Each year the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal publish the Index of Economic Freedom. This major study compiles economic data on more than 150 countries. The compilers divide the data into ten categories, ranging from business freedom to labor freedom. One of the ten categories is...

Each May, Forbes magazine publishes a study on tax misery. The Forbes Tax Misery Index is a proxy for evaluating whether tax policy attracts or repels capital and talent. It is computed by adding the top marginal tax rate for the corporate income tax, individual income tax, wealth tax,...

Countries that are moving from central planning to a market economy face unique problems in many areas, including taxation and public finance. The methods of collecting the revenue needed to fund government services were much different under a socialist system. Shifting to a market system...

This paper examines Internal Revenue Service data and applies philosophical and ethical concepts in an attempt to determine whether the rich pay their fair share of income taxes. Also included is a bibliography containing links to more than 80 studies on tax evasion and public finance

The present study reports the findings of a survey conducted by the World Values Survey scientists in 59 countries on the question of whether governments should tax the rich and subsidize the poor. A 10-point Likert Scale was used to determine the extent of agreement or disagreement with the...

The present study reports the findings of a survey conducted by the World Values Survey scientists in the United States on the question of whether governments should tax the rich and subsidize the poor. The sample size of 2166 consisted of individuals from all parts of the United States. A...

The Panama Papers refers to a massive leak of information encompassing more than 11 million documents involving more than 200,000 offshore entities. The leak originated in Panama. Some of the documents involve transactions as far back as the 1970s. Numerous wealthy individuals, including top...

Tax systems have become increasingly complex in recent decades. There is no such thing as a single tax. There are individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, sometimes local income taxes. There are a variety of indirect taxes, such as the value added tax (VAT), various kinds of excise...

Paying taxes is a cost of doing business. The looters (or public servants, depending on your perspective) must be paid and tax proceeds must be distributed to various groups and individuals, both worthy and unworthy. But tax expense includes more than just the amount of taxes that must be paid....

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes. His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, which identified three basic philosophical positions on the issue....