{"title":"Tax Authority Advice and the Public","authors":"Stephen Daly","doi":"10.5040/9781509930562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509930562","url":null,"abstract":"There is now almost universal acceptance that tax law is overly complex and indeterminate. And yet, there has to date been no comprehensive assessment of the role of the tax authority in the current arrangement. If the legislation and case law offer few immediate answers to the taxpayer, then the role of Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in advising taxpayers becomes more apparent. This monograph contends that the provision of advice by HMRC is desirable by virtue of the rule of law and it follows that any such advice should be correct, clear, accessible and reliable. Additionally, there should exist some means of scrutinising the advice in order to check that it satisfies these criteria. The book explores this view of HMRC's role in tax collection. It explains the deficiencies in the current system in this light, highlighting the pitfalls for taxpayers and practitioners as well as the potential remedies. Finally, the book assesses potential reforms which could be adopted in order to alleviate existing problems. A timely and ambitious work, this book is essential reading for practitioners and academics interested in the interaction between tax administration and public law.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132028579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Taxing Parents: Welfarist Theories","authors":"S. McCormack","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3579117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3579117","url":null,"abstract":"The Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) taxes parents inequitably. Couples with a sole earner are under-taxed compared to couples with dual earners or single parents. Previous scholarship has identified these inequities and then argued that this sole earner bias should be eliminated. These arguments, however, have often been incomplete. Simply establishing that an inequity exists does not create a full argument for legal reform. After all, the Code plays favorites all the time. Scholars have traditionally turned to theories of distributive justice when evaluating whether tax preferences are warranted. These theories offer competing visions about the way resources should be allocated. Rather than advocating blanket equality, these theories identify higher order principles that justify preferential-ism. But scholars who have asked Congress to eliminate the Code’s preference for sole earners have often failed to connect their arguments with this distributive literature. \u0000 \u0000This Article, the first in a series, begins to connect traditional theories of distributive justice with the debate surrounding the Code’s inequitable taxation of parents. To do so, it focuses on welfarist theories — a body of distributive theories that seek to maximize social welfare — because of the dominant influence they have exerted over tax debates. It reaches the surprising conclusion that welfarism may, in many cases, support the Code’s sole earner bias. But the reasons for this prescription are revealing — sole earners have fewer costs and time constraints than single parents and dual earners and may, therefore, be better positioned to use their income to achieve well-being. Many will find it counter-intuitive to favor sole earners just because they have more choices than other parents. For them, the analysis may reveal the limitations of relying too heavily on welfarism to analyze the taxation of parents. This Article concludes with a call for sustained consideration of other non-welfarist theories that have been largely overlooked in the legal tax scholarship.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121595806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Debt Issuance in the Era of Passive Investment","authors":"Michele Dathan, S. Davydenko","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3152612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3152612","url":null,"abstract":"Passive bond funds provide predictable demand for newly issued corporate bonds included in popular indices. By issuing index-eligible bonds, firms can take advantage of this passive demand and improve bond characteristics unrelated to index eligibility. We find that higher passive demand increases firms' propensity to issue bonds, and results in larger bonds, lower spreads, longer maturities, and fewer covenants. Firms issue a disproportionate number of bonds with face value just sufficient to be included in major bond indices. Following an increase in the index size threshold, some firms withdraw from the bond market while others respond by issuing larger bonds.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116049142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David S. Miller, Muhyung (Aaron) Lee, Kathleen Semanski, Sean Webb
{"title":"Summary of the Tax Provisions of the CARES Act","authors":"David S. Miller, Muhyung (Aaron) Lee, Kathleen Semanski, Sean Webb","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3570888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3570888","url":null,"abstract":"This paper summarizes the tax provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"200 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122589530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeff Larrimore, Jacob A. Mortenson, David Splinter
{"title":"Presence and Persistence of Poverty in U.S. Tax Data","authors":"Jeff Larrimore, Jacob A. Mortenson, David Splinter","doi":"10.3386/w26966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3386/w26966","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents new estimates of the level and persistence of poverty among U.S. households since the Great Recession. We build annual household data files using U.S. income tax filings between 2007 and 2018. These data allow us to track individuals over time and measure how tax policies affect poverty trends. Using an after-tax household income measure, we estimate that while roughly 1 in 10 people are in poverty in any given year, over 4 in 10 people spent at least one year in poverty between 2007 and 2018. This implies substantial mobility in and out of poverty—for example, 41 percent of those in poverty in 2007 were out of poverty in the following year. Others spend multiple years in poverty or escape poverty only to fall back into it. Of those in poverty in 2007, one-third were in poverty for at least half of the years through 2018.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124066720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V. Gromov, Nikolai Milogolov, Andrey Korytin, Natalia Kostrykina, E. Zakharenkova
{"title":"Разработка подходов к регулированию налоговой конкуренции между субъектами Российской Федерации (Development of Approaches to Tax Regulation Competition Between the Subjects of the Russian Federation)","authors":"V. Gromov, Nikolai Milogolov, Andrey Korytin, Natalia Kostrykina, E. Zakharenkova","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3596005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3596005","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Russian Abstract:</b> Работа посвящена анализу явления налоговой конкуренции между субъектами Российской Федерации. В работе исследована эволюция данного явления, начиная с перехода Российской Федерации к рыночной экономике по нынешнее время. По результатам исследования авторы делают вывод о том, что в большинстве регионов со значимой политикой предоставления налоговых льгот по налогу на прибыль организаций, такие льготы предоставляются не в результате работы механизма внутренней налоговой конкуренции, а по иным причинам.<br><br><b>English Abstract:</b> The work is devoted to the analysis of the internal tax competition in the Russian Federation. The paper studies the evolution of this phenomenon, starting from the transition of the Russian Federation to a market economy to the present. The authors conclude that in the most regions with a significant policy of providing tax benefits for corporate income tax, such benefits are provided not as a result of the internal tax competition mechanism, but for other reasons.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"134 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116340497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Information about Foreign Aid Affects Public Spending Decisions: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Malawi","authors":"Brigitte Seim, Ryan S. Jablonski, Johan Ahlbäck","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3548125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3548125","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Does foreign aid shift public spending? Many worry that aid will be “fungible” in the sense that governments reallocate public funds in response to aid. If so, this could undermine development, increase the poorest's dependency on donors, and free resources for patronage. Yet, there is little agreement about the scale or consequences of such effects. We conducted an experiment with 460 elected politicians in Malawi. We provided information about foreign aid projects in local schools to these politicians. Afterwards, politicians made real decisions about which schools to target with development goods. Politicians who received the aid information treatment were 18% less likely to target schools with existing aid. These effects increase to 22–29% when the information was plausibly novel. We find little evidence that aid information heightens targeting of political supporters or family members, or dampens support to the neediest. Instead the evidence indicates politicians allocate the development goods in line with equity concerns.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128417429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Firm‐Specific Dividend Drop‐Off Ratios Be Used to Infer Shareholder Marginal Tax Rates?","authors":"Andrew Ainsworth, Adrian D. Lee, T. Walter","doi":"10.1111/acfi.12322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12322","url":null,"abstract":"In a seminal study, Elton and Gruber (1970) argue that ex‐dividend day pricing can be used to infer marginal tax rates of shareholders. We examine ex‐dividend day pricing for individual firms and ask whether their CFOs could use the history of a firm's ex‐dividend price‐drop ratios to infer reasonable estimates of shareholders’ marginal tax rates. We use TAQ data for 1,124 US firms that have at least 30 ex‐dividend days during the period August 1993 to October 2012. Our results show that ex‐dividend day pricing is so noisy as to prohibit sensible estimates of shareholders’ marginal tax rates.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132032275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stock Market's Reaction to Employment News: Bad News is Not Good Anymore","authors":"Badrinath Kottimukkalur","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3544378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3544378","url":null,"abstract":"I document a shift in the stock market's reaction to employment news beginning early 2000s. Good employment news increases stock prices during expansions but has no effect during recessions. Overall, good employment news is good for stocks, a shift from the relationship documented in earlier studies. Furthermore, good employment news continues to decrease bond returns. The opposite response of stock and bond returns to employment news is consistent with the negative stock and bond return correlation in recent times. Risk premium drives the recent stock price reaction to employment news whereas interest rate was the dominant channel prior to 2000s.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122946298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is the Tunisian Central Bank Following a Linear or a Nonlinear Augmented Taylor Rule ?","authors":"Lamia Beldi, Mouldi Djelassi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3542718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3542718","url":null,"abstract":"The political transition in the Arab Spring countries has been accompanied by a deterioration of economic and financial indicators like the Tunisian case. Therefore, this paper aims to get a deeper understanding the nature of the rule that reflects the behavior of the Tunisian monetary authority in the current dominance of economic and financial instability. In particular, this paper assesses whether the Tunisian Central Bank is indeed following a linear or a non linear augmented Taylor rule. For our purpose, we use a forward looking version of Taylor rule augmented by including the effect of exchange rate to estimate the linear and the nonlinear models. A smooth transition regression model is employed to estimate the nonlinear rule. The results obtained imply that the Tunisian Central Bank follows a nonlinear Taylor rule in the conduct of monetary policy. In addition, our evidence suggests that the reaction of monetary authority in Tunisia to the deviation of forecasts of inflation rate, output gap and exchange rate changes in terms of magnitude and statistical significance across the high and low interest rate regimes. In particular, when the lagged interest rate is above the threshold level of 4.76%, the main objective of the policy makers is to fight the inflation rate and to limit the depreciation of exchange rate rather than to boost the economic activity.","PeriodicalId":119398,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114494622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}