The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2011

In 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Offices (CBO’s) estimates, average household market income— a comprehensive income measure that consists of labor income, business income, capital income (including capital gains), and retirement income—was approximately $81,000. Government transfers, which include benefits from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance, averaged approximately$13,000 per household. The sum of those two amounts, which equals before-tax income, was about $94,000, on average. Federal taxes as examined in this report comprise four separate sources: individual income taxes, payroll (or social insurance) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes. Taken together, those taxes were about$17,000 per household, on average, in 2011. Thus, average household income after taxes was about $77,000, and the average federal tax rate (federal taxes divided by before-tax income) was 17.6 percent

Overview of the Federal Tax System

The major sources of federal tax revenue are individual income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and estate and gift taxes. This report describes the federal tax structure, provides some statistics on the tax system as a whole, and presents analysis of selected tax concepts

Estimating Differential Responses to Local Fiscal Conditions: A Mixture Model Analysis

Alternative hypotheses exist regarding the impact of local sales and income taxes on local governments' taxing and spending decisions. One hypothesis is that local governments use sales and income taxes to pay for spending increases and leave property tax collections unchanged, while an equally plausible alternative is that local governments use sales and income taxes to reduce property taxes. Traditional models that restrict the impact of these local taxes to be the same across all local governments are not able to capture both types of behavior. The methodological difficulty lies in allowing for differences in behavior with no a priori information on which cities belong in which category. In this article, the authors use panel data to estimate a mixture model of spending and property tax response to the existence of local taxes. These empirical results provide evidence to support both hypotheses. These differences are both substantive and statistically significant

Kasich Tax Proposal Would Further Tilt Tax System in Favor of Ohio's Affluent

The Kasich administration proposal to cut income taxes and expand sales taxes would produce big tax cuts for Ohio'smost affluent residents while increasing taxes on lower- and moderate-income families

Is the impact of labour taxes on unemployment asymmetric?

This paper tests whether the impact of labour taxes on unemployment is symmetric with respect to increases and decreases in labour taxes. Using a panel of 16 OECD countries over the period 1970-2005, we estimate a panel unobserved component model to account for the fact that unemployment rates and labour taxes are non-stationary but not cointegrated. We find a positive impact of tax increases in European and Nordic countries with some evidence that tax decreases have a more moderate impact. For Anglo-Saxon countries, no impact of labour taxes on unemployment is found

TEXAS TAXES: A COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES

This document is part of an educational series on Texas taxes. State and local taxes in Texas are compared with those of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Taxes are compared per capita and per $1,000 of personal income. The taxes include: all state and local taxes, property taxes, sales and gross receipts taxes, personal income taxes, corporate income taxes and corporate franchise taxes. For each tax the national average, median, maximum and minimum are given along with the corresponding tax for Texas and Texas's rank nationally. Texas state revenue comes primarily from the sales tax and local revenue from the property tax. It is one of only four states with neither a corporate nor a personal income tax. For all state and local taxes, Texas ranks 35th per capita and 40th per$1,000 of personal income. Despite this relatively low rank among all states, tax reform is a continuing priority issue in Texas. The reason for this may be the heavy reliance on sales and property taxes to support state and local governmental services. While the overall tax burden is relatively low, the burden of these two taxes ranks relatively high and may disadvantage certain industries.Public Economics,

A Quantitative Analysis of Tax Competition v. Tax Coordination under Perfect Capital Mobility

Theory predicts that strategically-determined tax rates induce negative externalities across countries in relative prices, the wealth distribution and tax revenue. This paper studies the interaction of these externalities in a dynamic, general equilibrium environment and its effects on quantitative outcomes of tax competition in one-shot games over capital income taxes between two governments that set time-invariant taxes and issue debt. Strategic payoffs correspond to welfare gains net of the cost of transitional dynamics in a standard neoclassical two-country model with exogenous balanced growth. The model is calibrated to European data for the early 1980s starting from a benchmark with symmetric countries. When countries compete over capital taxes adjusting labor taxes to maintain fiscal solvency, the Nash equilibrium replicates calibrated taxes, suggesting that European taxes can be the outcome of Nash competition. When consumption taxes are adjusted to maintain fiscal solvency, competition triggers a “race to the bottom” in capital taxes but this outcome is welfare-improving relative to calibrated taxes. Sensitivity analysis shows that competition can produce a “race to the top” in capital taxes and that the United Kingdom can benefit from tax competition with Continental Europe. Surprisingly, the gains from coordination in all of these experiments are small.

Some Issues Associated with Increasing Georgia's Cigarette Tax

This policy brief provides revenue estimates for an increase in tobacco taxes, discusses social cost of smoking, and explores the effect on convenience store employment from increases in tobacco taxes

Information relevance of deferred tax : a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Accounting at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has undertaken research on accounting for income taxes. The IASB research suggests that a fundamental change from International Accounting Standard 12: Income Taxes (IAS 12), the balance sheet method, to another method may be considered. Other methods for accounting for deferred tax include the taxes payable method, the comprehensive basis under the income statement method, and the partial basis under the income statement method. This thesis provides evidence on this issue by using non-United States data to examine these deferred tax methods. This thesis examines the research question “are deferred tax methods, relative to the taxes payable method, information relevant?” Information that is ‘information relevant’ has two components: predictability and value relevance (Ohlson, 1995). The predictability of deferred tax methods is measured by its ability to predict future tax payments relative to the taxes payable method. The value relevance of deferred tax methods is measured by its association with share price relative to the taxes payable method. Literature examining deferred taxes predominately uses United States US data and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), and only partially examines deferred tax methods. This thesis contributes to the literature by examining all three deferred tax line items: deferred tax liabilities, deferred tax assets and deferred tax expense. The data is collected from the financial information for firms listed on the NZ Stock Exchange. Two samples of firms are examined: from 2000 to 2004 (pre IFRS) and 2008 to 2012 (post IFRS). The results show that the comprehensive basis under the income statement method is a better predictor of future tax payments and is value relevant relative to the taxes payable method. This indicates that it is information relevant. The partial basis under the income statement method is a better predictor of future tax payments relative to the taxes payable method however it is only value relevant for firms in the highest three deciles of mean increases in tax paid over the period. The balance sheet method is not a better predictor of future tax payments relative to the taxes payable method. The balance sheet method is, however, value relevant. The balance sheet method using disaggregated deferred tax is also value relevant relative to the balance sheet method

Excise taxes

The author contrasts excise taxes with sales taxes, consumption taxes, licenses, stamp, duties, and other indirect taxes. He describes different types of excises, their relative tax burdens, and how progressive and economically efficient they may be. The main argument for traditional excise taxes, he says, is that they yield substantial revenue with relatively little complaint. A second justification is that the cost of the excessive use of commodities is borne by the purchasers, not by society at large. A third argument is to penalize people for a commodity's use (especially popular with commodities such as alcohol). Arguments against traditional excises: they tend to be regressive, because of the low income elasticity of demand, and they place an unequal burden on families at given income levels. They deprive families of the funds for milk and other essential items, without reducing consumption of taxed goods. High rates tend to increase smuggling and illicit production, often of inferior, even dangerous, substitutes. And the case for them is not strong, resting as it often does on moral grounds. But excise taxes are sure to continue as they yield revenues and are generally more acceptable than other sources of revenue, such as income taxes. Taxes on motor fuel and related motor vehicle levies are among the three most productive excises. They are justified as a charge for the use of roads, in lieu of tolls. In Western Europe, they are seen as progressive, as reaching the people most able to pay -- and incidentally as reducing road congestion. Criticism of such taxes centers on how best to attain desired goals -- for example, sorting out the relative burdens on light and heavy vehicles. Luxury excises tend to be applied to commodities and services with a high income-elasticity of demand, the assumption being that they will reach the people best able to pay them -- achieving equity without relying on increased income taxes, which are difficult to enforce in developing countries and hurt incentives. A luxury excise tax, limited to certain items, is viewed as being progressive, which a sales tax rarely is. But if various rates apply, compliance and administration become complex, and consumers may discriminate among closely related commodities. Moreover, the goods taxed are often widely used by lower income groups (sugar and kerosene are prime examples). For these reasons, many countries are introducing sales taxes, with few rates or a single rate (with exemptions), with simplified processing, and with less ambiguity about what is or is not taxed.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics,Economic Theory&Research