Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes

Proposals for destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes (DBCFT) that effectively combine a value‐added tax and a wage subsidy have received enormous attention in the United States and are being proposed as a major tax reform worldwide. Much controversy has focused on trade impacts, but this paper s...

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Autor principal: Martin, Will
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146001
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author Martin, Will
author_browse Martin, Will
author_facet Martin, Will
author_sort Martin, Will
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Proposals for destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes (DBCFT) that effectively combine a value‐added tax and a wage subsidy have received enormous attention in the United States and are being proposed as a major tax reform worldwide. Much controversy has focused on trade impacts, but this paper shows that a DBCFT would not create long‐term trade barriers or export subsidies if prices and wages are flexible. It would leave business profits and rents untaxed, providing an unambiguous benefit to foreign investors relative to an origin‐based corporate tax. Domestic wage earners would be compensated for higher prices by the wage deduction, while the position of domestic investors would depend on whether their gains from abolition of origin‐based taxes outweighed their losses from higher consumer prices. A key concern is small, volatile and vulnerable net revenues even with high‐tax rates. At current US consumption and labour shares, a 20% corporate cash‐flow tax with a wage subsidy would generate less than 2% of GDP in net revenues, which could be obtained with much less volatility from a 2.8% consumption tax alone. Under a DBCFT, revenues would become negative if consumption and labour shares returned to their historical norms or if difficult‐to‐tax sectors like owner‐occupied housing were excluded.
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spelling CGSpace1460012024-10-25T08:03:46Z Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes Martin, Will economic analysis vat taxes fiscal policies trade value added tax direct taxation Proposals for destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes (DBCFT) that effectively combine a value‐added tax and a wage subsidy have received enormous attention in the United States and are being proposed as a major tax reform worldwide. Much controversy has focused on trade impacts, but this paper shows that a DBCFT would not create long‐term trade barriers or export subsidies if prices and wages are flexible. It would leave business profits and rents untaxed, providing an unambiguous benefit to foreign investors relative to an origin‐based corporate tax. Domestic wage earners would be compensated for higher prices by the wage deduction, while the position of domestic investors would depend on whether their gains from abolition of origin‐based taxes outweighed their losses from higher consumer prices. A key concern is small, volatile and vulnerable net revenues even with high‐tax rates. At current US consumption and labour shares, a 20% corporate cash‐flow tax with a wage subsidy would generate less than 2% of GDP in net revenues, which could be obtained with much less volatility from a 2.8% consumption tax alone. Under a DBCFT, revenues would become negative if consumption and labour shares returned to their historical norms or if difficult‐to‐tax sectors like owner‐occupied housing were excluded. 2018-05-22 2024-06-21T09:05:32Z 2024-06-21T09:05:32Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146001 en Limited Access John Wiley & Sons Martin, Will. 2018. Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes. The World Economy 41(10): 2631-2649. https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12663
spellingShingle economic analysis
vat
taxes
fiscal policies
trade
value added tax
direct taxation
Martin, Will
Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title_full Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title_fullStr Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title_full_unstemmed Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title_short Trade and economic impacts of destination‐based business cash‐flow taxes
title_sort trade and economic impacts of destination based business cash flow taxes
topic economic analysis
vat
taxes
fiscal policies
trade
value added tax
direct taxation
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146001
work_keys_str_mv AT martinwill tradeandeconomicimpactsofdestinationbasedbusinesscashflowtaxes