Nontaxable income and necessary consumption: the Rousseau’s paradox of fiscal egalitarianism
Nontaxable income and necessary consumption: the Rousseau’s paradox of fiscal egalitarianism
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免税收入与必要消费：卢梭财政平均主义悖论
DOI：
10.1080/00036846.2013.781262
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
L. Varela
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Faíña;J. López;L. Varela
本文比较了统一税率和所有纳税人相同的固定免税额的税收方法（剩余所得税法（SITM）程序）和统一税率和增加个人免税额（IPA）的税收方法，以满足不同生活水平所需的必要消费金额（自由所得税法（DITM）程序）。我们的研究结果表明，DITM程序产生的税后收入分配不平等和上级的社会福利。此外，假设（为了比较的目的）税收总额相同，得出的必然结论是，在直接投资税下的统一税率必然大于在综合投资税下的统一税率;因此，前一种税收方法比后者更具有累进性。这些结果意味着一个明显的悖论，考虑到普遍接受的原则，即基本必需品对每个人都是一样的（卢梭，1755）。基于本文的研究结果，我们将这一悖论称为卢梭的财政平均主义悖论。
This article compares a tax method featuring flat rates and fixed allowances equal for all taxpayers (Surplus Income Tax Method (SITM) procedure) with a tax method featuring also flat rates and increasing personal allowances (IPAs) to meet the amounts of necessary consumption required by the different living standards (Discretionary Income Tax Method (DITM) procedure). Our results show that the DITM procedure generates an after-tax income distribution less unequal and superior in terms of social welfare. Moreover, the assumption (for comparison purposes) of identical total tax revenues leads to the corollary that the flat tax rate under the DITM is necessarily larger than the one under the SITM; being thus, the former taxmethod is more progressive than the latter. These results imply an obvious paradox considering the commonly accepted principle that basic necessities are the same for everyone (Rousseau, 1755). Based on the results obtained in this article, we have labelled this paradox as the Rousseau’s paradox of fiscal egalitarianism.