debt by the European Commission does not result in any transfer of competence from the Member States to the European Union. The lack of such transfer excludes the necessity of applying Article 90 of the Constitution (the so called the great ratification, majority of 2/3 votes in the Sejm). However, because the ratification would cause a significant financial burden on the state, the decision should be ratified pursuant to Article 89 para. 1 of the Constitution, i.e. by means of a statute.

Effects of Multiple-Hole Baffle Arrangements on Flow Fields in a Five-Strand Asymmetric Tundish

This paper reports on the re-engineering of standard five-strand tundish designs into a five-strand asymmetric tundish, which resulted in a non-uniform rate and bias for each strand. We sought to improve the casting conditions by optimizing the liquid steel flow-field in the tundish. Both a water modelling experiment and a numerical simulation were performed to analyze the flow-field according to various diversion hole diameters and injection angles. The results showed that the average residence time decreased as the diameter of the diversion holes increased. As the injection angle was increased, the average residence time initially decreased and then increased. The liquid steel from the ladle shroud rapidly extended to the #2 and #3 strands in the original tundish, which reduced the likelihood of inclusion collision and coalescence.

Damage Detection Using Modal Rotational Mode Shapes Obtained with a Uniform Rate CSLDV Measurement

With the rapid development of a continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (CSLDV) technique, the full-field mode shapes of structures with high accuracy can be obtained. In this paper, a novel damage detection method using modal rotational mode shapes obtained with a uniform rate CSLDV measurement is proposed. The modal rotational damage indicators considering the changes of modal rotational mode shapes between the damaged and the undamaged states are established. Because the modal rotational mode shapes are obtained through the derivative of the detailed displacement mode shapes of transitional degree-of-freedoms (DOFs) with respect to the orthogonal directions, they are more sensitive than the normal displacement mode shapes. The uniform rate CSLDV measurement is essentially a uniform straight-line scanning technique and the measured mode shapes can be directly obtained through the demodulation of vibration signals. Besides, taking it for granted that a priori knowledge of the undamaged structure is not known, the undamaged mode shapes can be reconstructed from the measured damaged data using the fitted polynomial functions in which the minimum number of polynomial function coefficients are determined by a fit value threshold. The proposed method is firstly demonstrated by numerical simulation of the crack plate and then a plate structure with three damaged cases is taken as an example for further experimental study. The experimental results indicate the following: (1) The uniform rate CSLDV measurement can obtain the high accuracy modal rotational mode shapes with the advantage of eliminating the contaminated noise in the measurement; (2) the modal rotational damage indicators of the torsional modes are the most sensitive to the crack damage and they can clearly identify single, multiple damages and locations of the plate, and even slight crack damage, respectively. The effectiveness of the method paves the way for practical applications, such as ultra-light or composite structures.

What is VAT?

Chapter 2 dwells briefly on the workings and the legal and economic nature of the VAT, and enumerates the characteristics of a best-practice VAT against which existing regimes are evaluated. A best-practice VAT includes all goods and services in its base, unless specifically exempted on administrative grounds, and covers all stages of production and distribution, including the retail stage. It is levied at a single, uniform rate and eliminates cascading or cumulative tax effects by granting taxable firms a full and immediate tax credit or deduction for the tax paid in respect of purchases from other taxable firms. Furthermore, the VAT is destination-based by zero-rating exports and taxing imports. A best-practice VAT limits administrative and taxpayer discretion to a minimum and is based on self-assessment. The tax administration’s task should be confined mainly to providing taxpayer education, monitoring late filers and late payers, and, particularly, auditing taxable persons’ accounts.

Uniform Information Density in Music

The theory of Uniform Information Density states that communication is optimal when information is presented at a moderate and uniform rate. Three predictions follow for music: (1) low-probability events should be longer in duration than high-probability events; (2) low-probability events should be juxtaposed with high-probability events; (3) an event that is low in probability in one dimension should be high in probability in other dimensions. I present evidence supporting all three of these predictions from three diverse areas of musical practice: Renaissance counterpoint, expressive performance, and common-practice themes.