D) Dwell on the basic ideas about the desired features of a tax system, compare them with the four qualities Adam Smith thought desirable in taxation
'The four qualities most wanted in any system of taxation have been set down by Adam Smith. These are as follows:
1. The citizens of every country ought to help support their government as best they can in proportion to their abilities. That is, they should give in proportion to the income they enjoy under the protection of the state. 2. The tax each person is bound to pay ought to be certain, not arbitrary. The time, method, and amount of payment must be clear and plain. If not, all will be more or less at the mercy of the tax collector, who may then be willing to raise the tax or to threaten the same. An uncertain taxation can only promote corruption. Certainty, by contrast, is so important that even some degree of inequality is to be preferred to a very small amount of uncertainty. 3. Each tax ought to fall due at the time, or in the way, it is most fit for the subject to pay it. A tax on the rent of land or of houses can be paid at a regular term or when money is most apt to be at hand. Taxes on luxury goods, luxury taxes, can, of course, be paid at the time of sale. 4. Every tax ought to be so managed that it will take out - and keep out - of the pockets of the people as little as possible beyond what it brings in to the public treasury. Waste is less to be feared when the number of officers in the tax service is kept down; it is less likely when the tax does not offer a temptation to smuggling; and it is less when the people are not subject to the frequent visits of tax gatherers, or to the restrictive trade practices that create them. Of the four maxims, equality of taxation is least understood. Why should equality be the rule in tax matters? For the reason that it should be the rule in all state affairs. A government ought not to distinguish between persons or classes in the claims they have on it. What sacrifices the government requires from one of them should bear as heavily or as lightly on all. In this way, the least sacrifice will be felt by the whole. If any one bears less than his or her fair share of the burden, another must suffer more. The lightening of the one's share is not so great a good as the increased burden on the other is an evil. Equality of taxation, therefore, means equality of sacrifice. It means sharing what each person gives towards the costs of government so that no one will feel any more or less trouble than anyone else. This standard of perfection cannot, of course, be fully reached; but our first need is to know what perfection is.
Оглавление Предисловие. 3 Unit 1. WHAT ARE TAXES?. 4 Unit 2. PROGRESSIVE AND REGRESSIVE TAXES. 9 Unit 3. A HISTORY OF TAXATION. 12 Unit 4. THE TAX HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 16 Unit 5. THE HISTORY OF THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES 20 Unit 6. THE HISTORY OF THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES 25 Unit 7. THE HISTORY OF THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES 29 Unit 8. INCOME TAX.. 33 Unit 9. PERSONAL TAXATION IN THE UK.. 37 Unit 10. THE FLAT TAX.. 40 Unit 11. CORPORATE TAX IN GREAT BRITAIN.. 45 Unit 12. CORPORATE INCOME TAX.. 46 Unit 13. (CORPORATION) PROFIT TAX IN RUSSIA.. 46 Unit 14. THE VAT.. 46 Unit 15. THE VAT IN RUSSIA.. 46 Unit 16. THE EXCISE.. 46 Unit 17. TAXATION IN CANADA.. 46 Unit 18. TAXATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM... 46 Unit 19. TAXATION IN GERMANY.. 46 Unit 20. TAXATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.. 46 Unit 21. TAXAION IN THE USA.. 46 Unit 22. HOW TO AVOID AXATION IN THE USA.. 46 Unit 23. THE TAX CODE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATON.. 46 Unit 24. THE TAX AUTHORITIES OF THE RUSIAN FEDERATION.. 46 Unit 25. GENRAL PRINCIAPLES OF TAXATION.. 46
Составители: Мельничук Марина Владимировна, Дьяконова Станислава Аркадьевна, Варламова Алла Игоревна
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