Progressiveness of the VAT and Excises in the Czech Republic – Empirical Analysis

Common belief is that consumption taxes are regressive. That is true if annual income is considered as a potential to consume or as a measure of taxpayer’s well-being. However, there are both theoretical and empirical evidence that e.g. the VAT could be proportional or even progressive if the lifetime income is used as a measure of well-being. In this paper the both approaches to the tax incidence (lifetime incidence approach and annual income incidence approach) are discussed and comparison of their results is provided.