Many experts equate the best tax system with the simplest, and the best tax reform with the one that most simplifies the system. However, the simplest, most elegant policy need not be the best because tax policy involves a tradeoff among objectives, including equity and efficiency objectives,...

This article discusses probably the most significant obstacle to the adoption of a consumption tax: the negative effects on existing wealth that the transition from the income tax to most forms of a consumption tax would have. The Congressional Budget Office in its 1997 study posed the question,...

The article builds on the Hall-Rabushka Flat Tax and proposes a consumption tax called the “E Tax,” which is an electronically collected credit invoice VAT. The Hall-Rabushka Flat Tax is a two-tier consumption tax that is based on a subtraction method VAT. The Hall-Rabushka nuance, however,...

In this paper we use a general equilibrium model of Vietnam, calibrated to 1995 data, to analyze tax reform options for Vietnam. We focus on aggregate welfare impacts as well as welfare of household groups ranked by income. The main focus is on indirect tax reform (VAT), but we also examine...

In U.S. federal income tax, the standard deduction, along with the personal exemptions, provides taxpayers with a minimum amount of untaxed income, effectively creating a "zero bracket amount." For historical and political reasons, however, the standard deduction also operates as a simplified...

This paper explores the interaction between the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the cost-of-living faced by single mothers. After the 1993 EITC expansion, we identify up to a 10 percentage point increase in labor force participation for single mothers in the lowest cost areas but no...

This paper generalizes the standard model of how taxes affect the labor-leisure choice by allowing individuals to change both their labor supply and avoidance effort in response to tax changes. Doing so reveals that the income and substitution effect of taxes depend on both preferences and the...

The President?s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform took on a very difficult task?to disentangle the complexities, sources of unfairness and economic distortions in current tax policy, and provide proposals for reform?and its final report is admirable in its intent and accomplishment (President?s...

Artículo de revista ; Distributed ledger technology is attracting the attention of the financial sector, both owing to its use in transactions with crypto-assets and to the proliferation of initiatives which have the potential to increase the efficiency, transparency, speed and resilience of...

Rationale This article is intended as an introduction to the world of decentralised finance (DeFi). To this end, the focus is to explain, in a simplified manner, its key characteristics and most common use cases, along with the main risks. Takeaways •DeFi is one of the latest developments in...