income tax

income tax
a tax levied on incomes, esp. an annual government tax on personal incomes.
[1790-1800]

* * *

Levy imposed by public authority on the incomes of persons or corporations within its jurisdiction.

In nations with an advanced system of private enterprise, income taxes represent the chief source of government revenue. Income tax levied on individuals or family units is known as personal income tax. In 1799 Britain enacted a general income tax to finance the Napoleonic Wars. In the U.S. an income tax was first tried during the Civil War; the Supreme Court held it to be constitutional in 1881 but declared another income tax unconstitutional in 1894. In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the personal income tax permanent. The fairness of personal income taxation is based on the premise that one's income is the best single index of one's ability to contribute to the support of the government; most personal income taxes are conceived on the theory that when people's financial circumstances differ, their tax liabilities should also differ. Thus U.S. income taxes are progressive taxes, falling more heavily on those who earn more money, and individual income tax deductions are allowed for items such as interest paid on home mortgage debt, unusual medical expenses, philanthropic contributions, and state and local income and property taxes. Enforcement has been facilitated by withholding the tax from wages and salaries. See also capital gains tax; capital levy; corporate income tax; regressive tax; sales tax; value-added tax.

* * *

Introduction

      levy imposed on individuals (or family units) and corporations. Individual income tax is computed on the basis of income received. It is usually classified as a direct tax (taxation) because the burden is presumably on the individuals who pay it. Corporate income tax is imposed on net profits, computed as the excess of receipts over allowable costs.

      As an instrument of national policy, the individual income tax has played different roles in different countries at different times, beginning in Great Britain at the close of the 18th century. By 1914 the “personal” income tax had come to be regarded in a number of countries not only as an important revenue instrument but also as an instrument for achieving social reform through income redistribution. Finally, in most countries it has been used to redirect economic decisions through preferential treatment of various activities. It can also act as a stabilizer against economic fluctuations because its effect on purchasing power varies inversely with changes in income and employment. For example, a person who experiences a reduction of income due to a job loss will typically owe less in taxes; the employed person will pay more in taxes but will have more income available for purchases. More recently, however, opinion has shifted away from the view that the income tax should be used for these purposes because of the costs involved, in terms of disincentives and other distortions of economic behaviour.

      Regarding income taxes on corporations, nearly all countries assess them, but the provisions and rates differ widely. Since industrialized countries generally have larger corporate sectors than less-developed countries, corporation income taxes in developed countries tend to be greater in relation to national income and total government revenue—except in major mineral-producing areas of less-developed countries.

      The United Kingdom for a long time applied the income tax on corporations (companies) purely as a supplement to the taxation of individuals. Shareholders had to pay tax on dividend income only to the extent that the rate of individual tax applicable to such income exceeded the corporate rate; they received refunds if that rate was less than the corporate rate. This system was modified in 1937 and replaced in 1965 by a separate corporation tax.

      In the United States the federal corporation income tax, adopted in 1909, predates the modern individual income tax (authorized by constitutional amendment in 1913). Before World War II the corporate tax usually yielded more revenue than the individual income tax, but this had changed by the beginning of the 21st century, when the individual income tax produced about five times more revenue than did the corporate tax. About three-fourths of U.S. states levy taxes on corporations.

Individual income tax (personal income tax)

Rationale for taxation
      Acceptance of income taxation as the fairest kind of tax is based on the premise that an individual's income is the best single index of one's ability to contribute to the support of government. Moreover, compared with sales taxes or property taxes, an income tax is easier to change when the taxpayer's ability to pay taxes is affected by various life-course circumstances (such as the number of dependents the taxpayer supports or extraordinary medical expenses).

      Another argument for income taxation proceeds from its relation to a nation's economic performance. Compared with the amounts produced by sales taxes or wealth taxes, the receipts from the individual income tax tend to rise more steeply in economic booms and drop more sharply in recessions. This occurs in part because individual income itself is quite sensitive to changes in the level of overall economic activity. In addition, income taxation is regulated by a progressive rate structure (which can be thought to include the personal exemption as a zero tax rate). As a result, a rise in individual income creates additional income that is taxed at a higher rate. Conversely, a drop in individual income causes some taxpayers to be taxed at lower bracket rates. Because of this, taxpayers' tax liabilities fluctuate more than their incomes—the individual income tax actually offsets some effects of expansionary and contractionary forces during business cycles (business cycle). Exceptions to a tax code—such as deductions, the indexation of exemptions, and the measurement of income from capital for inflation—reduce the potential for stabilization. (See progressive tax; regressive tax.)

      The individual income tax reduces the amount of income individuals have available to spend, save, or invest. Of course, any tax has this result. The question is whether other taxes may achieve the same end more efficiently or with fewer undesirable side effects. It has been argued that a tax on income discriminates against saving and is less favourable to economic growth than a tax on spending because an income tax is levied on all income—even that which is saved and made available for investment—while a consumption tax is not levied on moneys that are put into savings. On the other hand, an income tax does not distort consumer spending patterns the way that selective excise taxes tend to (causing buyers to shift from taxed to untaxed items). The income tax does, however, contain distortions and inequities of its own.

      It is difficult to determine the extent to which an income tax reduces the incentive to work. To the extent that the tax reduces total income after taxes, it may lead some persons to work longer in an effort to maintain an established standard of living (the income effect). To the extent that the tax reduces the reward for an extra hour's work, it may make the taxpayer decide to work less and to indulge in more leisure (the substitution effect); presumably, the larger the income and the more steeply progressive the tax, the greater this substitution effect will be. Finally, a progressive income tax is sometimes said to have an adverse effect on investment, especially in the case of risky ventures, but this has been shown to depend on the provisions a tax law makes for allowing investors to write off their losses.

The meaning of income
      Whether income is an accurate measure of taxpaying ability depends on how income is defined. The only definition that has been found to be completely consistent and free from anomalies and capricious results is “accrued income,” which is the money value of the goods and services consumed by the taxpayer plus or minus any change in net worth during a given period of time. (Tax experts commonly call this the Haig-Simons definition of income, based on work by American economists Robert M. Haig and Henry Simons.) This definition cannot be applied without important modifications. First, many tax codes do not consider as taxable income those changes in net worth resulting from gifts, bequests, and other gratuitous transfers. Second, because of the difficulties of estimation, most accretions to wealth are ordinarily not included in an individual's taxable income until they are “realized”—that is, converted into cash or some easily valued form. Finally, and for much the same reason, most countries have chosen not to include in taxable income such forms of imputed income as the rental value of owner-occupied homes.

      In some countries the individual income tax is imposed on the total income of an individual or family unit, whereas in others income from different sources is taxed under separate rules and often at somewhat different rates. The use of multiple schedules is questionable on grounds of both neutrality and horizontal equity (persons with the same income, under like circumstances, paying the same amount of tax), and countries with schedular taxes frequently supplement them with a progressive rate scale applicable to total income. These schedular income taxes are today found in some South American and African countries. In most industrialized countries, such as Great Britain, personal income has to be reported on one of a number of separate schedules, but assessable income is then lumped and only one tax is imposed. This kind of individual income tax is not usually regarded as a schedular tax. By comparison, the Scandinavian countries have recently adopted “dual” systems in which labour income is subject to graduated rates, but capital income is subject to flat rates. The United States has adopted antishelter provisions that have the effect of converting a nominally global income tax into one having schedular features.

Equity tests
      Before a tax on personal income can be considered to be a completely fair tax, it has to meet the tests of horizontal and vertical equity. Pivotal to the first test is the definition of “like circumstances” when considering taxes imposed on individuals with the same income. Clearly, two families with the same income would not be equally able to pay taxes if one consisted of husband and wife and the other of husband, wife, and four dependent children. On the other hand, if neither family had any children but in one the entire income was earned by the husband whereas in the other both husband and wife worked, would horizontal equity require that they pay the same or different taxes? Similar questions have been raised concerning families whose equal incomes take the form of wages and salaries in one case and dividends and interest in another or whose income has to be used to pay personal debts (such as medical expenses) or to pay state and local taxes to a greater extent in one case than in the other. In order to compensate for those differences in the sources and uses of income that are thought to affect an individual's ability to pay income tax, most countries allow a wide variety of deductions from statutory personal income before the tax is imposed.

      The concept of vertical equity relates to the taxes paid by individuals at different income levels. Clearly, if income is a good index of ability to pay, the taxes for these individuals should not be the same, but how different should taxes be at different income levels? If a single rate of tax is applied to all individual income in excess of the allowed exclusions, exemptions, and deductions, the tax will be proportionate to taxable income (although it may be progressive when compared with total income). If, however, different tax rates are applicable to different blocks or brackets of income, and if these rates rise as one moves from the lowest bracket to successively higher ones, the tax will be progressive (progressive tax). Those countries that tax total individual income today almost always use graduated or progressive rates; those with schedular income taxes may or may not do so.

      Many attempts have been made to develop a theory that would not only justify the principle of progression but also result in a mathematically exact scale of equitable taxation. Some theorists, accepting the notion that the taxes a person pays ought to bear some close relation to the benefits the taxpayer enjoys from the operation of government, have tried to show that, at some levels of income, benefits increase more rapidly than income. But their efforts have served to do little more than reveal the shortcomings of “benefit theory.” Others, starting with the premise that an equitable tax is one that imposes equal sacrifices on individuals at different income levels and accepting the view that the utility (utility and value) of any given unit of money becomes less the more money one has, have tried to demonstrate that progression is needed if the sacrifices imposed on the wealthy are not to be less than those imposed on persons less-well-off. But it is debatable whether a dollar has less utility for a very rich person than for a moderately rich one or whether it is scientifically possible to make the sort of interpersonal comparisons that the “sacrifice theories” call for. Ultimately, the progressivity of a nation's tax system depends on each society's view of what is fair, as expressed through the political process.

Ease of administration
      So long as prices are stable and the tax is basically a tax on realized income and does not require an assessment to be made of accrued but unrealized capital gains and losses, the income tax is generally held to be easier to administer than either an expenditure tax (a tax on spending) or a wealth tax (a tax on one's worth—as opposed to a tax on one's earnings). An income tax fails, however, to calculate the effects of inflation and timing issues in the measurement of income. Inflation erodes the real value of interest income and of deductions for interest expenses, depreciation, inventories, and the cost of capital assets sold by the taxpayer. Furthermore, it is not always clear when income is earned and when taxes are incurred; a direct tax on consumer spending would require the subtraction of net saving (or exemption of capital income in the case of a flat tax, which imposes the same level of tax on all taxpayers) from realized income, and balance sheets would be required in order to prove that saving was correctly reported. Some favour the direct consumption tax and the flat tax because they are based on cash flows, which means that these taxes eliminate the need to adjust for inflation. They also overcome problems in the measurement of income and questions of timing. The administration of a wealth tax would be far more complicated, requiring, for example, a complete accounting for assets and liabilities.

      The enforcement of the income tax in many countries, such as the United States, has been made easier by the practice of withholding (retaining) the tax from wage and salary payments. The same approach has not been extended to interest and dividends in the United States, although it has in other countries. Compliance is undoubtedly incomplete, and complex provisions increase costs for both taxpayers and the fiscal authorities, but, in general, the income tax raises revenue efficiently and at low out-of-pocket cost to the government, if not to taxpayers.

Family factors and personal deductions
      A corollary of the proposition that taxes should weigh similarly on persons similarly situated is the notion that when persons are not similarly situated their tax liabilities should differ. To accomplish this, income tax statutes usually provide for (1) individual allowances or exemptions, which differentiate between large and small family units, and (2) deductions that give preferential treatment to taxpayers reporting expenditures that are thought to justify some lightening of their burden.

Treatment of the family
      There are several ways of allowing for differences in family units. One is to give an exemption for each dependent, either on a flat per capita basis or in accordance with a schedule. When income is taxed at graduated rates, exemptions are worth more to high-income than to low-income families. In order to provide equal tax allowances for dependents to families of the same size at different income levels, each exemption can be multiplied by the standard or basic rate of tax and so be converted into a uniform tax credit that is subtracted from liability. Inflation erodes the real value of tax allowances specified in nominal or monetary terms (dollars, euros, etc.). Historically, this problem has been addressed by periodically adjusting such amounts to higher levels. More recently there has been a trend toward “indexing (indexation)” amounts such as personal exemptions, standard deductions, and bracket limits in the rate structure by linking them to a price index that measures the degree of inflation. Indexing, which need not involve an increase in complexity, increases the equity of the tax system, but it reduces the tax's countercyclical influence.

      The number of dependents is not the only way that families may differ in taxpaying capacity. In some families only one spouse earns income, whereas in others both the husband and wife (marriage) may work. If, in a family of the latter type, husband and wife are allowed to file separate returns, their combined tax liabilities under a progressive income tax may be less than those of a family similarly situated but with a single income earner. The two families will pay the same tax if husband and wife are required to file a joint return in which their earnings are pooled; however, the working couple may be taxed at a higher rate than two single people with the same income. The issue between joint and separate returns is further complicated by the fact that if separate returns are permitted and are subject to the same rate structure as joint returns, families with investment income can reduce their tax liabilities by splitting up their holdings. Depending on how this problem is solved, there may be either a penalty or a tax bonus for marriage.

      Various ways of dealing with this problem have been adopted in different countries. In the United States full income splitting has been allowed since 1948, when married taxpayers were given the option of filing joint returns using a rate schedule with brackets twice as wide as those in the schedule for married persons electing to file separate returns; i.e., the tax on joint returns is twice the tax that would be imposed if there was only one income receiver and that person's income was half as large as the joint income. This meant that the tax rate for joint returns did not rise as sharply as that for separate returns, so a single person was likely to pay more than a married person with the same adjusted gross income but filing a joint return. In 1969 the disadvantage experienced by single persons was reduced by the provision of a completely separate rate schedule for them, which created a “marriage penalty” that taxed married couples at a relatively higher rate. In France the family is the taxable entity; there is only one rate schedule, but relief for family commitments is achieved by what is known as the family-quotient system. This is a form of income splitting in which the single graduated rate schedule is applied to a figure arrived at by dividing total family income by the number of “units” represented, with each child counting as half a unit. The tax, as so determined on a fraction of the family's income, is then multiplied by the number of family “units” to arrive at the family's tax liability. In Germany husband and wife are assessed jointly, but income splitting is allowed in the same way that it is in the United States. Sweden also has a dual rate structure, but in that country the difference between the rates applicable to married couples and to single persons varies with the level of income; in the middle income brackets couples are more heavily taxed, and in the high brackets burdens are much the same for married and single taxpayers. Finally, in a number of countries, including India, Japan, Argentina, and Israel, only separate returns are allowed.

Personal deductions
      Practice with respect to personal deductions also varies widely. In the United States, for example, such deductions include interest paid on home mortgage debt (but not other personal debt), unusually high medical expenses, philanthropic contributions, and state and local income and property taxes. In Great Britain, on the other hand, virtually no deductions are granted that do not in some measure bear a direct relation to the production of earned income. In South America, where multischedule income taxes are common, some countries allow virtually no deductions, whereas in others the latitude permitted in the deduction of personal expenses is very great.

      In those countries that allow the deduction of extraordinary medical expenses, a stated percentage of the taxpayer's income often has to be used for this purpose before any deduction can be taken. In the United States only those expenses that exceed a small percentage of adjusted gross income (less than 10 percent) are deductible, and a similar rule is observed in Germany. On the other hand, in The Netherlands the whole expense becomes deductible once the minimum has been exceeded. The justification for a deduction of this type is that medical expenses are not generally controllable and, when incurred above a certain normal level, reduce an individual's ability to pay taxes relative to others at the same income level.

      The justification for deduction of contributions to religious, charitable, educational, and cultural organizations is usually found in the encouragement of socially desirable activities rather than in any allowance for differences in taxable capacity. The contributions that qualify for this deduction vary from country to country, and total charitable contributions are usually limited to some percentage of the taxpayer's income. In Japan contributions made to government, to local authorities, or to institutions for scientific research are deductible from taxable income but only to the extent that such payments exceed the lesser of either a certain percentage of income or a specific amount of yen. This, of course, denies any deductions to taxpayers whose contributions amount to only a small fraction of their incomes.

      A third type of deduction—one that serves neither to relieve hardship nor to encourage voluntary support of socially desirable activities—is allowed in some countries for certain kinds and limited amounts of personal saving. These have included (1) social security contributions and compulsory contributions to private pension funds, for which deductions are allowed in Japan, France, The Netherlands, and Belgium, and (2) limited amounts of life insurance premiums, which are deductible in Great Britain, Japan, France, and Germany. Deductions also have included limited amounts of savings earmarked for the construction of dwellings or placed in savings deposits. One justification for these allowances has been that they encourage low-income taxpayers to seek the protection afforded by life insurance, pension plans, and accumulated savings; another reason is that they channel the personal savings of such individuals into banks and other financial institutions where they can be used to support capital expansion. Over the years various countries have introduced special tax-privileged savings plans. In none of these countries, however, were they found to be particularly effective in increasing total personal saving. Such plans may simply redirect a given amount from one form of saving to another.

      Another frequently permitted deduction, the justification for which is not entirely clear, is that allowed for interest paid on personal indebtedness. In the case of interest paid on home mortgages, it is generally regarded as one of several special tax concessions granted to homeowners. The United States imposed increasingly strict limits on the deductibility of interest, beginning in 1921 (with denial of any deduction on debt incurred for the purpose of acquiring tax-exempt securities) and culminating in 1986 (with the denial of deductions for interest on consumer debt, along with provisions intended to prevent investment interest deductions from sheltering income from other sources). In Canada the interest deduction is denied in cases of consumer debt and of most home mortgages. Loan interest is deductible in Germany as a “special expense,” as it is in France on moneys borrowed from third parties.

      Still another deduction that does not appear to have much to do with the determination of true income is the deduction for taxes paid. Among the justifications offered for this type of deduction, the most widely accepted is that it contributes to fiscal coordination in a federal system and avoids extremely high rates in the case of overlapping income taxes. In the United States state and local taxes on property and income are deductible. These deductions are tantamount to subsidies (subsidy) from the national to the subnational governments. Foreign taxes on real property and income are also deductible, although most taxpayers elect instead to credit their foreign income taxes against their U.S. tax. Japan and Germany also allow deductions for local taxes, although Japan specifically excludes the income taxes of prefectural and municipal inhabitants from the exemption allowed for other taxes. Ordinarily, the tax paid with respect to income in one year is not allowed as a deduction in determining the same tax the following year.

      One way of limiting the use of itemized personal deductions for taxpayers whose total deductions are small—and thereby minimizing costs of compliance and administration—is to provide an optional standard deduction. Examples of this practice are found in the United States and Germany.

Taxation of unearned and secondary income
Capital gains (capital gains tax)
      The taxation of capital gains and losses presents a special set of problems to which different countries have found different answers. An increase in the value of a capital asset—a share of stock, a corporate or government bond, or perhaps a piece of real estate—increases the net worth of its owner, and it thus can be seen as a form of income. There is a problem, however, of valuing all of the capital assets a taxpayer may own so as to be able to determine how much his net worth has increased or decreased during the taxable year. Moreover, imposing taxes on gains that have not been realized may create cash-flow problems for taxpayers. In practice, these problems have usually been avoided by taking into account only those gains and losses that have been realized in the form of cash or its equivalent. Taxing gains only at realization allows taxpayers the benefit of postponing taxation, however. In the United States this problem of deferral is aggravated by allowing gains on assets transferred at death to escape tax permanently. An alternative would be to require that accrued but unrealized gains be taxed, either periodically or at death, as if they had been realized through a sale, a policy known as “constructive” realization.

      Even realized capital gains may present a problem of valuation. During an inflationary period (or for some time thereafter), an increase in the monetary value of an asset may not mean that there has been an increase in the real (inflation-adjusted) value of the asset. Some economists believe the solution to this problem is to adjust the cost of the asset for inflation, as is done in several Latin American countries.

      Another problem that arises in the taxation of capital gains is that of determining the appropriate rate at which realized gains should be taxed. One answer to this is that they should be treated no differently from other forms of income, an approach followed by the United States with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The difficulty with this answer is that under many circumstances it is unfair to the taxpayer and may also have undesirable economic effects. If capital gains that have accrued over a number of years are taxed at regular progressive income tax rates in the year of their realization, the tax on them may be higher than it would have been if the unrealized gains had been taxed annually as they accrued. The knowledge that capital gains are subject to very heavy taxes upon realization can deter individuals subject to high-bracket rates from making investment decisions that are socially desirable. This difficulty is usually handled by taxing such gains at a relatively low rate or by excluding a stated percentage of the gain from taxable income. In either case this special treatment commonly applies only to long-term gains involving assets that have been held for a minimum length of time.

      Some countries, including Canada, France, and Germany, do not tax capital gains unless they arise out of a business. The line between a business transaction and a personal one is not easy to draw, however. Moreover, the exemption of capital gains tempts taxpayers to recharacterize ordinary taxable income as tax-exempt capital gains income. Complexities then arise as taxpayers who want to minimize taxes match their wits against lawmakers and tax administrators who must prevent abuse.

      Countries that do not, in principle, tax individuals on their capital gains also do not allow capital losses to enter into the determination of taxable income. Those that do tax capital gains ordinarily take capital losses into account only as offsets to capital gains. Even then, deductions of losses are usually limited to prevent abuse.

The negative income tax
      The idea of a negative income tax has been considered in the United States as a method of providing very-low-income families with a stable subsistence level of income in the form of government payments geared into the individual income tax structure. It is viewed as a possible substitute for public assistance or as an alternative to family allowances. The basic elements of this and other so-called transfer-by-taxation plans are (1) a guaranteed minimum level of income adjusted to the size and composition of the family unit, (2) a tax rate to be applied to the difference between the family's income and some specified amount, and (3) a break-even level of income at the point at which the tax liability equals the guaranteed allowance. Policy makers face the challenge of preventing such a program from becoming prohibitively expensive.

Tax expenditures
      Preferential treatment can be extended to selected private activities in either of two ways: tax revenues can be collected and then spent to support the activities as part of the normal budget process, or preferential treatment of the activities can be built into the tax system, as with the deductions allowed for home mortgage interest. In either case the advantages granted can be seen as subsidies provided by the government.

      This way of viewing the issue leads to the concept of “tax expenditures.” Tax expenditures are considered by tax-writing committees rather than by appropriations committees. They are often criticized because they do not receive the same scrutiny accorded appropriations. Once enacted, they tend to take on a life of their own. Moreover, they undermine the perception that the tax system is fair in a way that ordinary expenditures do not. The annual budgets of the United States and many other countries include a tax expenditure budget as well as the traditional budget for appropriations.

History of individual income taxation
       taxation has a rich history. Some of the earliest taxes were consumption taxes, levied against commodities such as cooking oil. Ancient civilizations also instituted the poll tax, with various sums levied on citizens, slaves, or foreigners. Sales taxes date back at least as far as the Roman Empire of Julius Caesar. The institution of a broadly based, systematic taxation of income, however, did not take hold until the 19th century.

 The first country to enact a general income tax was Great Britain, in 1799. To finance the Napoleonic Wars (United Kingdom) the tax was imposed at a rate of 10 percent on all incomes in excess of £200, with lower rates for income between £60 and £200, while income below £60 was exempt. When the war ended in 1815, the tax was allowed to lapse until 1842, when it was revived by the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel (Peel, Sir Robert, 2nd Baronet). It was again adopted as a temporary measure, this time to enable the government to avoid budget deficits while carrying out major tariff reforms. But succeeding governments, confronted with steadily rising expenditures, were unable to dispense with a tax that was so flexible and elastic, and by the 1880s it was generally accepted as a permanent levy.

      At about this time taxation began to be regarded as a social instrument, but it was not until 1910 that graduated rates were introduced and an abatement was granted of £10 per child to taxpayers whose income did not exceed £500. Then came World War I, during which time the standard rate was raised and a supertax imposed on top of that.

Continental Europe
      In Europe a number of German (Germany) states began experimenting with income taxes in the 1840s, but it was not until the Prussian reforms of 1891 that the income tax became an effective fiscal instrument in any of these states. Thereafter the reform movement spread to other states, and by 1913 the share of the income tax in all state tax collections had risen to about 60 percent. Until 1920 German income taxes were exclusively state taxes; from 1920 to 1945 they were federal taxes. At the close of World War II, they again became state taxes, and they are now regulated by federal law.

      Efforts to enact an income tax in France were begun in the 1870s, but it was not until 1909 that an income tax bill finally passed the Chamber of Deputies, only to be held up by opposition in the Senate. The bill was finally enacted as an emergency measure two weeks before war began in 1914, but it was another three years before a permanent income tax system was adopted.

       Italy adopted an income tax in 1864 as one of the first products of its unification. The system introduced at that time was one of “objective” taxes that attempted to tax the “productive sources” of income—i.e., land, buildings, and movable wealth. It was not until 1925 that a nationwide tax on total family income was imposed with graduated rates.

      Among the Scandinavian countries, Norway introduced an income tax in 1892 and made its rates progressive in 1896; not until 1910 did Sweden adopt a modern income tax on a permanent basis.

      During the Civil War the United States enacted an income tax that remained in effect from 1862 to 1872. The minimum rate in the 1862 law was 3 percent on income above a personal exemption of $600; the maximum rate was 5 percent on income above $10,000. Subsequent amendments raised the maximum rate to 10 percent on incomes over $5,000. An income tax was again enacted in 1894, after President Grover Cleveland had been elected on a platform that promised lower tariffs and other reforms sought by the farmers in the West and South. This law was, however, held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which forced its backers to seek an amendment to the Constitution that would give Congress the right to impose income taxes without apportionment among the states. In 1913 the 16th Amendment was ratified, and a new individual income tax with rates ranging from 1 to 7 percent on income in excess of $3,000 for a single individual was voted by Congress shortly thereafter. At the end of World War II, the lowest marginal rate was 23 percent and the maximum rate was 94 percent; the exemption for a single individual was only $500. Most states also have individual income taxes. To simplify compliance and administration, many states use a definition of taxable income that closely resembles the federal definition.

Later developments around the world
      The European and U.S. income tax systems and the recommendations of advisers from those areas have strongly influenced the systems established by new and developing countries, especially former colonies, as well as systems such as Japan's that underwent major reform in the 20th century. For example, the quotient system of individual allowances and the shareholder credit system of integrating the individual and corporate income taxes, respectively, have been popular in former French and British colonies, and the income tax of the United States and American advisers have been instrumental in shaping the income taxes of Latin American countries. Japan's present tax system, developed in the early 1950s, is primarily based upon proposals made by a commission headed by American economist Carl S. Shoup.

      Additional factors affecting the tax systems of developing countries include experience with inflation and other economic conditions and the particular attitudes and goals of the individual country. As a means of offsetting the effects of inflation, some Latin American countries introduced an adjustment into the measurement of income from business and capital. This practice is often called “indexing for inflation.” Reflecting a greater propensity to use governmental intervention to achieve economic objectives, many less-developed countries employ far-reaching tax incentives in the effort to spur investments conducive to economic development.

International variations in rate structures
      Attention has already been called to several types of variations found in the income tax practices of different countries, mainly those relating to the determination of taxable income. Something should now be said about variations in rate structures. The important variants in these structures are (1) the starting point and levels of first-bracket rates, (2) the top bracket or maximum marginal rates, and (3) the income range within which rates rise from the lowest to the highest levels.

      In some countries starting rates are low. The lower the starting rate and the narrower the lowest income brackets, the more progressive an income tax is likely to be at low and medium income levels.

      During war emergencies high marginal tax rates on individual income are viewed as a necessary complement to wage and price controls, but their value in a peacetime tax structure has been questioned. When they cannot be avoided, such high rates weaken work and risk-taking incentives, and they yield little revenue. Some people believe that a better individual income tax would offer fewer exclusions and deductions, with generally lower rates. During the 1980s this view prevailed in many countries, and an era of tax reform saw tax rates fall dramatically; for example, in the United States the top marginal rate was reduced from 70 percent in 1980 to 33 percent in 1987. (The rate paid at the very top of the income scale was actually reduced to only 28 percent.) In 1993 the top marginal rate became 39.6 percent. Whereas in the mid-20th century most top-bracket rates would be found ranging between 55 and 75 percent, top rates between 30 and 60 percent are becoming increasingly common.

E. Gordon Keith Charles E. McLure, Jr.

      levy that is imposed on net profits, computed as the excess of receipts over allowable costs.

Rationale for taxation
      The separate taxation of the incomes of corporations and their shareholders follows the legal principle that corporations and shareholders are distinct entities. Some scholars argue that it also accords with economic reality, particularly for large corporations with many shareholders who do not participate actively in controlling the enterprise. They consider a corporation income tax justified as a charge for the privilege of doing business in the corporate form, as a means of covering the costs of public services that especially benefit business, and as a way of capturing part of the profits of large enterprises.

      Other scholars maintain that corporations act on behalf of shareholders and should be taxed like a large partnership or, alternatively, only to the extent that their profits are not reached by the individual income tax. Most economists concede that a tax may have to be assessed on corporations to prevent shareholders from escaping current taxation on undistributed profits and, as their shares appreciate in value, converting this income into capital gains, which in many countries either are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income or are free of income tax. (See capital gains tax.) A corporation income tax also enables a country, province, or state to tax the profits earned within its borders by corporations whose shareholders reside elsewhere.

      Corporate income taxes are mainly flat-rate levies, rather than extensively graduated taxes (which means that rates rise according to income—as in the typical individual income tax). An acceptable schedule of progressive rates could hardly be devised for corporations, because they differ greatly in scale of operations and numbers of shareholders. (See progressive tax.) Moreover, the shareholders themselves may have either high incomes or (as is the case with corporate pension funds) low incomes.

      A number of industrialized countries have corporate income tax rates on the order of 50 percent, sometimes with reduced rates for small corporations. Where the latter feature exists, safeguards may be instituted to prevent its abuse by enterprises that split into nominally independent corporations without giving up unified control. More significant are corporate mergers or acquisitions motivated by the possibility of saving taxes through offsetting the losses of some against the profits of others.

      Corporate taxes may be graduated according to the rate of return on invested capital rather than the absolute size of profits. This is accomplished by an excess-profits tax on profits above a certain “normal” rate of return, sometimes further graduated according to the degree to which actual profits exceed the exempt level. The excess-profits tax has been used widely during wars and other national emergencies and to a much lesser extent under other conditions. There are serious difficulties involved in determining accurately the value of invested capital and in selecting an appropriate normal rate of return.

Economic effects
      Sharp differences of opinion exist concerning the economic effects of the corporate income tax, partly because it is difficult to determine who actually bears it. The traditional conclusion of economic theory is that the tax is not reflected in prices (price) in the short run and hence must be paid out of profits. If firms try to maximize their profits, the tax will give them no reason to change their prices. The price and output that yield maximum profits before tax will yield maximum profits after tax. Although the tax must be covered by sales receipts, it is not a cost of production in the same sense as, for example, wages but a share of profits that can be computed only after gross receipts and production costs are known. This reasoning applies equally to competitive and to less-competitive or wholly monopolized industries. Certain qualifications have always been made, but they are fairly minor in nature. More important, the theory relates only to the determination of prices and output given the existing stock of capital. (The technical definition of short run in economics is a period of time over which the capital stock does not change.) The theory does not predict what the long-run effects of the tax will be, although it indicates that they will mirror those of a tax on profit recipients rather than on consumers.

      This view of the incidence of the corporate income tax has been increasingly challenged. Its opponents argue that in many industries prices are decisively influenced by the actions of a few leading firms, which have as their objective not maximum profits in the short run but a target rate of return over a period of years. When the rate of corporate income tax is increased, they say, the leading firms will raise their selling prices in order to maintain the target return, and other firms will follow. According to this hypothesis, prices are not competitively determined but are generally at levels lower than those that would yield maximum profits in the short run. Another qualification of the traditional view is that labour unions may share the burden of the tax through lower wage settlements.

      The debate among economists and businessmen over the question has not been resolved by empirical research. Some studies in the United States, Canada, and Germany indicate that the corporate income tax is largely shifted to consumers through short-run price rises, while other studies support the opposite conclusion.

      If the tax is not shifted to consumers through price increases, it will tend to reduce the return on corporate-equity capital. (Because interest payments are nearly always deductible in determining taxable profits, the return on borrowed capital is not subject to the corporation tax.) The returns on capital in unincorporated enterprises and on bonds and mortgages will tend to fall over time as investors try to avoid the corporate tax by shifting to untaxed areas. In this way the corporation income tax may actually burden all capital, rather than only that invested in the corporate sector. A general reduction in rates of return may curtail investment by cutting the reward for success and by reducing the quantity of resources available in the form of retained corporate profits and personal savings. This will tend to reduce the rate of growth of national product. Ultimately, however, the effect may not be dramatic. Capital investment is only one factor influencing growth rates, and some analyses indicate that it is less important than other phenomena, such as technological innovation and education, that influence the growth rate.

      If the corporate income tax reduces either the return on corporate-equity capital or the returns on all capital, it will be broadly progressive in the aggregate; that is, it will reduce disposable income proportionately more for high-income persons than for low-income persons. This is because the fraction of total income represented by returns from ownership of corporate stock and other capital assets rises with income. This effect holds, however, only in the aggregate, because some low-income people, including many retirees, depend heavily on investment income and on the capital that has accumulated in pension funds.

      On the other hand, when the corporate income tax is passed along to consumers through higher prices, it will—like a sales tax—act as a regressive tax, reducing disposable income proportionately more for people with low incomes than for those with high incomes. A corporation tax that has been shifted to consumers will not be especially harmful to investment, but it may have an adverse effect on resource allocation and a company's competitive position in foreign markets.

      Moreover, the effects of taxes imposed by a subnational government will differ from the effects of taxes imposed by a national government. A state tax, for example, is more likely to be borne by consumers residing in the state, by employees who work in the state, or by those who own land in the state.

Policy issues
      A major policy issue concerns the question of integrating income taxes on corporations and shareholders. Partial integration (or dividend relief) may be attained by lessening or eliminating the so-called double taxation of distributed profits resulting from separate income taxes on corporations and shareholders. Full integration could be achieved only by overlooking the existence of the corporation for income tax purposes and taxing shareholders on undistributed profits as well as on dividends, as if the income had been earned by a partnership. This approach may be suitable for corporations having few shareholders. It is allowed on an optional basis in the United States for certain corporations having only one class of stock and no more than 10 shareholders. Full integration has generally been conceded to be impracticable for corporations with large numbers of shareholders.

      One method of partial integration is to apply a reduced rate of corporate tax to the distributed part of profits, as is the case in a split-rate system. With a zero rate on distributed profits, the corporate tax would apply only to undistributed profits. The same effect could be achieved by allowing corporations a deduction for dividends it has paid. The split-rate system offers a tax incentive for distribution of profits and sometimes has been advocated as an instrument for curtailing internal financing of corporations. In support of such a policy, it has been argued that liberal payouts of dividends will strengthen the capital market, improve the allocation of investment funds, and lessen the concentration (or monopolization) of industry. Critics have questioned whether these objectives will be attained and have pointed out that larger dividend distributions would tend to reduce savings and investment, because shareholders would consume part of the additional income received.

      Another approach to integration involves granting shareholders a credit (offset against their individual tax liability) for the corporate tax allocable to dividends they have received. Such a method functions much like the withholding system on an individual's wage and salary earnings. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a variety of approaches were undertaken in different countries. Germany combined a credit with its split-rate system to eliminate the added burden of the corporate tax on dividends. To encourage people to save, Chile opted to levy a tax rate of only 15 percent on an individual's undistributed earnings while taxing distributed earnings at much higher rates (up to 45 percent). The systems employed in the United Kingdom and France have provided resident shareholders a credit for about half of the corporate tax. A Canadian credit lacked two important components of the French and British systems—the inclusion in dividends of the credit and refunds for shareholders whose individual tax rate was less than the corporate rate. The omission of these features favours high-income shareholders who are subject to high individual tax rates compared with those having lower incomes.

      Opinions on the desirability of tax integration differ widely, as do judgments about the economic effects of the corporation tax and the nature of the relationship between corporations and their shareholders. A key question concerns the revenue that is forgone when distributed profits are not subject to the so-called double taxation (i.e., the corporation's income tax and the shareholder's dividend income tax). Could that revenue be taxed in ways that are preferable from the standpoint of equity and economic effects? Various approaches to dividend tax relief have the potential to compensate for any revenue loss.

investment incentives
      The adverse effect of the corporate income tax on investment can be lessened by accelerating the rate at which the cost of new machinery and buildings is written off against taxable income through depreciation allowances. Accelerated depreciation may take the form of an additional deduction in the first year—an “initial allowance”—or may be spread over several years. Although the increase in early years in depreciation allowances for any one asset will be matched by a reduction in allowances for this asset in future years—the total being limited to 100 percent of cost—the acceleration is advantageous to the taxpayer. It postpones payment of tax, facilitates financing of investment out of internal funds, saves interest costs, and reduces risk. Another form of incentive, the investment allowance, permits investors to deduct from taxable income a certain percentage of the cost of eligible assets in addition to depreciation allowances. The total deductions thus may exceed the cost of an eligible asset over its lifetime. A related approach, the tax credit, reduces the income tax payable by a certain percentage of the cost of eligible forms of new investment. Alternatively, an investment grant, in the form of a payment from the government to those making certain kinds of new investment, may be provided. Investment allowances, tax credits, and investment grants reduce the cost of new equipment and plants and thus make investment more attractive.

      Many industrialized countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have used accelerated depreciation and other special incentives to promote commerce. These incentives reduce tax revenues but may be considered preferable to an outright cut in tax rates because they are selective, being extended to firms that make new investments. In an effort to attract investment by both foreign and domestic companies, less-developed countries (and countries making a transition from socialism) sometimes offer accelerated depreciation or investment allowances and—despite opinions that such policies are likely to be ineffective—“tax holidays,” which provide full exemption from income tax for new firms for the first several years of operation.

      Outlays for research and development (R and D), such as purchases of a plant and equipment, are intended to yield returns over a period of years and are frequently given special tax treatment. In the United States, corporations and individual taxpayers may choose between deducting R and D expenditures in full or capitalizing them and writing them off over their useful life—or over five years if the useful life is indeterminable. Canada allows corporations to immediately deduct current and capital expenditures for scientific research related to the business. In addition, government grants to corporations for R and D are exempt from taxation in Canada.

      Accelerated depreciation allowances and current deductions of R and D outlays will result in accounting losses (when they exceed net income) if they are computed without regard to these deductions. The incentive effects of the provisions can be enhanced (and the drawbacks of investment risk reduced) by permitting net operating losses suffered in one year to be offset against taxable income of other years. Tax laws commonly allow such losses to be carried back against income of prior years (which thus gives rise to refunds of income taxes previously paid) or carried forward to future years. If, however, accounting losses that do not reflect economic reality can be “passed through” to the owners of a business, perhaps by the use of a partnership, the losses can offset income from other sources and therefore provide a tax shelter.

      The extent to which investment incentives should be offered is a major policy issue. It is related to the large question of how much emphasis should be placed on present consumption (private and public) rather than on future consumption that would result from increased investment. This raises philosophical and political questions as well as technical and economic ones.

Timing and inflation adjustment
      Measurements of taxable income must reflect changes in the value of assets and liabilities. If deductions are taken too quickly or if the recognition of income is unduly postponed, the present value of tax liability is reduced. Tax shelters are based on the creation of artificial accounting losses that result from acceleration of deductions and the deferral of recognition of income; such losses arise from partnership investments and are used to offset income from other sources. Depreciation is the most obvious and most important timing issue, but it is not unique. Industries in which timing issues (and therefore the possibility of tax shelters) are especially important include oil and gas, timber, orchards and vineyards, and real estate. The timing rules that are required for preventing the mismeasurement of income can add considerable complexity to the tax system.

      The tax systems of most countries are based on the implicit assumption that prices are stable. If, instead, there is inflation, real (inflation-adjusted) income is mismeasured, and distortions and inequities occur. For example, tax is paid on (or deductions are allowed for) the full amount of interest earned (or paid), even though inflation is eroding the principal. (Part of interest can be seen as merely offsetting this erosion; it is neither income nor an expense.) Tax is also paid on capital gains, with no allowance for inflation; thus, fictitious gains are taxed, and a tax may even be levied when no real gain has occurred. Finally, business is not allowed to recover tax-free its investment in depreciable (and similar) assets and inventories.

      Although many less-developed countries that have experienced high rates of inflation provide for inflation adjustment in the measurement of income, no industrialized country does so. As long as inflation is expected to be low, the benefits of inflation adjustment are generally thought not to be great enough to justify the increased complexity that would be involved.

Consumption-based direct taxation
      It has been argued that one way to avoid the complexities of both timing issues and inflation adjustment is to switch from a tax system based on income to one based on consumption. Under such a system all business purchases would be deducted immediately, or “expensed.” Borrowing in excess of investment would be added to income, and lending would be subtracted; the resulting tax base would be consumption. Through the tax saving resulting from expensing, the government, in effect, becomes a partner in all investments; the revenues it subsequently receives are best seen as the return on its investment. A consumption-based tax imposes no burden on income from marginal investments, because the private investor keeps all of the income relating to his share of the investment. As a result, such a tax does not favour present consumption over saving for future consumption, as the income tax does. Advocates of consumption-based taxation believe that simplicity—the lack of timing issues and the fact that inflation would have no chance to distort the measurement of consumption—may be even more important than the economic advantages they envision from such a tax.

      Some economists view the flat tax as an alternative that is even simpler than consumption-based taxation but would achieve similar economic effects. It works by exempting most capital income from taxation at the individual level; that is, only labour income is taxed. This proposal, like consumption-based taxation, suffers from the loss of progressivity that results when the tax on most capital income is eliminated. No country uses either of these consumption-based direct taxes, but Croatia has employed a system that has similar effects.

Open economy issues
Determination of income source
      Major corporations operate across state and national boundaries. Because most jurisdictions tax income that is earned within their boundaries, it is necessary to determine the source of income of a multijurisdictional entity. The states of the United States follow a practice that is quite distinct from that in the international sphere. National governments commonly resort to the convention of “arms-length” prices—the prices that would prevail in trade between unrelated entities—to determine the split of income resulting from transactions between related parties. The states, by comparison, employ formulas to divide the income of a multistate corporation or a group of related corporations engaged in a “unitary business” between in-state and out-of-state income. Neither of these approaches is totally satisfactory.

International double taxation
      Some countries (including the United States) exercise the right to tax the whole income of their nationals, even if it is earned abroad. Almost all countries consider it their right to tax income arising within their borders, whether or not the income is earned by individuals or corporations having their residence or exercising their management and control in the country. Increasing attention has therefore been given to the prevention of double taxation between countries, especially in response to the continuing rise in the number of corporations operating in more than one country and the number of stockholders of a corporation residing outside the country in which it operates.

      To illustrate how double taxation may come about, consider a corporation A that has its headquarters in country X and a manufacturing plant in country Y. Country X may tax the profits earned in Y and so may Y. Further complications may arise if some of the shareholders of A live in country Z and are subject to income tax there on dividends received from A, which may also be subject to a withholding tax in X. Relief from double taxation can be provided unilaterally or by treaty. Country X may allow corporation A a foreign tax credit for income tax paid in Y; this is done by, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. Alternatively, country X might unilaterally give up its right to tax certain profits earned abroad; this approach is followed by, for example, France and The Netherlands. Countries X and Z might enter into a tax treaty relieving dividends paid by corporations in X to shareholders residing in Z from withholding tax and providing some compensating advantages for X. A network of tax treaties exists among the industrialized countries, but they apply only sketchily to the less-developed countries. There are doubts as to whether the standard provisions found in agreements between rich countries are suitable for agreements between industrialized countries and those at earlier stages of economic development.

      The varying national tax policies can also be used to avoid paying taxes. Many developed countries do not actually tax the majority of investment income (especially interest) that originates within their borders and flows to foreigners. They may thus attract capital from less-developed countries that either do not or cannot tax such income when it is received by their residents, but this worsens problems of capital shortages. Investment and the related income sometimes are channeled through “tax haven” countries in order to take advantage of tax treaties. To illustrate how this approach can be used to avoid taxes, consider the case of a resident of country R who wishes to invest in country I, with which country R has no tax treaty. If the funds flow through country T, which has a treaty with I, and if income is not reported to R, tax due to I, as well as tax due to R, can be avoided. (It might more properly be said that this involves illegal evasion rather than legal avoidance.)

      The rise of e-commerce (the electronic sale of goods and services over the Internet) has posed new questions of tax policy and administration. E-commerce makes it easier for business to be conducted in a country without creating a “permanent establishment,” which would subject the seller to income taxes. It blurs the distinctions between the sale of goods, the provision of services, and the licensing of intangible assets, each of which is subject to taxation. Equally problematic is a reliance on arms-length methods of income measurement. Tax codes continue to be revised as governments determine reasonable approaches to the taxation of electronic transactions.

Richard B. Goode Charles E. McLure, Jr.

Additional Reading

Individual income tax
Henry C. Simons, Personal Income Taxation (1938, reprinted 1980), is a classic discussion of the concepts of personal income as a basis for taxation; William Vickrey, Agenda for Progressive Taxation (1947, reprinted 1972), provides an excellent analysis of many of the problems of income taxation; B.E.V. Sabine, A History of Income Tax (1966), surveys the policies in Britain and the United Kingdom from 1799 to the middle of the 20th century; and Edwin R.A. Seligman, The Income Tax: A Study of the History, Theory, and Practice of Income Taxation at Home and Abroad, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1914, reprinted 1970), includes in its coverage the United States and its pre-World War I policies. Other useful studies include Richard Goode, The Individual Income Tax, rev. ed. (1976); Joseph A. Pechman (ed.), Comprehensive Income Taxation (1977); David F. Bradford, Untangling the Income Tax (1986); Stanley S. Surrey, Pathways to Tax Reform: The Concept of Tax Expenditures (1973); Harry Kalvin, Jr., and Walter J. Blum, The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation (1952, reprinted 1978); and Stanley S. Surrey and Paul R. McDaniel, Tax Expenditures (1985).Charles E. McLure, Jr.

Corporate income tax
Useful studies include Richard Goode, The Corporation Income Tax (1951); Robert M. Willan, Income Taxes: Concise History and Primer (1994); Mervyn A. King, Public Policy and the Corporation (1977); J. Gregory Ballentine, Equity, Efficiency, and the U.S. Corporation Income Tax (1980); Charles E. McLure, Jr., Must Corporate Income Be Taxed Twice? (1979); and Charles Adams, For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization (1999).Charles E. McLure, Jr. Moses L. Pava

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • income tax — n: a tax on the net income of an individual or a business compare excise, property tax Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • Income tax — Income In come, n. 1. A coming in; entrance; admittance; ingress; infusion. [Obs.] Shak. [1913 Webster] More abundant incomes of light and strength from God. Bp. Rust. [1913 Webster] At mine income I louted low. Drant. [1913 Webster] 2. That… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • income tax — income ,tax noun count or uncount * a tax based on your income that you pay to the IRS once a year or every three months: the basic/higher rate of income tax …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • income tax — n. a tax on income or on that part of income which exceeds a certain amount …   English World dictionary

  • income-tax — [inkɔmtaks] n. m. ÉTYM. 1803 1804; incometax, attestation isolée, 1801, in Höfler; mot angl., de income « revenu », et tax « taxe, impôt ». ❖ ♦ Didact. Dans les pays de langue anglaise, Impôt sur le revenu …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • income tax — ► NOUN ▪ tax levied directly on personal income …   English terms dictionary

  • income tax — income taxes N VAR Income tax is a certain percentage of your income that you have to pay regularly to the government …   English dictionary

  • income tax — n [U] tax paid on the money that you earn …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Income tax — Public financeAn income tax is a tax levied on the financial income of persons, corporations, or other legal entities. Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or… …   Wikipedia

  • income tax — A state or federal government s levy on individuals as personal income tax and on the earnings of corporations as corporate income tax. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary * * * income tax ˈincome tax noun [countable, uncountable] TAX in Britain, a… …   Financial and business terms

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”