United States Taxes and Tax Policy

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 2
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
1 - Economic foundations of U.S. tax policy......Page 16
The decline of Keynesian economics......Page 17
The modern neoclassical view of tax policy......Page 20
Current tax policy......Page 21
Modern neoclassical models......Page 27
Role of modern neoclassical models......Page 31
Principles of sound taxation......Page 32
Avoidance, evasion, and tax effectiveness......Page 34
Historical background......Page 36
Anatomy of the income tax......Page 41
Additional problems of the income tax......Page 49
Bracket creep......Page 62
Indexing......Page 70
Tax cuts and tax effects......Page 73
Conclusion......Page 90
Equity issues......Page 92
Efficiency, savings, and economic growth......Page 97
Implementation of the tax......Page 102
Summary......Page 104
Nature of capital gains......Page 106
Brief history......Page 107
Problems of capital gains taxation......Page 109
Conclusion and summary......Page 132
Introduction......Page 134
Shifting and incidence......Page 140
Further economic effects of the tax......Page 146
Double taxation and corporate tax integration......Page 147
The anatomy of investment incentives......Page 153
Introduction......Page 165
Economic effects of inflation......Page 169
Alleviation of inflation-induced taxation......Page 178
Summary and conclusion......Page 181
Early history......Page 183
Mechanics of the tax......Page 185
The financing problem......Page 186
Pay-as-you-go financing......Page 189
Social security and the redistribution of income......Page 190
The long run under alternative assumptions......Page 191
Some economic effects of social security......Page 195
Proposals to alter the system......Page 201
Proposals for fundamental reform......Page 203
Congressional attempts to save social security......Page 208
Major provisions of the 1983 law......Page 209
Summary......Page 212
Characteristics of the VAT......Page 214
VAT proposals in the United States......Page 222
Summary and conclusion......Page 229
Introduction......Page 231
Structure and characteristics of the sales tax......Page 233
Evaluation of the sales tax......Page 239
Proposals for reform of the sales tax......Page 241
Reasons for growth in state--local taxes......Page 243
Features of state--local taxes......Page 245
Sources of state revenue......Page 249
The property tax......Page 265
The incidence of the property tax......Page 269
Economic effects......Page 273
Other sources of local revenue......Page 280
User costs and fees......Page 282
Conclusion......Page 285
Statistical and theoretical problems of tax incidence studies......Page 286
Empirical results of research on tax incidence......Page 289
Prospects for reform......Page 299
Appendix......Page 302
References......Page 307
Index......Page 325