Most countries with a VAT have a tax exemption for small businesses that have taxable sales below a certain threshold. The exemption reduces both the compliance costs for small businesses and the administrative costs for the government. We use a static analysis of the U.S. economy to determine...

Evaluates the regressivity of the VAT and analyzes options for reducing the regressivity of the tax. Concludes that the tax burden on the lower income groups can be reduced most effectively by providing payments to lower income groups.

While prior research focuses on Federal assistance to Native American tribal governments through spending programs, we examine tax incentive use by tribes. Tribal governments can issue tax-exempt bonds where the interest rates are lower because the Federal government does not tax bondholder on...

Recent data on corporate tax losses presents a puzzle this paper attempts to explain: the ratio of losses to positive income was much higher around the recession of 2001 than in earlier recessions, even those of greater severity. Using a comprehensive sample of U.S. corporation tax returns for...

Using tax return data for1993–2003, we measure how US corporations use tax losses over time. For firms included in our dataset, we find that: (1) approximately 50–60 percent of tax losses are used over a ten–year window as a carryback refund or loss carryforward deduction; (2)...

This paper examines business use of special provisions for accelerated depreciation that have been passed into law over the past decade -- bonus depreciation and expanded Section 179 expensing limits. Tax data over the 2002-2009 period reveal that corporations, pass-through entities, and...

Recent data on corporate tax losses presents a puzzle this paper attempts to explain: the ratio of losses to positive income was much higher around the recession of 2001 than in earlier recessions, even those of greater severity. Using a comprehensive sample of U.S. corporation tax returns for...

Recent data present a puzzle: the ratio of corporate tax losses to positive income was much higher around 2001 than in earlier recessions. Using a comprehensive 1982-2005 sample of U.S. corporation tax returns, we explore a variety of potential explanations for this surge in tax losses, taking...