Do We Need Tax Harmonization in the EU?

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Do We Need Tax Harmonization in the EU? A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Boss, Alfred Working Paper — Digitized Version Do we need tax harmonization in the EU? Kiel Working Paper, No. 916 Provided in Cooperation with: Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) Suggested Citation: Boss, Alfred (1999) : Do we need tax harmonization in the EU?, Kiel Working Paper, No. 916, Kiel Institute of World Economics (IfW), Kiel This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/2268 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Kieler Arbeitspapiere Kiel Working Papers Kiel Working Paper No. 916 Do We Need Tax Harmonization in the EU? by Alfred Boss Institut fiir Weltwirtschaft an der Universitat Kiel The Kiel Institute of World Economics ISSN 0342 - 0787 Kiel Institute of World Economics Dusternbrooker Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel Kiel Working Paper No. 916 Do We Need Tax Harmonization in the EU? by Alfred Boss March 1999 The author himself, not the Kiel Institute of World Economics, is solely responsible for the contents and distribution of each Kiel Working Paper. Since the series involves manuscripts in a preliminary form, interested readers are requested to direct criticisms and suggestions directly to the author and to clear any quotations with him. Abstract For many years there have been political intentions to harmonize tax rates in Europe. As to capital income taxation, competition is often seen to be especially harmful. Facing a high degree of international capital mobility, every country is expected to reduce its tax rate in order to attract new capital or not to lose capital allocated in the country ("race to the bottom"). It is shown that the development of capital income tax rates in the European Union (EU) and in other industrialized countries as well as the development of corporate income tax revenues do not indicate that a race to the bottom has taken place. If tax competition should become as fierce as some observers seem to fear, the arguments in favor of tax competition instead of harmonization should be kept in mind. If tax rates are cut in a process of competition, govern- ment expenditures have to be reduced; this helps to avoid waste and inefficien- cies in the public sector. In addition, tax competition might help to find better tax systems, and every country could learn from the experiences of other countries. In contrast, tax harmonization would probably lead to higher taxes in the EU. JEL Classification: H 20, H 87 Keywords: Tax Competition, Tax Rate Harmonization, Value-added Taxation in the EU, Capital Income Taxation in the EU Table of Contents A. Tax Rate Differences in Europe — an Overview 1 B. Is VAT Rate Harmonization Necessary? 5 1. The Main Elements of Value-added Taxation 5 2. Is the Integration of Markets Impeded by Tax Rate Differentials? 6 C. Does Harmonization of Capital Income Taxes Make Sense? 10 1. The Problem 10 2. The Theoretical Background of the Harmonization Argument 11 3. What Happened to Corporate Income Taxation? 13 4. Germany: A Special Case 17 5. The Arguments Against Harmonization 17 6. Harmonization of Taxes on Interest Income in the EU? 21 D. Concluding Remarks 23 Bibliography 24 Do We Need Tax Harmonization in the EU? For many years there are political intentions to harmonize tax rates in western Europe. The Commission of the European Union (EU) even exerts some political pressure to adjust the value-added tax (VAT) rates in a union-wide system. The pressure probably will become stronger after the creation of the EMU. As to capital income taxation the harmonization issue is often debated under the headline of tax base erosion. The paper discusses the question if it makes sense to harmonize the value added tax rates or the capital income tax rates in the EU. It is organized as fol- lows: In an overview the most important tax rate differences between the EU countries are shown. The second section deals with the issue of VAT harmoni- zation. The third section investigates the issue of capital income tax harmoniza- tion; differences in the taxation of labor income (wage income tax, contribu- tions to social security (payroll tax)) will not be discussed. A. Tax Rate Differences in Europe — an Overview About 30 years ago, most of the European countries adopted a system of taxing net value added instead of gross sales of firms. Within the European Commu- nity (EC) respectively the European Union the VAT bases were adjusted to a large extent; the tax rate differentials became smaller in the course of time, tax rates still diverge, however (Table 1). The European systems of capital income taxation are difficult to explain and to compare. Firms pay — depending on their legal status — assessed income tax or corporate income tax and often some other taxes (e.g. property tax). Apart from the statutory tax rates many subtle and complex legal arrangements (e.g. rules for depreciation allowances) are important. Table 1 — Value Added Tax (VAT) Rates in the European Union, 1998 (p.c.) Regular rate Reduced rate(s) Zero ratea Austria 20 10; 12 — Belgium 21 1;6; 12 yes Denmark 25 — yes Finland 22 8; 17 yes France 20.6 2.1; 5.5 — Germany 16 7 — Greece 18 4; 8 — Ireland 21 3.6; 10.0 . yes Italy 20 4; 10 yes Luxembourg 15 3; 6; 12 — Netherlands 17.5 6 — Portugal 17 5; 12 — Spain 16 4; 7 — Sweden 25 6; 12 yes United Kingdom 17.5 5 yes EU15 18.5b — — EMU 18.3b — — Addendum: Switzerland 6.5 2; 3 Japan 5 — — Canada (federal) 7 — yes aZero tax rate for specific sales (e.g. sales of newspapers in Belgium and Denmark) combined with a credit (against tax liability) of the amount connected with the purchases. — "Weighted by 1997 GDP shares. Source: DATEV (1999); BMF (1998). It is not possible to characterize the main features of the systems and to assess their attractivity for investors in this paper. However, in order to give some information on the tax systems in Europe, the (statutory) corporate income tax rates for retained earnings are presented (Table 2). Discussing the topic "tax harmonization" it is useful to have a look at the development of the tax rates in the recent decades. All over the world, tax rates for retained earnings had risen in the sixties and seventies. They started to decline worldwide in the eighties (Koop 1993). Germany followed the develop- ment with some delay. Table 2 — Corporate Income Tax Rates in the European Union, 1998 (p.c.) Tax ratea Taxation of dividends*3 Austria 34 tax reduction Belgium 40.17 "classical" system Denmark 34 "classical" system Finland 28 tax reduction France 36.67 tax reduction Germany 47.48 integration systemc Greece 35 tax reduction Ireland 36 tax reduction Italy 41.25 tax reduction Luxembourg 31.2 tax reduction Netherlands 35 "classical" system Portugal 34 tax reduction Spain 35 tax reduction Sweden 28 "classical" system United Kingdom 31 tax reduction EU15 35.1d-e EMU 36.3d-f Addendum: Switzerland 8.5 "classical" system Japan 43.98 tax reduction United States (New York) 40.8 "classical" system including taxes of states and local governments. —- ''Correction at the firm or shareholder level in order to avoid double taxation af distributee profits. — cFor corporate and personal income taxation. — "^Simple average of tax rates. — e38.58 p.c. weighted by 1997 GDP. — f40.69 p.c. weighted by 1997 GDP. Source: DATEV (1999). In order to obtain comprehensive (statutory) tax rates, estimates of the average rate of local or state corporate taxes have to be taken into consideration (Rimbaux 1996, Appendix C). The (statutory) rates for Germany, France and the United Kingdom fell in the 1970-1995 period (Rimbaux 1996: 93). A breaking point occurred in the mid of the eighties (Figure 1). A phase of rate decline started when the United Kingdom lowered its rate from 52 to 35 p.c. Figure 1 — Legal Tax Rate Including Local Taxes p.C. 30 i—r "i—i—i—i—i—i—i—i—i—r I—i—i—i—i—i—i—i—i—i—r 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 Source: Rimbaux (1996: 93). between 1984 and 1986; at the same time expensing (immediate write-off) as a rule for measuring depreciation allowances was abolished. France followed rapidly. Germany, however, only reacted with a delay of about five years. The tax rate differentials between Germany and the United Kingdom and between Germany and France — both in the range of 10 percentage points in the seventies and part of the eighties — even increased somewhat because the rate cut in Germany was relatively modest. Nowadays, capital income — at least in the form of retained earnings of corporations as an important part of it — seems to enjoy a more favorable treat- ment than in the seventies.
Recommended publications
  • Pressures for the Harmonization of Income Taxation Between Canada and the United States
    This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Canada-U.S. Tax Comparisons Volume Author/Editor: John B. Shoven and John Whalley, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-75483-9 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/shov92-1 Conference Date: July 26-27, 1990 Publication Date: January 1992 Chapter Title: Pressures for the Harmonization of Income Taxation between Canada and the United States Chapter Author: Robin Boadway, Neil Bruce Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c7478 Chapter pages in book: (p. 25 - 74) 1 Pressures for the Harmonization of Income Taxation between Canada and the United States Robin Boadway and Neil Bruce 1.1 Introduction: The Question of Tax Harmonization The determination of tax policy is among the most sovereign functions of governments. The choices to be made include of the level of tax revenues to be collected (and hence the level of public sector spending), the economic activities to be taxed (the tax bases and the tax mix), the distribution of the tax burden over different groups and income classes in the country, and the distri- bution of the tax revenues to different levels of government in the country. From an economic point of view, there are a number of criteria that might be used in formulating tax policy. These include minimizing the burden on the population of raising the given amount of revenue, minimizing the administra- tive costs of the tax system both to the government and to the taxpayers, achieving the desired amount of income redistribution, increasing the stability and predictability of the revenue base, and using tax policy as an instrument of industrial and regional policy.
    [Show full text]
  • Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union: a Survey
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Keuschnigg, Christian; Loretz, Simon; Winner, Hannes Working Paper Tax competition and tax coordination in the European Union: A survey Working Papers in Economics and Finance, No. 2014-04 Provided in Cooperation with: Department of Social Sciences and Economics, University of Salzburg Suggested Citation: Keuschnigg, Christian; Loretz, Simon; Winner, Hannes (2014) : Tax competition and tax coordination in the European Union: A survey, Working Papers in Economics and Finance, No. 2014-04, University of Salzburg, Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Salzburg This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/122170 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu TAX COMPETITION AND TAX COORDINATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A SURVEY CHRISTIAN KEUSCHNIGG, SIMON LORETZ AND HANNES WINNER WORKING PAPER NO.
    [Show full text]
  • European Tax Harmonization and the Implications for U.S Tax Policy Tracy A
    Boston College International and Comparative Law Review Volume 19 | Issue 1 Article 3 12-1-1996 European Tax Harmonization and the Implications for U.S Tax Policy Tracy A. Kaye Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr Part of the Tax Law Commons Recommended Citation Tracy A. Kaye, European Tax Harmonization and the Implications for U.S Tax Policy, 19 B.C. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 109 (1996), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol19/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. European Tax Harmonization and the Implications for U.S. Tax Policy Tracy A. Kayi* I. EUROPEAN COMMUNITY TAX HARMONIZATION A. Introduction . .. 110 B. History of the European Economic Community . .......... 115 C. Formation of European Community Tax Legislation. .. 119 D. Enforcement of European Community Tax Legislation . ..... 125 E. Taxation in the Community . ......................... 129 II. DIRECT TAXATION ................................... 133 A. The Directives . .. 133 B. The Ruding Committee Report . ....................... 142 C. Future of Direct Tax Harmonization. .. 148 III. IMPLICATIONS OF EC DIRECT TAX HARMONIZATION ON U.S. TAX POLICY .................................... 150 A. Implications for Subpart F . .......................... 150 B. U.S. Tax Treaty Policy Implications . ................... 164 IV. CONCLUSION ....................................... 171 * Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law. B.S., University of Illinois, M.S.T., DePaul University, J.D., Georgetown University Law Center; formerly Tax Legislative Assistant to Senator John C.
    [Show full text]
  • Tax Competition, Tax Coordination and Tax Harmonization: the Effects of EMU
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Genser, Bernd; Haufler, Andreas Working Paper Tax competition, tax coordination and tax harmonization: The effects of EMU Diskussionsbeiträge - Serie II, No. 283 Provided in Cooperation with: Department of Economics, University of Konstanz Suggested Citation: Genser, Bernd; Haufler, Andreas (1995) : Tax competition, tax coordination and tax harmonization: The effects of EMU, Diskussionsbeiträge - Serie II, No. 283, Universität Konstanz, Sonderforschungsbereich 178 - Internationalisierung der Wirtschaft, Konstanz This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/101612 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend
    [Show full text]
  • Cross-Border Group-Taxation and Loss-Offset in the EU - an Analysis for CCCTB (Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base) and ETAS (European Tax Allocation System)
    arqus Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre www.arqus.info Diskussionsbeitrag Nr. 66 Claudia Dahle Michaela Bäumer Cross-Border Group-Taxation and Loss-Offset in the EU - An Analysis for CCCTB (Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base) and ETAS (European Tax Allocation System) - April 2009 arqus Diskussionsbeiträge zur Quantitativen Steuerlehre arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research ISSN 1861-8944 Cross-Border Group-Taxation and Loss-Offset in the EU - An Analysis for CCCTB (Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base) and ETAS (European Tax Allocation System) - Abstract The European Commission proposed to replace the currently existing Separate Accounting by an EU-wide tax system based on a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). Besides the CCCTB, there is an alternative tax reform proposal, the European Tax Allocation System (ETAS). In a dynamic capital budgeting model we analyze the impacts of selected loss-offset limitations currently existing in the EU under both concepts on corporate cross- border real investments of MNE. The analyses show that replacing Separate Accounting by either concept can lead to increasing profitability due to cross-border loss compensation. However, if the profitability increases, the study indicates that the main criteria of decisions on location are the tax rate divergences within the EU Member States. High tax rate differentials in the Member States imply significant redistribution of tax payments under CCCTB and ETAS. The results clarify that in both reform proposals tax payment reallocations occur in favor of the holding. National loss-offset limitations and minimum taxation concepts in tendency lose their impact on the profitability under both proposals. However, we found scenarios in which national minimum taxation can encroach upon the group level, although in our model the minimum taxation’s impacts seem to be slight.
    [Show full text]
  • Hakelberg Rixen End of Neoliberal Tax Policy
    Is Neoliberalism Still Spreading? The Impact of International Cooperation on Capital Taxation Lukas Hakelberg and Thomas Rixen Freie Universität Berlin Ihnestr. 22 14195 Berlin, Germany E.mail: [email protected] and [email protected] Postprint. Please cite as: Hakelberg, L. and T. Rixen (2020). "Is neoliberalism still spreading? The impact of international cooperation on capital taxation." Review of International Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1752769 Acknowledgments Leo Ahrens, Fulya Apaydin, Frank Bandau, Benjamin Braun, Benjamin Faude, Valeska Gerstung, Leonard Geyer, Matthias vom Hau, Steffen Hurka, Friederike Kelle, Christoph Knill, Simon Linder, Daniel Mertens, Richard Murphy, Sol Picciotto, Nils Redeker, Max Schaub, Yves Steinebach, Alexandros Tokhi, Frank Borge Wietzke, Michael Zürn and other participants at the ECPR General Conference in Oslo 2017, the IBEI Research Seminar and Workshop ‘Pol- icy-Making in Hard Times’ in Barcelona in 2017, the Conference of the German Political Sci- ence Association’s (DVPW) Political Economy Section in Darmstadt 2018, the Tax Justice Network’s Annual Conference 2018 in Lima and the Global Governance Colloquium at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) in May 2019 as well as three anonymous re- viewers provided very helpful comments and suggestions. We thank all of them. Is Neoliberalism Still Spreading? The Impact of International Cooperation on Capital Taxation Abstract The downward trend in capital taxes since the 1980s has recently reversed for personal capital income. At the same time, it continued for corporate profits. Why have these tax rates diverged after a long period of parallel decline? We argue that the answer lies in different levels of change in the fights against tax evasion and tax avoidance.
    [Show full text]
  • T315 POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 13 85 Public Disclosure Authorized
    _j_pS t315 POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 13 85 Public Disclosure Authorized Fiscal Federalism This paper presentseconomic principles and practical Dimensions of Tax Reform guidelines for the assignment in Developing Countries of revenueraising responsibilitiesamong Public Disclosure Authorized different levelsof government Robin Boadway for countrieswith morethan Sandra Roberts one levelof government.It Anwar Shah alsooutlines tax ~ n n s 9harmonizationand aSifg,t t ^Ut~ j coordinationstrategies to avoid inefficienciesand inequities arising from Public Disclosure Authorized decentralizationof revenue raisingauthority. Public Disclosure Authorized The World Bank PolicyResearch Departmnent Public EconomicsDivision November 1994 IPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 1385 Summaryfindings Boadway, Roberts, and Shah propose four economic Thus progressive redistributive taxes, stabilization principles for use in deciding taxing responsibilities for instruments, and resource rent taxes would be suitable various levels of government. These are: for assignment to national government; while tolls on * Efficiency of the internal common market. For intermunicipal roads are suitably assigned to state efficiency in internal common market, taxes on mobile governments. Some resource taxes, such as royalties and factors and tradable goods should either be assigned to fees and severance taxes on production and/or output, the national government or coordinated among are designed to cover costs of local service provision and subnational governments. could be assigned to subnational governments. In * National equity. Progressive redistributive taxes addition, subnational governments could also impose ought to be assigned to the level of government having taxes to discourage local environmental degradation. In responsibility for redistribution, usually the national countries with a federal level VAT, it may be too government. Subnational governments could levy cumbersome to have subnational sales taxes.
    [Show full text]
  • Globalization, Tax Competition, and the Welfare State
    POLITICSPHILIPP GENSCHEL & SOCIETY Globalization, Tax Competition, and the Welfare State PHILIPP GENSCHEL Does globalization undermine the fiscal basis of the welfare state? Some observers are not convinced. They claim that aggregate data on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries show no drop in tax levels and conclude from this that tax competition is not a serious challenge for the welfare state. This conclusion is unwarranted. The article shows that tax competition systematically constrains national tax autonomy in a serious way. It prevents governments from raising taxes in response to rising spending requirements and from detaxing labor in response to growing unemployment. 1. THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM AND ITS CRITICS During the 1990s, there was a lot of concern in Europe that globalization would undermine the fiscal basis of the welfare state. Newspapers were full of dire warn- ings from policy makers who saw the coming of “cut throat tax competition”1 and bemoaned the loss of “billions of Euro” to unfair tax poaching.2 G-7 summits, the European Commission, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued alarmist reports on “harmful tax competition.”3 Scholars warned of “beggar-thy-neighbor policies”4 and an impending “race to the bottom” that would force “down the share of total government revenue gener- ated by taxes on business and capital income.”5 “In equilibrium, the tax rate on An earlier version of this article was presented at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., 31 August-3 September 2000. The article grew out of a joint project with Steffen Ganghof.
    [Show full text]
  • Tax Competition and Tax Harmonization in the European Union
    ACTA UNIVERSITATIS AGRICULTURAE ET SILVICULTURAE MENDELIANAE BRUNENSIS SBORNÍK MENDELOVY ZEMĚDĚLSKÉ A LESNICKÉ UNIVERZITY V BRNĚ Ročník LII 12 Číslo 6, 2004 TAX COMPETITION AND tax harmonization IN THE EUROPEAN UNION D. Nerudová Received: June 29, 2004 Abstract NERUDOVÁ, D.: Tax competition and tax harmonization in the European Union. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2004, LII, No. 6, pp. 135-144 The article deals with the problems of tax competition and harmonization within the European Union. It reveals the single difficulties connected with harmonization, identifies the problems arising from tax competition and points out the harmful tax competition as well. Single compulsory harmonized tax base in connection with prevailing tax competition in the area of tax rates is the suggested solution in the scope of direct taxation. As the solution in the area of indirect taxation could serve the introduction of “principle of origin”. This would cause remarkable administrative costs decrease not only for economic subjects but for tax authorities as well. tax harmonization, tax competition, harmful tax competition, common market The integration in the area of the taxation was indi- current member states. This means that even though visible part of the integration efforts in Europe which the fact that common market and market competition culminated by the endorsing of Treaty of Rome in the need certain degree of tax harmonization or coordi- 1957 and establishing of EEC1. The obligation of tax nation, member states are still highly unwilling to harmonization is incorporated in the above mentioned harmonize tax provisions which can cause obstacles Treaty of Rome, which binds the member countries to smooth functioning of common market or market not to impose (directly either indirectly) any kind of deformations.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Publications RP-16
    New York, N . Y . 10020 Printed in U.S.A, Table of Contents PACE L INTRODUCTION 5 IL . THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY - 7 Purpose, Or;anization and Tax Harmonization Objectives 7 Fiscal Harmonizatinn and Common Market Objectives 7 Why the Need to Harmonize Indirect Taxes 8 The Value-Added Tax : I „ 11 Border Tax Adjustments .12 III, `THE AMERICAN BALANCE-OF-PAYMENTS` SITUATION AN D BORDER TAXES 14 .,The Common European Value-Added Tax and Border Taxes 16 The Border,Adjustment:Problem 18 IV. THE U.S. COURSES OF`ACTION TO COMPENSATE FOR _ _EUROPEAN :BORDER TAXES .2 1 V. CONCLUSION , ,,,,,,,,,, 25 APPENDIX I - The E.E.C. Directives Introducing the Common Value-Added Tax l System ;. 6 .. APPENDIX II The Cerman Law on .Value-Added Taxes APPENDIX II I . The Value-Added. Tax 31 ; ;. :..List-of Tables .. '.. .. -~ ;-TABLE ;PAGE 1. Turnover and Value-Added Taxes in the Common Market, 1967 9 II. Border Tax Adjustment Rates in the Common Market, 1967 12 III. Taxation as a Percentage of Cross National Product in 1966 17 IV, Common Market Trade Balance with the United States 21 ,Introduction, , . T. V. A. no longer is used exclusively acteristics of each, while being distinc t with reference to the "Tennessee Valley - from both in that it includes in its tax Authority." In more recent times T.V.A. base services rendered in the production has often been used ,to designate the process. French tax system of "la taxe ..sur la „ In 1950 value-added taxation was pro - valeur; ajoutee: ;posed to Japan by the Shoup Mission under Professor Carl S .
    [Show full text]
  • International Financial Flows and Transactions Taxes: Survey and Options A
    International Financial Flows and Transactions Taxes: a Survey and Options by Paul Bernd Spahn 1 Abstract Tobin suggested that exchange-rate volatility be controlled through a tax on international financial transactions. The analysis shows that the Tobin tax as a pure transaction tax is not viable. The tax would impair financial operations and create international liquidity problems. It is also unlikely to deter speculation. However, a possible alternative could be a two-tier rate structure consisting of a low-rate transaction tax, plus an exchange surcharge. The exchange rate could move freely within a "crawling" exchange-rate band, but overshooting the band would trigger a tax on an "externality" – which is the discrepancy between the market exchange rate and the closest margin of the band. The scheme is inspired by the European Monetary System, a tax instrument would keep exchange rates within the target range, not interest policy or central bank sterilization and, eventually the depletion of international reserves. a Paper originally published with the IMF as Working Paper WP/95/60. 1 The author is professor of public finance at the University of Frankfurt/Main and presently a consultant to the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Fund. The author would like to thank Vito Tanzi and Partho Shome for drawing his attention to the topic and encouraging this research, and he acknowledges the helpful comments he received from Harry Grubert, John Norregaard, Tony Pellechio, Partho Shome, Janet Stotsky, Vicky Summers, Emil Sunley, Koenraad van der Heeden, and Howell Zee on an earlier draft.
    [Show full text]
  • The Global Architecture of Financial Regulatory Taxes
    Michigan Journal of International Law Volume 36 Issue 4 2015 The Global Architecture of Financial Regulatory Taxes Carlo Garbarino Università Bocconi Giulio Allevato SDA Bocconi School of Management Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil Part of the Banking and Finance Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Law and Economics Commons Recommended Citation Carlo Garbarino & Giulio Allevato, The Global Architecture of Financial Regulatory Taxes, 36 MICH. J. INT'L L. 603 (2015). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol36/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Journal of International Law at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE GLOBAL ARCHITECTURE OF FINANCIAL REGULATORY TAXES Carlo Garbarino* and Giulio Allevato** *** INTRODUCTION ................................................. 603 I. A BRIEF DIACHRONIC ACCOUNT OF THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS ...................................... 607 II. ADDRESSING THE FINANCIAL SECTOR’S NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES: THE ROLE OF TAXATION .............. 610 III. THE GOALS OF FINANCIAL REGULATORY TAXES AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION ..................... 613 A. Goals .............................................. 613 B. The International Dimension ........................ 616 IV. ENTITY-BASED FINANCIAL REGULATORY TAXES ........ 619 A. Risky Asset-based and Liability-based Taxes ......... 620 B. Excess-profits Financial Taxes ....................... 624 V. THE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX ..................... 629 A. General features .................................... 629 B. The ‘Relocation’ and ‘Substitution’ Risks ............ 632 C. The EU Commission’s Proposal for an FTT ......... 634 VI. HOW FINANCIAL REGULATORY TAXES COMPLEMENT DIRECT REGULATION ..................................
    [Show full text]