Value-added Tax versus Social Security Contributions In order to alleviate unemployment it is often recommended to reduce social security contributions (SSC) and to compensate for the ensuing loss in revenues by a rise in the value-added tax (VAT). Assuming unemployment to be caused by efficiency wages, it is shown that a balanced-budget shift from a payroll tax to a VAT will increase employmen...

The human T-cell leukemia virus-encoded tax protein is a potent activator of many viral and cellular genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II. We find that both chromatin and cell extracts derived from human T-cell leukemia virus type 1-infected human T lymphocytes support higher levels of 5S rRNA and tRNA gene transcription than chromatin or extracts from uninfected T lymphocytes. The viral prot...

In a recent working paper, Plesko (1999) uses confidential tax return data to evaluate alternative measures of corporate average and marginal tax rates and concludes “The results suggest that commonly used measures of average tax rates provide little insight about annual corporate tax burdens, and may introduce substantial bias into statistical models. Marginal tax rate proxies perform better, ...

Most goods and services in Mexico are subject to a 16 percent value added tax (VAT). However, within 20 kilometers of the border with the United States, the VAT rate is 11 percent. This preferential rate was implemented by the Mexican Department of Revenue to reduce cross-border shopping in the United States. However, the tax differential also creates an unusual distortion within Mexico, encour...

Abstract—The reasons that explain different behaviors towards tax obligations in similar countries are not completely understood yet. The main purpose of this paper is to identify and compare the factors that influence tax morale levels in Portugal and Spain. We use data from European Values Study (EVS). Using a sample of 2,652 individuals, a factor analysis was used to extract the underlying d...