tax haven:
A tax haven is a state or a country or a territory where some certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all while offering due process or good governance.
tax incidence
This is often called the flypaper theory of incidence. According to this theory ,the burden of a tax, like a fly on flypaper ,sticks wherever it first lands. This assumption, however, is rarely valid.
Statutory incidence indicates who is legally responsible for the tax
Economic incidence the change in the distribution of private real income induced by a tax
If price inelastic to the consumer ,the tax incidence falls on consumers
If price inelastic to the producer ,the tax incidence falls on the producer
Alcohol, tobacco,and gasoline have inelastic（无弹性的） demand , so the buyers of these items pay most the tax on them.
Labour has a low elasticity of supply, so the seller-the worker-pays most of the income tax and most of the Social Security fee.
The impact or statutory incidence may not coincide with the incidence of the tax because shifting occurred.
Forward shifting：前转
Absorption：消转
Backward shifting：后转
How should a tax system be designed to raise a given amount of revenue? More specifically, what criteria should be used to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a particular tax system, or a particular tax policy proposal?
Three fundamental criteria
1. Equity :
The taxes should be collected fairly. The approach chosen must finally be partly philosophic and partly pragmatic(务实的，实事求是的，注重实效的）.
2. Economic efficiency:
Taxes change should be expected to do more than simply produce revenue and cause as little economic harm as possible.
3. Collectability:
The tax design should be simple, transparent and accepted by the tax payers.
1.Equity
There are two general equity standards:
(1) according to taxpayers’ capabilities to bear the burden (ability to pay principle).
(2) according to taxpayers’ benefits from or usage of the public service (benefits received principle) .
The ability to pay principle relates taxes paid to some measure of ability to pay, such as overall wealth, income, or consumption.
Benefit received principle
The principle requires to measure who pays and who benefits from specific government services.
Progressive tax rates: The tax liability as a percentage of income increases as income increases.
• Proportional tax rates: Taxpayers pay the same percentage of income, regardless of the size of their income.
• Regressive tax rates: The tax liability is a smaller percentage of a taxpayer’s income as income increases.
Economic efficiency
Besides the tax liability paid to the government, there are other efficiency costs resulted from taxes changing the economic decisions that people make.
An efficient tax system would not distort economic decision. Tax-induced distortion of decisions to work, consume, and invest can reduce well-being.
These reductions in well-being are efficiency cost, also called deadweight loss, excess burden, or welfare loss.
Work versus leisure
First, taxes may increase the incentive to work because workers must work more to maintain their after tax income.
Second, taxes may reduce the incentive to work because workers earn less from an additional hour of work.
By reducing hourly after tax earnings, income and consumption taxes distort decisions about how many hours to devote to work or leisure.
Consumption versus savings
Taxes on capital reduce the after-tax return to savings. This makes future consumption (savings) more expensive relative to current consumption and thus has the potential to distort saving decisions.
choices among inputs
The government impose a tax burden on firms when they hire workers, but not when they “hire” machines. This shifts the input choice in favor of capital and away from labor.
choices among investment types
First, taxes that reduce after-tax returns on profitable investments discourage investment in general.
Second, taxes sometimes favor certain kinds of investment over others. The difference of tax treatment affects the investment decisions of tax payers.
So what do taxes distort?
Timing of events: marriage, realization of capital gains, births, deaths, profit repatriations, etc.
Trade-offs between Equity, Economic Efficiency and Collectability
The criteria are often in conflict with each other, and as a result, there are usually trade-offs to consider between the criteria when evaluating a particular tax proposal.
Optimal taxation
Optimal tax theory or optimal taxation is the study and implementation of how best to design a tax to minimize distortion and inefficiency subject to increasing set revenues through distortionary taxation in the market .
Tax policy reforms and trends
Tax policy reforms are closely connected with economic trends:
tax revenues are affected by changes in macroeconomic conditions and economic trends.
Growth remained subdued（减轻）
Global GDP growth remained subdued for the fifth successive year in 2016, at around 3%, well below the average of around 4% seen in the two decades prior to the financial crisis.
Since the crisis, persistent growth shortfalls have weighed on future output expectations, holding back current spending and potential output growth. Weak demand has been reflected in subdued investment and global trade, in turn limiting the advances in labour productivity and wages that are required to sustain higher consumption and output growth.
Labour taxes are the most important source of tax revenues in OECD countries on average
Personal income tax and social security contributions.
PIT and SSCs account for over half of total tax revenues on average in OECD countries and for a third of revenues in Argentina and South Africa.
treaty abuse协定滥用
standard tax rates 标准税率
reduced tax rates低税率
tax credit:Tax credit is a direct reduction in the tax liability of the taxpayer receiving the credit
Personal income tax
Personal income tax is a direct tax levied on the income of a person. The true income tax was first implemented in Britain.
Income
For households and individuals: income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings received... in a given period of time.
For firms, income generally refers to "net-profit"—what remains of revenue total after expenses have been subtracted.
Comprehensive income tax
Income from all sources is aggregated (capital income, labor income, other income less deductions)
Advantages of comprehensive income tax
Better than schedule system to achieve horizontal equity
It is easier to achieve a redistribution of income by means of the application of progressive rate
There are mainly based on realized rather than accrual income
It does not take into account the fact that capital is more mobile across borders than labour
·corporate income tax
1.Who should pay corporate income tax?
Corporate tax or company tax refers to a tax imposed on entities that are taxed at the entity level in a particular jurisdiction（权力）.
The choice of business entity
(1) Partnership
A partnership is a conduit entity that does not pay tax. Income is taxed at the owner level rather than at the entity level. However, partnerships are still required to annually report the results of their operations.
(2)Sole proprietorship
A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one individual.
Sole proprietorships are not separate taxable entities. They operate as conduits and tax the individual owner on the income of business.
(3)Corporation
A corporation is an artificial entity created under the auspices /ˈɔ:spɪˌsi:z/ of law.
Corporations are taxable entities that are separate and distinct from their owners.
2.Why tax corporations?
Why should corporate activity be subject to a special tax ? Why not just tax the incomes of the corporation owners via the personal income tax?
(1)To be convenient
Corporations are convenient places where the government can collect taxes and enforce the tax rules.
Large corporation have thousands of stockholders, and the managers of such corporations are controlled only very loosely by the stockholders/owners.
Tax plays the withholding function and act as the “backstop” to personal income tax.
(2)To prevent tax avoidance
If income taxes were collected only when incomes are received by people, the taxes could be deferred indefinitely by saving income in a legally separate corporation where it would be untaxed.
(3)To be viewed as a user fee for the benefit
Corporation receives a number of special privileges from society.
(4)To influence the production sector of the economy
3.The corporation tax base
The tax generally is imposed on net taxable income.
4.Lower tax burden but no decrease in corporate tax revenue
VAT
The value-added tax is a sales tax which collected at every stage of production and distribution, with a credit for taxes at the preceding stage so that no accumulation or cascading of taxes（重复征税） occur.
Input tax—— From a taxpayer’s view, it is the tax charged on the purchase cost.
Output tax——VAT charged at a specific rate by a registered taxpayer on the sale of goods or services.
Final VAT Payment= Output tax – Input tax
VAT is regarded as a particularly neutral tax with respect to international trade.
VAT is considered as a particularly efficient tax for raising revenue.
In 2009, the VAT in China has transformed from production type to consumption type
Special VAT invoices
When selling goods or services, the taxpayer should issue special VAT invoices to the purchasers and should indicate the sales value and output tax
The purchasers may credit the VAT indicated in the special VAT invoices when computing the VAT payable.
VAT for small-scale taxpayers
The levying rate is 3%
No input tax credit
Tax holiday
A tax holiday is a temporary reduction or elimination of a tax. It is synonymous with tax abatement, tax subsidy or tax reduction. Governments usually create tax holidays as incentives for business investment. Tax holidays have been granted by governments at national, sub-national, and local levels, and have included income, property, sales, VAT, and other taxes.
Special consumption tax_Excise taxes
Although excise taxes may cover a very wide range of products, excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and hydrocarbon oils are common to all OECD countries and raise significant revenues for governments. In recent decades, governments have increasingly used these taxes to influence customer behaviour where consumption of certain products are considered harmful to health or to the environment.
Excise, unlike value added taxes (VAT) and other general consumption taxes, is levied only on specific goods.
Property tax
property tax is indicatior of taxpayer's capacity to bear cost of government which may not be easily captured in other indicators.
For example, a taxpayer will often commence business operations in a foreign country through a branch rather than a foreign subsidiary so that the start-up losses are deductible against the taxpayer’s worldwide income in its country of resident.
Once the business becomes profitable, the taxpayer can transfer the assets of the business to a foreign subsidiary-often on a tax-free basis-so that the future profits derived by the foreign subsidiary are not subject to tax by the taxpayer’s country of residence.
Taxation of nonresidents
Nonresidents should not be treated better or worse than residents in similar situations.
Because they also Take advantage of the country’s infrastructure and its legal system in the same way as residents.
Benefiting from the market provided by the country .
导管避税地的共性税制特征：
1、荷兰、爱尔兰、卢森堡、比利时、瑞士、列支顿士登：
（1）享受欧盟指令的税收优惠或类似优惠
支付给非居民的股息、利息、特许权使用费免征预提税
（2）反避税法规体系有所空缺
大多没有资本弱化及CFC法规（荷兰、卢森堡、列支敦士登；瑞士无CFC法规）
一些国家近期开始或计划引入CFC法规（爱尔兰、比利时）
（3）多数对研发、投资、创新等提供企业所得税优惠
（4）股息所得（及转让股票的资本利得）“参股免税”政策
2、中国香港、新加坡：
（1）单级税收体制
（2）单一地域管辖权（或类似单一地域管辖权，境外汇回课税）
（3）税制相对简单
（4）对股息不征收预提税
（5）不对资本利得征税
（6）金融行业适用于较为有利的税收优惠政策
（7）无资本弱化及CFC法规
（8）企业所得税标准税率均未超过20%
（9）印花税体系丰富、功能复杂
（10）开征赌博税
避税地为何具有吸引力？
——特殊类型避税地（纯避税地）的共同税制特点
典型国家：英属维尔京群岛、开曼群岛、百慕大群岛、巴哈马国
1、税制简单
2、不开征任何所得税（或财产税）
3、对注册公司开征印花税等税收
4、开征关税
5、签署税收情报交换协议
6、开征了社会保障税（或类似的简化税种）
国际避税地的非税因素吸引力：
银行保密制度
发达、优质的离岸金融业服务
稳定的政治社会环境
快捷、便利的商业注册模式
便利的交通、电信实施
风险溢价：风险厌恶者为了规避风险而愿意付出的最大货币额
大数定律：通过大规模经营来规避风险的理论基础是大数定律
泡沫：一种商品的价格上升并非基于需求或价值的基础，而是依赖于价格会继续上涨的信念。
禀赋效应：对于某样东西，人们在拥有它时常常比没有时更看重它
锚定效应：指一些建议的信息片段(也许是不相关的)对你的最终决策可能具有的影响
拇指法则：决策过程中一种较为普遍的节省努力的方法是忽略似乎不大重要的信息片段。经济决策者对信息的处理方式不是按照理性预期的方式，把所有获得的信息都引入到决策模型中，他们往往遵循的是：只考虑重要信息，而忽略掉其他信息。否则信息成本无限高。
边际报酬递减规律(law of diminishing marginal returns)
指随着某种投入(其他投入固定)持续增加相同的数量，必然会到达一点，在它之后产出的增加量开始下降。
边际技术替代率marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS)
在保持产出不变的前提下，增加一单位的一种投入可以节省的其他投入的数量。
规模报酬
指所有投入同比例增加时产出增加的比率
规模报酬递增
当投入增加一倍时，产出增加高于一倍。
规模报酬不变
当投入增加一倍时，产出也增加一倍。
规模报酬递减
两倍的投入所得到的产出少于两倍
规模经济：厂商的平均成本可能随着产量增加而下降。如果厂商可以以低于双倍的成本获得双倍的产出，我们就认为存在规模经济。
●范围经济 单个厂商的联合产出超过各生产一种产品的两个厂商所能达到的总产量时(两个厂商共得到与单个厂商一样的投入)
经济租：厂商对某生产要素的意愿支付与为购买该生产要素必须的最低支付之差
进口配额：对某种进口商品的数量限制
垄断势力的勒纳指数 垄断势力的一种度量，由价格超出边际成本部分与价格之比计算而得。
寻租：花费大量金钱在社会非生产性努力上以获取、维持或运用其垄断势力
自然垄断 一个厂商生产市场全部产出带来的成本低于存在许多厂商时的情形
GDP平减指数=名义GDP/实际GDP
(1)流通中现金(M0)，是指银行体系以外各个单位的库存现金和居民的手持现金之和；
(2)狭义货币供应量(M1)，是指M0加上企业、机关、团体、部队、学校等单位在银行的活期存款；
(3)广义货币供应量(M2)，是指M1加上企业、机关、团体、部队、学校等单位在银行的定期存款和城乡居民个人在银行的各项储蓄存款以及证券客户保证金。�M2与M1的差额，即单位的定期存款和个人的储蓄存款之和，通常称作准货币。
量化宽松：美联储购买长期政府债券而不是短期债券以降低长期利率。
货币数量论;
1. 货币增长速度较高国家的通货膨胀率会更高
2. 一个国家通货膨胀率的长期态势与该国的货币增长率的长期趋势相似。
费雪效应：费雪方程式: i = r + π，通货膨胀率π 的增加将带来名义利率r 等额的增加。
这种一一对应的关系，被称为费雪效应。
通货膨胀的一个益处：
名义工资很少降低，甚至当均衡的实际工资下降时也是如此。
通货膨胀使得实际工资达到均衡水平，而不会出现名义工资减少的情况。
因此，温和的通货膨胀使劳动力市场运转得更好。
购买力平价定率：
两种定义:
定义1:商品的价格（调整币别后）在各个国家必定相同。
定义2:名义汇率会调整到所有国家一篮子商品的成本都相同。
理由:
套利 一价定律：同样的产品在同一时间在不同地方不能以不同的物价出售。——套利的存在
购买力平价理论表明两国间的名义汇率会等于两国的价格水平之比。
摩擦性失业frictional unemployment：劳动力正常流动，寻找工作需要时间引起的失业
即使在工资弹性和有足够的工作岗位的情况下，依然有摩擦失业存在
因为
工人有不同的技能与偏好
工作有不同的技能要求
工人的地域流动并非瞬间可以完成
找工作者与工作岗位之间的信息交流并不完善
不可能三角：一国不可能同时实现资本自由流动、 固定汇率和独立的货币政策。
菲利普斯曲线（Phillips curve）表明通货膨胀 取决于三种力量：
预期通货膨胀率（ expected inflation ）： e
周期性失业（cyclical unemployment）:
实际失业率与自然失业率之间的偏离
供给冲击（supply shocks）
牺牲率 度量为了降低一个百分点的通货膨胀率，（一年内的）实际GDP必须降低的比例。
奥肯定律是指来描述GDP变化和就业率变化之间存在的一种相当稳定的关系。这一定律认为，output GDP每增加1%，就业率大约上升0.5%，
货币中性(monetary neutrality): 货币数量变动不会影响实际产量水平
