This paper provides a largely nontechnical survey of concepts and issues related to the reform of the personal income tax, covering both base and rate aspects of the tax, as well as fundamental reform options. It also covers recent developments in selected OECD countries

Welfare programs are important for reducing poverty but create incentives for recipients to maximize their income by either reducing labor supply or manipulating taxable income. In this paper, we quantify the extent of such behavioral responses for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the US....

This paper investigates the factors that shape governments’ capacity to collect revenue. To do so, it analyses how tax revenue responds to tax rates using evidence from a panel of 34 OECD countries over 1978-2014. The estimations show that the response of revenue to rates weakens as rates...

Tax reforms are crucial to promoting inclusive growth in India. The replacement of a myriad of consumption taxes by a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost India's competitiveness, investment, job creation and tax compliance. The potential to raise additional revenue from taxes on goods and...

The mortgage interest deduction is often criticized for contributing to after-tax income inequality. Yet the effects of the mortgage interest deduction on income inequality are more nuanced than the conventional wisdom would suggest. We show that the mortgage interest deduction causes...

This paper provides empirical evidence on intertemporal income shifting during the implementation of a major tax reform in Uruguay. We exploit VAT and income tax returns for the universe of individuals that declare activity as liberal professionals (e.g. lawyers, public notaries, architects,...

Tax reforms are crucial to promoting inclusive growth in India. The replacement of a myriad of consumption taxes by a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost India's competitiveness, investment, job creation and tax compliance. The potential to raise additional revenue from taxes on goods and...

In July, 2011, the Budgetary Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress convened an international symposium on reform of China’s Personal Income Tax (PIT) system. Currently about 30 years old, the Chinese PIT system very roughly resembles the U.S....

We present an argument from micro-economic foundations suggesting that the federal Alternative Minimum Tax has potentially salutary – and heretofore unrecognized – effects that counteract pathologies of state budgets over the business cycle. AMT liability increases with income, and acts to...