比较增值税与零售税-毕业论文外文翻译

外文文献：

Comparing the Value-Added Tax to the Retail Sales Tax For Richard F. Dye , Therese J. McGuire

Journal of Public Economics

April 2011

Overview of V AT

More than 130 countries use V AT as a key source of government revenue. V AT is a general, broad-based consumption tax assessed on the value added to goods and services. V AT is generally levied on value added at every stage of production, with a mechanism allowing the sellers a credit for the tax they have paid on their own purchases of goods and services (input tax) against the taxes collected on their sales of goods and service (output tax). Generally, V AT is: A general tax that applies to all commercial activities involving the production and distribution of goods and the provision of services; A consumption tax ultimately borne by the consumer; An indirect tax levied on the consumer as part of the price of goods or services; A multistage tax visible at each stage of the production and distribution chain; and A fractionally collected tax that uses a system of partial payments whereby a seller charges V AT on all of its sales with a corresponding claim of credit for V AT that it has been charged on all of its purchases.

There are three methods of calculating V AT liability: the credit-invoice method, the subtraction method, and the addition method. This column deals with only the credit-invoice method, which is the most widely used. The credit-invoice method highlights the V AT defining feature: the use of output tax (tax collected on sales) and input tax (tax paid on purchases). A taxpayer generally computes its V AT liability as the difference between the V AT charged on taxable sales and the V AT paid on taxable purchases. This method requires the use of an invoice that separately lists the V AT component of all taxable sales. The sales invoice for the seller becomes the purchase invoice of the buyer. The sales invoice shows the output tax collected and the purchase invoice shows the input tax paid. To summarize, taxpayers use the credit-invoice method to calculate the amount of V AT to be remitted to the taxing authorities in the following manner: Aggregate the V AT shown in the sales invoices (output tax); Aggregate the V AT shown in the purchase invoices (input tax); Subtract the input tax from the output tax and remit any

balance to the government; and In the event the input tax is greater than the output tax. The United States is the only member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development that does not levy a V AT on a national level; however, V AT has become widely recognized as an important option in federal tax reform debates.

Indirect taxes such as value added taxes (VAT) generate a substantial part of tax revenue in many countries. In fact, VAT systems generate a quarter of the world’s tax revenue. Nearly 130 countries now have a VAT system (with over 70 countries having adopted the system during the last 10 years) (Keen and Mintz 2004). More focus on internationally mobile tax bases has drawn attention to directing more of the tax burden to indirect taxes such as consumption taxes or VAT systems, and less to income taxes, especially capital income (Gordon and Nielsen 1997). During the harmonization of EU taxes, indirect taxes, and VAT systems received much attention (Fehr et al. 1995). A general VAT law covering all private goods and services characterizes the current EU system, but there are still many exemptions from this general instruction.Such a VAT system also exists in Norway as a consequence of the Norwegian VAT reform in 2001. The reform introduced a general VAT law on services, but many exemptions are still specified.

There are several arguments in favor of a general and uniform VAT system, compared with imperfect, nonuniform (and nongeneral) systems.Such a system may improve economic

efficiency and reduce administration costs, rent-seeking and fraud activities by industries that lobby for lower rates and zero ratings (Keen and Smith 2006). A general and uniform VAT system equals a uniform consumer tax on all goods and services.Such a system also implies that the producers’ net VAT rate on material inputs equals zero, irrespective of the rate structure. This is optimal according to the produc tion efficiency theorem (Diamond and Mirrlees 1971a,

1971b).A VAT system with exemptions violates the production efficiency theorem because taxation of intermediates will differ between industries. On the other hand, industries that are covered by the VAT system but have lower rates or zero ratings on their sales are favored because they can withdraw expenditures to VAT on intermediates at full rates and only levy reduced or zero rates on their sales.

A general and uniform VAT system may also have positive effects on the distribution of welfare among households. If the initial situation is characterized by a VAT on most goods but only on a few services, the introduction of a uniform rate on all goods and services may improve the distribution of welfare because services’ share of consumption increases with income.

Keen (2007) points to the lack of interest in value added taxation from the theoretical second-best literature in spite of the VAT’s popularity in practical tax policy. As mentioned