Taxation

Taxation is a system that the government uses to collect taxes from people and businesses, based on their income, assets, or transaction values. The primary purpose of taxation is to raise revenue for the government, although the government does use taxes to promote beneficial activities, such as starting a business or getting an education, or to limit undesirable behavior, such as smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages.

Taxpayers do not like to take the time and effort to comply with the tax code nor do they want to pay taxes. To palliate the effects of taxation on the people, tax policy at least nominally strives to achieve 2 objectives: efficiency and equity.

Tax Efficiency

Tax efficiency minimizes the cost of complying with the tax code by reducing its administrative burden and by minimizing any distortions in the economy caused by the tax.

Reducing the administrative burden not only benefits the taxpayers but also the economy since tax collection is not an objective of tax policy, but simply a requirement. Although tax accountants and lawyers help people to comply with the tax code and reduce their taxes, their work has no true economic worth since the need for their help could be eliminated by simplifying the tax code and facilitating the filing of taxes.

Besides trying to promote or limit certain activities, much of the complexity of the tax code results from Congress giving preferential treatment to particular groups, especially the wealthy and businesses. This preferential treatment is provided not only in the way that the tax is basically structured, but also in the form of tax loopholes, which allows taxpayers to take advantage of weaknesses in how the laws are actually worded to circumvent them, thus lowering their taxes in a way that Congress did not intend.

Loopholes exist partly because of the complexity of the tax code, but, often, they are inserted intentionally so that the wealthy can use their lawyers to take advantage of them. For instance, there are many obvious loopholes in the taxing of gratuitous transfers that the wealthy take advantage of year after year. Indeed, a large body of law has developed allowing the wealthy to transfer their wealth at a far lesser tax rate than what is assessed on working income — in many cases, they can transfer their wealth entirely tax-free.

Another objective of tax policy that is little heeded is that deadweight losses should be minimized. Although the cost of complying with the tax code does generate some deadweight losses, most deadweight losses are incurred by the actual tax itself, especially when it is assessed on working income.

Another often stated objective of tax policy is that taxes should not distort economic decisions, when people decide to do something differently because of the tax. For instance, high taxes on working income discourage work because it raises the price of labor for employers and decreases the disposable income for workers. That higher prices reduces demand and lower prices decreases supply is a well-established economic principle, yet working income is taxed more than investment income or gratuitous transfers. There is no economic distortion from taxes on gratuitous transfers, because everyone dies eventually, regardless of any tax. Furthermore, there is no deadweight loss from gratuitous transfer taxes. Nonetheless, preferential treatment is given to gratuitous transfers because it benefits the wealthy.

Taxation Equity

Taxation equity is the principle that taxes should be fair. However, there are several criteria for determining what is fair. The benefits principle states that people should pay taxes based on the benefits that they receive from government services. For instance, excise taxes on gasoline are used to build roads and bridges. However, taxes on income and investments are based on the ability to pay.

The ability-to-pay principle can be classified as vertical equity and horizontal equity. Vertical equity is the principle that people with higher incomes should pay more taxes, such as the provision for the increasing marginal tax rates on higher income. Horizontal equity is the principle that people with higher necessary expenses should pay less tax than someone else with equal income but without the expenses. A common application of this principle is the provision for the numerous deductions and tax credits available for people who have children, allowing them to pay less tax for a given level of income.

Another general principle that would make taxation more equitable is to consider the marginal utility of money. Like with everything else, the marginal utility of money declines with increasing amounts. Each successive dollar of income holds less value than the previous dollar for the holder. This is because when people have less money, they need to spend it on essential goods and services, such as food, clothing, and health insurance. On the other hand, wealthy people have much more money than what they need for essential goods and services, so they can invest it to make even more money or pass it to their descendents. Extremely wealthy people have so much money that they pay record prices for art, such as the recent payment of $106.5 million for a painting that took Picasso only one day to paint. So when considering the marginal utility of money, a poor person paying 25% of his income for taxes is paying a much more valuable portion of his income than a wealthy person paying the same percentage of her income.

Tax Efficiency and Equity in the United States

Generally, it is widely held that the wealthy should pay more taxes, not only a greater absolute amount, but also a greater percentage, based on the benefits principle, the ability-to-pay principle, and the marginal utility principle. The benefits principle applies because the wealthy profit more from police and fire protection, the court system, and national defense, since they have more to protect. Indeed, the Republicans, who are the major party for the wealthy in the United States, fully supports the military and opposes any cuts in their apportionment of tax revenue, even though many seriously question the need for such a large military. On the other hand, the Republicans want to reduce or eliminate payments to poor people or the middle class so that the wealthy can pay less tax.

Based on the ability-to-pay principle, the wealthy should obviously pay a greater percentage of their income. However, the strongest argument for why the wealthy should pay more is that the marginal utility of their money has much less value for them than it does for the working class. When millions of people in the United States are unemployed and can't afford healthcare, it is outrageous to see so many wealthy people pay record prices for paintings and other artifacts that have little real value.

The reason for this obvious inequity is that working income is taxed the most, while investment income is taxed considerably less, and gratuitous transfers are taxed the least, if they are even taxed at all. On working income, there is an increasing marginal tax rate and a payroll tax. While the increasing marginal tax rate seems to put more of the burden on the wealthy, the Social Security tax is applied only to income at or below $106,800 (adjusted for inflation), thus flattening the tax structure. No payroll taxes are applied to investment income, and much of that income, is subject to the top tax rate of only 15%, which is less than what a self-employed single person with no dependents who makes a mere $13,400 pays in payroll taxes! And payroll taxes certainly don't apply to gratuitous transfers. Furthermore, there is a $5 million tax exemption for gratuitous transfers from each person. Thus, a married couple can give $10 million to their descendents tax-free, while the exemption for working income is zero.

The Republicans have advocated, for years, a flat tax as something that is more efficient and equitable. However, their version of the flat tax applies only to working income and does not incorporate the payroll tax, which means that it is little different from the current status quo.

However, an increasing marginal flat tax, with few deductions or credits, that applies to all income — whether it be working, investment, or inherited income — and that subsumes all other taxes on income, especially the payroll taxes, would be both efficient and equitable. However, I have never seen this type of flat tax proposed, and considering how much influence the wealthy have on members of Congress and other government officials, and considering that most members of Congress are also wealthy in their own right, it is highly unlikely that this flat tax will ever become law — unless the people demand it.