tax burden

[Picciotto, Sol]

I'm glad Mike Cohen finally made the point that data about tax burden are based
on declared income, and thus ignore the extent of both (illegal) evasion and
(?legal) avoidance of tax. This is a major issue, which the left ducks all too
often. Since deduction at source was introduced for employment income (I think
only during WW2), the burden falls much more directly on waged and salaried
people, while those who receive income from capital have far more opportunities
for tax 'planning'.  Largely due to this, high marginal tax rates became
nominal, and many countries have been forced into reducing them while trying
also to reduce tax breaks and opportunities for avoidance. As I understand it,
the US tax code is riddled with breaks, even after the attempt at reform in
1986?  Germany has been trying to introduce source taxation of bank interest
for some years, and each time there is a massive outflow of bank deposits to
Luxembourg.

cheers

sol

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Sol Picciotto
Department of Law
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YN, UK
phone: (44)(0)1524-592464 (direct line + voicemail)
fax:      (44)(0)1524-848137
s.picciotto at lancaster.ac.uk
web page http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/law/intlaw/index.htm

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