The Encyclopedia of Taxation & Tax Policy


Book Description

"From adjusted gross income to zoning and property taxes, the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy offers the best and most complete guide to taxes and tax-related issues. More than 150 tax practitioners and administrators, policymakers, and academics have contributed. The result is a unique and authoritative reference that examines virtually all tax instruments used by governments (individual income, corporate income, sales and value-added, property, estate and gift, franchise, poll, and many variants of these taxes), as well as characteristics of a good tax system, budgetary issues, and many current federal, state, local, and international tax policy issues. The new edition has been completely revised, with 40 new topics and 200 articles reflecting six years of legislative changes. Each essay provides the generalist with a quick and reliable introduction to many topics but also gives tax specialists the benefit of other experts' best thinking, in a manner that makes the complex understandable. Reference lists point the reader to additional sources of information for each topic. The first edition of The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy was selected as an Outstanding Academic Book of the Year (1999) by Choice magazine."--Publisher's website.










International Taxation and Multinational Activity


Book Description

Because the actions of multinational corporations have a clear and direct effect on the flow of capital throughout the world, how and why these firms behave the way they do is a major issue for national governments and their policymakers. With an unprecedented ability to adjust the scale, character, and location of their global operations, international corporations have become increasingly sensitive to the kind and degree of tax obligations imposed on them by both host and home countries. Tax rules affect the volume of foreign direct investment, corporate borrowing, transfer pricing, dividend and royalty payments, and research and development. National governments that tax the profits of international firms face important challenges in designing tax policies to attract them. This collection examines the global ramifications of tax policies, offering up-to-date, theoretically innovative, and empirically sound perspectives on a problem of immense significance to future economic growth around the globe.




Top Incomes


Book Description

This volume brings together an exciting range of new studies of top incomes in a wide range of countries from around the world. The studies use data from income tax records to cast light on the dramatic changes that have taken place at the top of the income distribution. The results cover 22 countries and have a long time span, going back to 1875.




Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century


Book Description

This book was first published in 2007. Most countries levy taxes on corporations, but the impact - and therefore the wisdom - of such taxes is highly controversial among economists. Does the burden of these taxes fall on wealthy shareowners, or is it passed along to those who work for, or buy the products of, corporations? Can a country with high corporate taxes remain competitive in the global economy? This book features research by leading economists and accountants that sheds light on these and related questions, including how taxes affect corporate dividend policy, stock market value, avoidance, and evasion. The studies promise to inform both future tax policy and regulatory policy, especially in light of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission that are having profound effects on the market for tax planning and auditing in the wake of the well-publicized accounting scandals in Enron and WorldCom.




The Costs and Benefits of Price Stability


Book Description

In recent years, the Federal Reserve and central banks worldwide have enjoyed remarkable success in their battle against inflation. The challenge now confronting the Fed and its counterparts is how to proceed in this newly benign economic environment: Should monetary policy seek to maintain a rate of low-level inflation or eliminate inflation altogether in an effort to attain full price stability? In a seminal article published in 1997, Martin Feldstein developed a framework for calculating the gains in economic welfare that might result from a move from a low level of inflation to full price stability. The present volume extends that analysis, focusing on the likely costs and benefits of achieving price stability not only in the United States, but in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom as well. The results show that even small changes in already low inflation rates can have a substantial impact on the economic performance of different countries, and that variations in national tax rules can affect the level of gain from disinflation.