1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910788410303321

Autore

Varsano Ricardo

Titolo

The "Flat Tax(es)" : : Principles and Evidence / / Ricardo Varsano, Kevin Kim, Michael Keen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Washington, D.C. : , : International Monetary Fund, , 2006

ISBN

1-4623-2961-6

1-4527-7132-4

1-283-51335-8

9786613825803

1-4519-0931-4

Descrizione fisica

48 p. : ill

Collana

IMF Working Papers

Altri autori (Persone)

KimKevin

KeenMichael

Soggetti

Flat-rate income tax - Econometric models

Flat-rate income tax - Former Soviet republics - Econometric models

Macroeconomics

Personal Finance -Taxation

Taxation

Corporate Taxation

Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General

Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: General

Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions

Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

Business Taxes and Subsidies

Public finance & taxation

Corporate & business tax

Flat tax

Personal income

Marginal effective tax rate

Personal income tax

Corporate income tax

Taxes

National accounts

Tax policy

Income tax

Income

Tax administration and procedure

Corporations



Slovak Republic

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"September 2006."

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Sommario/riassunto

One of the most striking tax developments in recent years, and one that continues to attract considerable attention, is the adoption by several countries of a form of "flat tax." Discussion of these quite radical reforms has been marked, however, more by assertion and rhetoric than by analysis and evidence. This paper reviews experience with the flat tax, seeking to redress the balance. It stresses that the flat taxes that have been adopted differ fundamentally, and that empirical evidence on their effects is very limited. This precludes simple generalization, but several lessons emerge: there is no sign of Laffer-type behavioral responses generating revenue increases from the tax cut elements of these reforms; their impact on compliance is theoretically ambiguous, but there is evidence for Russia that compliance did improve; the distributional effects of the flat taxes are not unambiguously regressive, and in some cases they may have increased progressivity, including through the impact on compliance; adoption of the flat tax has not resolved common challenges in taxing capital income; and it may have strengthened, not weakened, the automatic stabilizers. Looking forward, the question is not so much whether more countries will adopt a flat tax as whether those that have will move away from it.