The Complexity of Tax Simplification

The Complexity of Tax Simplification PDF

Author: Simon James

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-29

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1137478691

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Simplicity in taxation has considerable potential advantages. However, attempts to simplify tax systems are only likely to be successful and enduring if they take account of the reasons why taxation is complex. There are strong pressures on tax systems to accommodate a range of important factors, as well as complex and changing national and international environments within which modern tax systems have to operate. This book explores the experiences of simplification in a range of countries and jurisdictions. The authors analyse a range of manifestations of simplification, including tax systems, tax law, taxpayer communications and tax administration. They also review the longer term or more fundamental approaches to simplification, suggesting that in order to strike the optimum balance between simplicity and the aims of a tax system in terms of efficiency and equity, a range of complex environmental factors must all be taken into account. With chapters reflecting on experiences from Australia, China, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the US, the authors illustrate differences between jurisdictions and the changing environment in which they operate. This book addresses the crucial balance between simplicity and the other objectives of tax design and reform, and suggests that reformers of the tax system should include simplicity as one of the key evaluators of any design or reform proposal.

Tax Simplification

Tax Simplification PDF

Author: Chris Evans

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789041159762

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Why are tax systems so complex? What are the causes of tax law complexity? What are the consequences? Why is tax simplification so difficult to achieve? These, and related questions, lie at the core of this volume on tax simplification featuring chapters by leading tax experts around the world. The quest for simplicity è^' or at least some move towards simplification è^' has been a fixation of governments and others for many years, but little appears to have been achieved. Tax simplification is the most widely quoted but the least widely observed of the usually stated goals of policy (equity and efficiency being the others). It has been used (and abused) as a primary justification for tax reform over the last century, and typically it is seen as è^-a good thingè^-- è^' to say that one is in favour of tax simplification is tantamount to stating that one is in favour of good as opposed to evil.

Attractive Complexity

Attractive Complexity PDF

Author: Steven Dean

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13:

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Political failure has long been the scapegoat for the increasing complexity of the income tax. Over the last few decades, confusion over the meaning of the term simplification appears to have become a second important obstacle to creating simpler tax laws. Because some tax complexity is attractive to taxpayers, relying on taxpayer preferences to identify complexity and to guide simplification efforts has produced reforms and proposals that promise simplification but instead deliver pro-taxpayer deregulation that may cause more of society's resources to be devoted to paying, minimizing and collecting taxes rather than less. The check-the-box election, which provided taxpayers with greater flexibility to choose and change the classification of business entities while having only an ambiguous impact on the tax law's complexity, offers a clear example of the misidentification of a deregulatory reform as a simplification reform. The simplification proposals offered by the bipartisan tax reform panel in 2005 would have done an equally poor job of simplifying the tax law.A rational taxpayer will always embrace a complex tax rule when its economic costs (e.g. $100 in time and legal fees) are more than offset by tax benefits the rule facilitates (e.g. $101 in tax savings). Although that rule's complexity is attractive to taxpayers, it still consumes $100 of society's resources. To prevent attractive complexity from transforming tax simplification into tax deregulation, it is important to adopt an objective approach to identifying and measuring complexity. Recognizing that rational taxpayers will sometimes prefer complexity over simplicity will help prevent attractive complexity from undermining the success of efforts to simplify the tax law.

The Crisis in Tax Administration

The Crisis in Tax Administration PDF

Author: Henry Aaron

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2004-05-20

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780815796565

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People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.

The Easy Case Against Tax Simplification

The Easy Case Against Tax Simplification PDF

Author: Samuel A. Donaldson

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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There is growing political momentum to simplify the Internal Revenue Code. While the federal tax laws should be no more complex than necessary, this Article demonstrates that tax complexity is not as bad as political rhetoric leads us to believe. The Article makes four arguments in support of this thesis. First, the forces comprising tax complexity are either inevitable or net beneficial, so calls for simplification are ultimately pointless. Second, the alleged harms of tax complexity are either unproven or overstated, so the need for simplification is questionable. Third, significant proposals for simplification are flawed because they either overcorrect for the perceived problem or actually result in increased complexity. Finally, as a criterion of tax policy, simplicity is overrated. While many scholars use the criteria of equity, efficiency, and simplicity in conducting tax policy analysis, simplicity is best characterized as a component of the efficiency criterion. By elevating simplicity to a plan equal with efficiency and equity, therefore, one gives greater weight to simplicity than to equity and the other components of efficiency. To the extent equitable-but-complex laws are superior to inequitable-but-simple laws, the emphasis on simplicity is misguided.

Tax Complexity, Compliance, and Administration

Tax Complexity, Compliance, and Administration PDF

Author: United States. Congress

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-11-29

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9781981255849

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Tax complexity, compliance, and administration : the merits of simplification in tax reform : hearing before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, first session, March 10, 2015.

A Fine Mess

A Fine Mess PDF

Author: T. R. Reid

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1594205515

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"The U.S. tax code is a total write-off. Crammed with loopholes and special interest provisions, it works for no one except tax lawyers, accountants, and huge corporations. Not for the first time, we have reached a breaking point -- in fact, we reach one every thirty-two years. T.R. Reid crisscrosses the globe in search of exact solutions to the urgent tax problems of the United States. With an uncanny knack for making a complex subject not just accessible but gripping, he investigates what makes good taxation (no, that's not an oxymoron) and brings that knowledge home where it is needed most. Reid presses the case for sensible root-and-branch reforms that will affect everyone. Doing our taxes will never be America's favorite pastime, but it can and should be so much easier and fairer"--Adapted from the book jacket.

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