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The 10% Flat Tax: Tithing and the Definition of Income THE 10% FLAT TAX: TITHING AND THE DEFINITION OF INCOME GORDON B. DAHL and MICHAEL R RANSOM∗ Developing a fair and widely accepted income definition presents one of the great- est challenges to tax reform. To arrive at a definition separate from the federal tax code, we surveyed 1200 Latter-day Saints about their practice of tithing. Tithing is similar to a flat tax with no deductions, where individuals voluntarily contribute 10% of self-defined income to the church. The results of our survey indicate that most respondents operate on a cash realization basis, which excludes savings and does not allow any deductions. Respondents’ income concepts generally do not coincide with current tax laws or economists’ views of comprehensive income. (JEL H24, Z12) We recommend the passage of [the income tax] that an income concept exists that is gener- in the confident belief that . [it] will meet with ally agreed on as fair and that can meaning- as much general satisfaction as any tax law. ...All good citizens, it is therefore believed, will willingly fully be applied to individual taxation. But do and cheerfully support and sustain this, the fairest ordinary people agree on what constitutes a and cheapest of all taxes. fair definition of income? And, if so, does the —Committee Report on the Act Authorizing income concept match up with either the cur- the Income Tax, U.S. House of Representatives, October 3, 1913 rent tax code or economists’ views of com- prehensive income? How individuals believe income should be I. INTRODUCTION defined matters for any major reform of the Much of the discussion on individual U.S. tax code. First, the electorate’s percep- income taxation in the United States attacks tions of what items belong in the income the exceptions, preferences, loopholes, and base may well determine what changes are complexity of the Internal Revenue Code. politically feasible. Second, in interpreting Would-be reformers stress the inequities and the Sixteenth Amendment, the courts have economic defects that arise due to the current historically relied on an income definition fragmented tax base and argue for a compre- imputed to ordinary citizens. In the land- hensive tax on income. This approach implies mark case of Eisner v Macomber (1920), the Supreme Court effectively ratified the com- ∗We are grateful to David Card, Cecilia Rouse, mon man’s notion of income for tax pur- Orley Ashenfelter, Harvey Rosen, and David Bradford for their support and valuable suggestions. We also poses. On the theory that the people wrote thank an anonymous referee and seminar participants at and adopted the Constitution, Justice Pitney Princeton University, the School of Industrial and Labor reasoned that “we require only a clear defini- Relations at Cornell University, and the University of tion of the term ‘income,’ as used in common Rochester for helpful comments. Herb Abelson of the Princeton University Survey Research Center shared his speech, in order to determine its meaning in considerable expertise about designing and implement- the Amendment.” Finally, the importance of ing surveys. Grants from the Center for Economic Policy the income definition extends beyond polit- Studies at Princeton University and the Princeton Uni- versity Industrial Relations Section financed the survey. ical and statutory considerations, because Gordon Dahl also gratefully acknowledges additional research suggests that the perceived fairness support from the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. Dahl: Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627. Phone 1-716-275-6279, Fax 1-716-256-2309, E-mail ABBREVIATIONS [email protected] HS: Haig-Simons Ransom: Professor, Department of Economics, Brigham IRA: Individual Retirement Account Young University, Provo, UT 84602. Phone 1- LDS: Latter-day Saints 801-378-4736, Fax 1-801-378-2844, E-mail ransom@ byu.edu 120 Economic Inquiry (ISSN 0095-2583) Vol. 40, No. 1, January 2002, 120–137 © Western Economic Association International DAHL & RANSOM: TITHING AND THE DEFINITION OF INCOME 121 of the tax code also affects the degree of vol- II. ECONOMISTS’ VIEWS OF TAXABLE INCOME untary compliance (e.g., Roth et al. [1989]; Slemrod [1992]; and Tyler [1990]). Passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to Eliciting individuals’ beliefs about what the U.S. Constitution in 1913 laid the foun- belongs in an income base presents many dation for the current personal income tax challenges. For example, if directly asked in the United States. The amendment reads: about what is fair for tax purposes, peo- “The Congress shall have power to lay and ple may respond that no form of income collect taxes on incomes, from whatever should be taxed or may simply repeat the source derived.” The language of the amend- Internal Revenue Code as they understand ment does not define income, and subsequent it. To arrive at a self-determined income def- tax laws have never adhered to a consis- inition free of such biases, we administered tent income definition. Instead the tax code a survey to 1200 members of the Church enumerates which items should be included, of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). excluded, or deducted from the income base. Church members provide unique insights into Referring to the amendment, the Internal income definitions because of their prac- Revenue Code states that income means tice of tithing, where individuals voluntar- “all income from whatever source derived” ily contribute one-tenth of their income to including “but not limited to” the enumer- the church. Because the LDS Church collects ated items (United States Internal Revenue tithes centrally and disperses funds locally Code [1997], Title 26, Subtitle A, Chapter 1, based only on average attendance at Sunday Subchapter B, Part I, Sec. 61). When ques- services, tithes do not represent entrance fees tions arise, administrators and the courts or payment for local public goods. Though determine the limits of the income concept. the rate of 10% is fixed and not subject The numerous additions and changes to the to personal interpretation, the definition of U.S. federal income tax code point to the which potential income sources to tithe is eclectic notion of taxable income used in left to individual conscience. Hence, asking practice throughout the last century. questions about what items respondents think Although the definition of income is not should and should not be included in “tith- a new topic in economic theory, the con- able income” provides an interesting measure cepts of personal income to which most of what people regard as income. public finance economists now subscribe The survey results indicate a fair amount evolved only in the last 100 years.1 The now- of consensus on what items belong in the popular accretion-based concept of income tithable income base. Respondents tend to was first envisioned by German thinkers such equate income with increases in cash and as Georg Shanz in 1896, and subsequently to underrate in-kind accruals and transfers. developed by Robert Haig and Henry Simons Savings are included in the income defini- in America. Haig (1921, 59) defines income tion and deductions are not allowed. This as “the increase or accretion in one’s power definition stands in contrast to economists’ to satisfy his wants in a given period in views of comprehensive income and current tax laws. Interestingly, the sources and uses 1. Using a personal income concept as a means of of a gain seem to matter, many individu- assessing tax burdens was first coherently developed in als treat gains and losses asymmetrically, and the 1700s (see Musgrave [1985]). Previously, taxation had been a loose conglomeration of direct and indirect a nontrivial fraction of respondents double- taxes with no unifying reference to income. Motivated tithe intertemporal transactions. Through- by a desire for greater simplicity and less arbitrariness out our discussion of the survey results, we in the assessment of taxes, in 1743 Carlo Antonio Brog- gia argued for proportional taxes on income that is “cer- explore several explanations for why individ- tain,” such as land rent, but wanted to leave free all uals define income as they do. We find differ- “uncertain” monies, including profits and the bulk of ing degrees of evidence for such factors as the wages. Quesnay, and the physiocratic school he founded, called for a single tax on land to replace all existing direct federal tax code, framing effects and men- taxes in 1760, because he believed land was the only real tal accounting, and financial motivations. As source of income. Smith (in 1776), and later Ricardo might be expected, we also find that personal (1911, originally published in 1817), took slightly more characteristics, such as church activity, family encompassing views of income for tax purposes, but both still thought that taxing subsistence wages was impracti- income, and other demographic characteris- cal, because these taxes would merely be passed on to tics, significantly influence tithing beliefs. profits or rents anyway. 122 ECONOMIC INQUIRY so far as that power consists of (a) money Tithing was also a part of the law of Moses itself, or, (b) anything susceptible of valu- (see Lev 27:30). Today, tithing is an inte- ation in terms of money.” Simons (1938) gral element of the religious practice of the later offered a simple algebraic definition, LDS Church, commonly called the Mormon equating personal income with consumption Church (see Doctrine and Covenants 119:4). plus change in net worth. Both Haig and In the LDS Church, ecclesiastical leaders Simons emphasize that income involves the teach that payment of an honest tenth is economic power to acquire goods and ser- necessary to be right with God. Though the vices, regardless of whether an individual rate of 10% is immutable,2 there are no spe- actually exercises that power.
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