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.

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)...

On average, 40 percent of US corporations with foreign source income are not taxable because they are in loss, and annually these loss firms are responsible for about 13 percent of foreign source dividend repatriations. Yet the repatriation behavior of these US parents in loss has largely been...

The paper uses a new micro-simulation model to estimate the impact of repealing the employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) exclusion on ESI coverage given two alternative scenarios: a non-group market that is fully underwritten and a modified community-rated market where the low income population...