Tax incidence

In economics, tax incidence or tax burden is the effect of a particular tax on the distribution of economic welfare. Economists distinguish between the entities who ultimately bear the tax burden and those on whom tax is initially imposed. The tax burden measures the true economic weight of the tax, measured by the difference between real incomes or utilities before and after imposing the tax. An individuality on whom the tax is levied does not have to bear the true size of the tax. For the example of this difference, assume a firm, that contains employer and employees. The tax imposed on the employer is divided. The concept of tax incidence was initially brought to economists' attention by the French Physiocrats, in particular François Quesnay, who argued that the incidence of all taxation falls ultimately on landowners and is at the expense of land rent. Tax incidence is said to "fall" upon the group that ultimately bears the burden of, or ultimately suffers a loss from, the tax. The key concept of tax incidence (as opposed to the magnitude of the tax) is that the tax incidence or tax burden does not depend on where the revenue is collected, but on the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply. As a general policy matter, the tax incidence should not violate the principles of a desirable tax system, especially fairness and transparency.[1]

The theory of tax incidence has a number of practical results. For example, United States Social Security payroll taxes are paid half by the employee and half by the employer. However, some economists think that the worker bears almost the entire burden of the tax because the employer passes the tax on in the form of lower wages. The tax incidence is thus said to fall on the employee.[2] However, it could equally well be argued that in some cases the incidence of the tax falls on the employer. This is because both the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply effect upon whom the incidence of the tax falls. Price controls such as the minimum wage which sets a price floor and market distortions such as subsidies or welfare payments also complicate the analysis.

Tax incidence in competitive markets

In competitive markets firms supply quantity of the product equals to the level at which the price of the good equals marginal cost (supply curve and marginal cost curve are indifferent). If a tax is imposed on producers of the particular good or service, the supply curve shifts to the left because of the increase of marginal cost. The tax size predicts the new level of quantity supplied, which is reduced in comparison to the initial level. In Figure 1 - a demand curve is added into this instance of competitive market. The demand curve and shifted supply curve create a new equilibrium, which is burdened by the tax.[3] The new equilibrium (with higher price and lower quantity than initial equilibrium) represents the price that consumers will pay for a given quantity of good extended by the part of the tax (p0+kt), k∈ [0,1].

The point on the initial supply curve with respect to quantity of the good after taxation represents the price (from which the part of the tax is subtracted (p0-(1-k)t), k∈ [0,1]) that producers will receive at given quantity. This this case, the tax burden is borne equally by the producers and consumers. For example, if the initial price of the good is $2, and the tax levied on the production is$.40, consumers will be able to buy the good for $2.20, while producers will receive$1.80.

Consider the case when the tax is levied on consumers. Unlike when tax is imposed on producers, the demand curve shifts to the left to create new equilibrium with initial supply (marginal cost) curve. The new equilibrium (at a lower price and lower quantity) represents the price that producers will receive after taxation and the point on the initial demand curve with respect to quantity of the good after taxation represents the price that consumers will pay due to the tax. Thus, it does not matter whether the tax is levied on consumers or producers.[4]

Furthermore, it also does not matter whether the tax is levied as a percentage of the price (say ad valorem tax) or as a fixed sum per unit (say specific tax). Both are graphically expressed as a shift of the demand curve to the left. While the demand curve moved by specific tax is parallel to the initial, the demand curve shifted by ad valorem tax is touching the initial, when the price is zero and deviating from it when the price is growing. However in the market equilibrium both curves cross.[4]

Figure 1 - tax incidence in perfect competition

Effects on the budget constraint

Through the budget constraint might be seen, that uniform tax on wages and uniform tax on consumption have an equivalent impact. Both taxes shift the budget constraint to the left. New line will be characterized by same slope as the initial (parallelism).[4]

Other practical results

The theory of tax incidence has a large number of practical results, although economists dispute the magnitude and significance of these results:

• If the government requires employers to provide employees with health care, some of the burden will fall on the employee as the employer will pass it on in the form of lower wages. Some of the burden will be borne by employer (and ultimately the customer in form of higher prices or lower quality) since both the supply of and demand for labor are highly inelastic and have few perfect substitutes. Employers need employees largely to the extent they can substitute employees for machines, and employees need employers largely to the extent they can become self-employed entrepreneurs. An uneducated population is therefore more susceptible to bearing the burden because they are more easily replaced by machines able to do unskilled work, and because they have less knowledge of how to make money on their own.
• Taxes on easily substitutable goods, such as oranges and tangerines, may be borne mostly by the producer because the demand curve for easily substitutable goods is quite elastic.
• Similarly, taxes on a business that can easily be relocated are likely to be borne almost entirely by the residents of the taxing jurisdiction and not the owners of the business.
• The burden of tariffs (import taxes) on imported vehicles might fall largely on the producers of the cars because the demand curve for foreign cars might be elastic if car consumers may substitute a domestic car purchase for a foreign car purchase.
• If consumers drive the same number of miles regardless of gas prices, then a tax on gasoline will be paid for by consumers and not oil companies (this is assuming that the price elasticity of supply of oil is high). Who actually bears the economic burden of the tax is not affected by whether government collects the tax at the pump or directly from oil companies.

Assessment

Assessing tax incidence is a major economics subfield within the field of public finance.

Most public finance economists acknowledge that nominal tax incidence (i.e. who writes the check to pay a tax) is not necessarily identical to actual economic burden of the tax, but disagree greatly among themselves on the extent to which market forces disturb the nominal tax incidence of various types of taxes in various circumstances.

The effects of certain kinds of taxes, for example, the property tax, including their economic incidence, efficiency properties and distributional implications, have been the subject of a long and contentious debate among economists.[9]

The empirical evidence tends to support different economic models under different circumstances. For example, empirical evidence on property tax incidents tends to support one economic model, known as the "benefit tax" view in suburban areas, while tending to support another economic model, known as the "capital tax" view in urban and rural areas.[10]

There is an inherent conflict in any model between considering many factors, which complicates the model and makes it hard to apply, and using a simple model, which may limit the circumstances in which its predictions are empirically useful.

Lower and higher taxes were tested in the United States from 1980 to 2010 and it was found that the periods of greatest economic growth occurred during periods of higher taxation.[11][12] This does not prove causation. It is possible that the time of higher economic growth provided government with more leeway to impose higher taxes.

Notes

1. ^ "Fairness".
2. ^ International Burdens of the Corporate Income Tax
3. ^
4. Stiglitz, J.E. (2000) Economics of the Public Sector, 3. Edition.
5. ^
6. ^
7. ^ "Forms of Taxation - Lawrance George
8. ^ "Tax-To-GDP Ratio"
9. ^ See, e.g., Zodrow GR, Mieszkowski P. "The Incidence of the Property Tax. The Benefit View vs. the New View". In: Local Provision of Public Services: The Tiebout Model after Twenty-Five Years—Zodrow GR, ed. (1983) New York: Academic Press. 109–29.
10. ^ Zodrow, The Property Tax Incidence Debate and the Mix of State and Local Finance of Local Public Expenditures (2008), citing Fischel, Regulatory Takings: Law, Economics, and Politics (1995)
11. ^ LEONHARDT, DAVID (September 15, 2012). "Do Tax Cuts Lead to Economic Growth?". nytimes.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
12. ^ Blodget, Henry (21 September 2012). "BOMBSHELL: New Study Destroys Theory That Tax Cuts Spur Growth". www.businessinsider.com. Business Insider, Inc. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
Equity (economics)

Equity or economic equality is the concept or idea of fairness in economics, particularly in regard to taxation or welfare economics. More specifically, it may refer to equal life chances regardless of identity, to provide all citizens with a basic and equal minimum of income, goods, and services or to increase funds and commitment for redistribution.

Excess burden of taxation

In economics, the excess burden of taxation, also known as the deadweight cost or deadweight loss of taxation, is one of the economic losses that society suffers as the result of taxes or subsidies. Economic theory posits that distortions change the amount and type of economic behavior from that which would occur in a free market without the tax. Excess burdens can be measured using the average cost of funds or the marginal cost of funds (MCF). Excess burdens were first discussed by Adam Smith.An equivalent kind of inefficiency can also be caused by subsidies (which technically can be viewed as taxes with negative rates).Economic losses due to taxes were evaluated to be as low as 2.5 cents per dollar of revenue, and as high as 30 cents per dollar of revenue (on average), and even much higher at the margins.

Federal tax revenue by state

This is a table of the total federal tax revenue by state collected by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Gross Collections indicates the total federal tax revenue collected by the IRS from each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and the Puerto Rico. The figure includes all Individual federal taxes and Corporate Federal Taxes income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and excise taxes. This table does not include federal tax revenue data from U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed overseas, U.S. territories other than Puerto Rico, and U.S. citizens and legal residents living abroad, even though they may be required to pay federal taxes.

Federal taxation and spending by state

The ability of the United States government to tax and spend in specific regions has large implications to economic activity and performance. Taxes are indexed to wages and profits and therefore areas of high taxation are correlated with areas of higher per capita income and more economic activity.

Spending is largely focused on areas of poverty, the elderly, and centers of federal employment such as military bases.

Fiscal incidence

In public finance, a sub-discipline of economics, fiscal incidence is the combined overall economic impact of both government taxation and expenditures on the real economic income of individuals.

While taxation reduces the economic well-being of individuals, government expenditures raise their economic well-being. Fiscal incidence is the overall impact of government taxing and spending considered together.

Flypaper theory (economics)

The flypaper theory of tax incidence is a pejorative term used by economists to describe the assumption that the burden of a tax, like a fly on flypaper, sticks wherever it first lands. Economists point out several flaws with the assumption:

it ignores the elasticity of goods; and

it ignores the ability of producers to shift the cost of the tax onto consumers.For example, consider a tax levied on a luxury item such as jewelry. Such a tax, while intended to target the wealthy, may not actually accomplish this objective, as the wealthy can simply choose to buy less jewelry. Instead of collecting more money from the wealthy, the tax has the effect of hurting jewelry merchants, who are not the intended targets of the tax.

As another example, suppose a tax is levied on the sellers of a product. The sellers may simply raise the price of the product, thus shifting the burden of the tax onto the buyers of the product.

This should not be confused with the flypaper effect, which holds that money from a federal authority to a state authority tends to increase overall expenditure rather than merely substitute for locally-raised revenue.

Life insurance tax shelter

A life insurance tax shelter uses investments in insurance to protect income or assets from tax liabilities. Life insurance proceeds are not taxable in many jurisdictions. Since most other forms of income are taxable (such as capital gains, dividends and interest income), consumers are often advised to purchase life insurance policies to either offset future tax liabilities, or to shelter the growth of their investments from taxation. This insurance product is also known as Private placement life insurance.

Private placement life insurance

Private placement life insurance is a form of cash value universal life insurance that is offered privately, rather than through a public offering.

Progressive tax

A progressive tax is a tax in which the average tax rate (taxes paid ÷ personal income) increases as the taxable amount increases. The term "progressive" refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the person's marginal tax rate. The term can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole; a year, multi-year, or lifetime. Progressive taxes are imposed in an attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with a lower ability to pay, as such taxes shift the incidence increasingly to those with a higher ability-to-pay. The opposite of a progressive tax is a regressive tax, where the average tax rate or burden decreases as an individual's ability to pay increases.The term is frequently applied in reference to personal income taxes, in which people with lower income pay a lower percentage of that income in tax than do those with higher income. It can also apply to adjustments of the tax base by using tax exemptions, tax credits, or selective taxation that creates progressive distribution effects. For example, a wealth or property tax, a sales tax on luxury goods, or the exemption of sales taxes on basic necessities, may be described as having progressive effects as it increases the tax burden of higher income families and reduces it on lower income families.Progressive taxation is often suggested as a way to mitigate the societal ills associated with higher income inequality, as the tax structure reduces inequality, but economists disagree on the tax policy's economic and long-term effects. One study suggests progressive taxation can be positively associated with happiness, the subjective well-being of nations and citizen satisfaction with public goods, such as education and transportation.

Proportional tax

A proportional tax is a tax imposed so that the tax rate is fixed, with no change as the taxable base amount increases or decreases. The amount of the tax is in proportion to the amount subject to taxation. "Proportional" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate remains consistent (does not progress from "low to high" or "high to low" as income or consumption changes), where the marginal tax rate is equal to the average tax rate.It can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole; a year, multi-year, or lifetime. Proportional taxes maintain equal tax incidence regardless of the ability-to-pay and do not shift the incidence disproportionately to those with a higher or lower economic well-being.

Flat taxes are defined as levying a fixed (“flat”) fraction of taxable income. They usually exempt from taxation household income below a statutorily determined level that is a function of the type and size of the household. As a result, such a flat marginal rate is consistent with a progressive average tax rate. A progressive tax is a tax imposed so that the tax rate increases as the amount subject to taxation increases. The opposite of a progressive tax is a regressive tax, where the tax rate decreases as the amount subject to taxation increases.

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 proclaims: A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.

Public economics

Public economics (or economics of the public sector) is the study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity. Public economics builds on the theory of welfare economics and is ultimately used as a tool to improve social welfare.

Public economics provides a framework for thinking about whether or not the government should participate in economic markets and to what extent it should do so. Microeconomic theory is utilized to assess whether the private market is likely to provide efficient outcomes in the absence of governmental interference; this study involves the analysis of government taxation and expenditures.

This subject encompasses a host of topics including market failures, externalities, and the creation and implementation of government policy.Broad methods and topics include:

the theory and application of public finance

analysis and design of public policy

distributional effects of taxation and government expenditures

analysis of market failure and government failure.Emphasis is on analytical and scientific methods and normative-ethical analysis, as distinguished from ideology. Examples of topics covered are tax incidence, optimal taxation, and the theory of public goods.

Regressive tax

A regressive tax is a tax imposed in such a manner that the average tax rate (tax paid ÷ personal income) decreases as the amount subject to taxation increases. "Regressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from high to low, so that the average tax rate exceeds the marginal tax rate. In terms of individual income and wealth, a regressive tax imposes a greater burden (relative to resources) on the poor than on the rich: there is an inverse relationship between the tax rate and the taxpayer's ability to pay, as measured by assets, consumption, or income. These taxes tend to reduce the tax burden of the people with a higher ability to pay, as they shift the relative burden increasingly to those with a lower ability to pay.

The regressivity of a particular tax can also factor the propensity of the taxpayers to engage in the taxed activity relative to their resources (the demographics of the tax base). In other words, if the activity being taxed is more likely to be carried out by the poor and less likely to be carried out by the rich, the tax may be considered regressive. To measure the effect, the income elasticity of the good being taxed as well as the income effect on consumption must be considered. The measure can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole; a year, multi-year, or lifetime.

The opposite of a regressive tax is a progressive tax, in which the average tax rate increases as the amount subject to taxation rises In between is a flat or proportional tax, where the tax rate is fixed as the amount subject to taxation increases.

State tax levels in the United States

State tax levels indicate both the tax burden and the services a state can afford to provide residents.

States use a different combination of sales, income, excise taxes, and user fees. Some are levied directly from residents and others are levied indirectly. This table includes the per capita tax collected at the state level.

Note, however, that this table does not necessarily reflect the actual tax burdens borne directly by individual persons or businesses in a state. For example, the direct state tax burden on individuals in Alaska is far lower than the table would indicate. The state has no direct personal income tax and does not collect a sales tax at the state level, although it allows local governments to collect their own sales taxes. Alaska collects most of its revenue from corporate taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Note also that this table does not take into consideration the taxing and spending of local governments within states, which can vary widely, and sometimes disproportionately with state tax burdens.

Stealth tax

A stealth tax is a tax levied in such a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a tax. The phrase was generally used in the United Kingdom by Conservatives to attack the New Labour government's behaviour. It should not be confused with double taxation or privatisation.

Tax advantage refers to the economic bonus which applies to certain accounts or investments that are, by statute, tax-reduced, tax-deferred, or tax-free. Governments establish the tax advantages to encourage private individuals to contribute money when it is considered to be in the public interest.

An example is retirement plans, which often offer tax advantages to incentivize savings for retirement. In the United States, many government bonds (such as state bonds or municipal bonds) may also be exempt from certain taxes.

In countries in which the average age of the population is increasing, tax advantages may put pressure on pension schemes. For example, where benefits are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis, the benefits paid to those receiving a pension come directly from the contributions of those of working age. If the proportion of pensioners to working-age people rises, the contributions needed from working people will also rise proportionately. In the United States, the rapid onset of Baby Boomer retirement is currently causing such a problem.

However, there are international limitations regarding tax advantages realized through pensions plans. If a person with dual citizen in the United States and in the United Kingdom, they may have tax liabilities to both. If this person is living in the United Kingdom, their pension could have tax advantages in the UK, for example, but not in the US. Even though a UK pension may be exempt from UK tax, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is exempt from US taxes. In short, a US Tax payer with dual citizenship may have to pay taxes on the gains from the UK pension to the United States government, but not the United Kingdom.

In order to reduce the burden on such schemes, many governments give privately funded retirement plans a tax advantaged status in order to encourage more people to contribute to such arrangements. Governments often exclude such contributions from an employee's taxable income, while allowing employers to receive tax deductions for contributions to plan funds. Investment earnings in pension funds are almost universally excluded from income tax while accumulating, prior to payment. Payments to retirees and their beneficiaries also sometimes receive favorable tax treatment. In return for a pension scheme's tax advantaged status, governments typically enact restrictions to discourage access to a pension fund's assets before retirement.

Investing in annuities may allow investors to realize tax advantages that are not realized through other tax-deferred retirement accounts, such as 401k and IRAs. One of the great advantages of annuities is they allow an investor to store away large amounts of cash and defer paying taxes. There is no yearly limit to contributions for annuities. This is especially useful for those approaching retirement age that may not have saved large sums throughout previous years. The total investment compounds annually without any federal taxes. This allows each dollar in the entire investment to accrue interest, which could potentially be an advantage compared to taxable investments. Additionally, upon cashing the annuity out, the investor can decide to receive a lump-sum payment, or develop a more spread out payout plan.

In order to encourage home ownership, there are tax deductions on mortgage payments. Likewise, to encourage charitable donations from high net-worth individuals, there are tax deductions on charitable donations greater than a specified amount.

In the United States life insurance policies also have tax advantages. Income can grow in a life insurance policy that is tax deferred or tax-free. Additionally, there are certain advantages within certain life insurance policies that are excluded from estate and/or inheritance taxes.

Additionally, investments in partnerships and Limited Liability Companies also have tax advantages. For individual owners of businesses, the LLC is taxed as a sole proprietorship. This means that the entity is not taxed, but the income earned by the entity is taxed to the owner. The LLC has important tax advantages, such as the owners profits potentially being taxed at the owners lower marginal tax bracket. Furthermore, losses can offset the sole proprietor’s non-business income. If there are multiple owners of a Limited Liability Company, there is also tax advantages associated with it. They can choose to be taxed as a partnership, but they can also decide to be taxed as a corporate-entity. Partnerships are not taxed, but corporations are. For LLCs taxed as partnerships the income is taxed to the partners. For a corporation or an LLC taxed like a corporation, the entity is subject to tax and dividends on after tax income are also taxed to the shareholders of the corporation or the members of the LLC.

A capital gains tax can be thought of as tax advantaged or benefitted. When an investor receives profit by selling a capital asset, such as the sale of stock, this is taxed at the rate of the capital gains tax, which is often lower than the income tax. Thus, business owners and investors are incentivized to make profits by making capital gains rather than a steady wage.

In the United States, real estate investments are one of the best ways to yield tax advantages. One benefit is the ability to regain the cost of income producing (for example, commercial real estate) properties through depreciation. When a property is bought in the United States, the cost of the building and land are capitalized. If the building is a commercial property or a rental property, used in a business, the cost of the building is depreciated over 39 years for non-residential buildings and 27.5 years for residential buildings using the straight-line depreciation method for tax purposes. The building’s cost is written off over the lifespan of the building by annual depreciation deductions. Thus, the building owner receives these depreciation deductions as tax advantages at their income tax rate. Upon the sale of a property, depreciation recapture is the part of the gains that the depreciation deductions are responsible for during the period of ownership. The following is an example to show the idea of depreciation in a clear manner. A building owner buys a building for $20 million. After 5 years the owner has taken$1 million of depreciation deductions. Now, the building owner’s basis in the building is $19 million. If the owner decides to sell the building for$25 million, the building owner will realize a gain of $6 million ($25 million less $19 million). Oftentimes people wrongly assume that this$6 million is taxed at a capital gains rate. However, this is a common misconception. In this example, $1 million of the gain would actually be taxed at the depreciation recapture rate, and the other$5 million at the capital gains rate.

In essence building tax advantages into the law is providing a government subsidy for engaging in this behavior. Obviously encouraging people to save for retirement is a good idea, because it reduces the need for the government to support people later in life by spending money on welfare or other government expenses for these people, but does a capital gains tax rate benefit spur investment? Should capital gains tax benefit be limited to direct investments in businesses and not to the secondary capital markets (because they don't provide financing for growing businesses)?

Tax bracket

Tax brackets are the divisions at which tax rates change in a progressive tax system (or an explicitly regressive tax system, although this is much rarer). Essentially, they are the cutoff values for taxable income—income past a certain point will be taxed at a higher rate.

Tax policy

Tax policy is the choice by a government as to what taxes to levy, in what amounts, and on whom. It has both microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects. The macroeconomic aspects concern the overall quantity of taxes to collect, which can inversely affect the level of economic activity; this is one component of fiscal policy. The microeconomic aspects concern issues of fairness (who to tax) and allocative efficiency (i.e., which taxes will have how much of a distorting effect on the amounts of various types of economic activity).

Tax rate

In a tax system, the tax rate is the ratio (usually expressed as a percentage) at which a business or person is taxed. There are several methods used to present a tax rate: statutory, average, marginal, and effective. These rates can also be presented using different definitions applied to a tax base: inclusive and exclusive.

Tax wedge

The tax wedge is the deviation from the equilibrium price/quantity (${\displaystyle P^{*}}$ and ${\displaystyle Q^{*}}$, respectively) as a result of the taxation of a good. Because of the tax, consumers pay more for the good (${\displaystyle P_{c}}$) than they did before the tax, and suppliers receive less for the good (${\displaystyle P_{s}}$) than they did before the tax . Put differently, the tax wedge is the difference between what consumers pay and what producers receive (net of tax) from a transaction. The tax effectively drives a "wedge" between the price consumers pay and the price producers receive for a product.

Following from the Law of Supply and Demand, as the price to consumers increases, and the price received by suppliers decreases, the quantity that each wishes to trade will decrease. After a tax is introduced, a new equilibrium is reached, where consumers pay more ${\displaystyle (P^{*}\rightarrow P_{c})}$, suppliers receive less ${\displaystyle (P^{*}\rightarrow P_{s})}$, and the quantity exchanged falls ${\displaystyle (Q^{*}\rightarrow Q_{t})}$. The difference between ${\displaystyle P_{c}}$ and ${\displaystyle P_{s}}$ will be equivalent to the size of the per-unit tax.

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