Tax System and Its Principles

Need for Tax System

“Government cannot function without levying taxes on citizens. The principal purpose of taxation is to finance public expenditure. Taxation constitutes an involuntary saving by taxpayers which is diverted to government for use in resource allocation”. (Michael Howard)

Taxation is a system used by the government to collect taxes from people and businesses and tax liability is based on their income, assets, or transaction values. The most important purpose of taxation is to raise revenue for the government. Government raises tax money for performing various activities such as:

• Financing government spending (most important purpose),
• Demand management during inflationary or recessionary conditions in the economy by increasing or reducing taxes, respectively,
• Redistributing income through a progressive, regressive or proportional taxation system, and
• Correcting market failures to produce the socially optimum level of output.

It is clear that a government uses the tax system to fulfill its obligations and achieve some pre-determined objectives. Hence, a need arises to evaluate whether government remain successful in its purpose or not. In other words, it is important to evaluate whether the tax system results in achievement of desired objectives or not for the government.

Principles of Taxation

In this context, there are various principles of taxation which are meant to guide a government in designing and implementing a taxation regime in the light of its objectives and obligations. These are as follows:

1. Adequacy: taxes should be just-enough to generate revenue required for provision of essential public services.
2. Broad Basing: taxes should be spread over as wide as possible section of the population, or sectors of economy, to minimize the individual tax burden.
3. Compatibility: taxes should be coordinated to ensure tax neutrality and overall objectives of good governance.
4. Convenience: taxes should be enforced in a manner that facilitates voluntary compliance to the maximum extent possible.
5. Earmarking: tax revenue from a specific source should be dedicated to a specific purpose only when there is a direct cost-and-benefit link between the tax source and the expenditure, such as use of motor fuel tax for road maintenance.
6. Efficiency: tax collection efforts should not cost an inordinately high percentage of tax revenues.
7. Equity: taxes should equally burden all individuals or entities in similar economic circumstances.
8. Neutrality: taxes should not favor any one group or sector over another, and should not be designed to interfere-with or influence individual decisions-making.
9. Predictability: collection of taxes should reinforce their inevitability and regularity.
10. Restricted Exemptions: tax exemptions must only be for specific purposes (such as to encourage investment) and for a limited period.
11. Simplicity: tax assessment and determination should be easy to understand by an average taxpayer.

Out of these principles, the equity and efficiency principles are very important. These are discussed below in detail.

Read More in: Theory of Public Finance

1. Public Finance: Meaning, Nature & Scope
2. Role of Government in Economy
3. Role of Government in Mixed Economy: Public & Private Sector
4. Role of Government under Cooperation and Competition
5. Role of Government in Economic Development and Planning
6. Concept of Public Goods, Private Goods, and Merit Goods
7. Concept of Market Failure and Functions of Government
8. Market Failure and Functions of Government: Decreasing Costs
9. Market Failure and Functions of Government: Externalities
10. Market Failure and Functions of Government: Public Goods
11. Future Market: Meaning, Role & Uncertainty
12. Concept of Information Asymmetry
13. Theory of Second Best: Concept & Explanation
14. Problem of Allocation of Resources: Public & Private Mechanisms
15. Preferences: Meaning, Types & Problems of Preference Revelation
16. Preference Aggregation & Its Mechanism
17. Voting Systems, Direct Democracy, Representative Democracy, Leviathan Hypothesis & Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
18. Economic Theory of Democracy: Concept & Explanation
19. Politico Eco Bureaucracy: Concept & Explanation
20. Rent-Seeking and Directly Unproductive Profit-Seeking Activities
21. Rationale for Public Goods: Concept & Explanation
22. Benefit Theory or Voluntary Exchange Theory
23. Lindahl Model: Concept, Equilibrium & Limitations
24. Bowen Model: Concept, Advantages & Limitations
25. Samuelson’s Model of Public Expenditure
26. Musgrave’s Model of Public Expenditures
27. Demand Revealing Schemes for Public Goods
28. Vickery-Clarke-Groves Mechanism
29. Groves-Ledyard Mechanism
30. Tiebout Model: Concept, Assumptions Equilibrium & Simple Tiebout Model
31. Theory of Club Goods
32. Keynesian Principles of Stabilization Policy
33. Difference Between Keynesian Economic Thought and Others
34. Role of Expectations and Uncertainty in Formulating Stabilization Policy
35. Intertemporal Markets Efficiency & Failure
36. Liquidity Preference Theory
37. Diamond-Dybvig Banking Model
38. Preference Shocks, Adverse Selection & Central Bank
39. Equilibrium Deposit Contract
40. Social Goods and Its Effect on Stabilization Policy
41. Effect of Infrastructural Facilities on Stabilization Policy
42. Effect of Distributional Inequality on Stabilization Policy
43. Effect of Regional Imbalances on Stabilization Policy
44. Wagner’s Law of Increasing State Activities: Explanation, Graph & Criticism
45. Peacock-Wiseman Hypothesis: Explanation, Graph & Criticism
46. Public Expenditure: Concept, Objectives, & Public vs Private Expenditure
47. Pure Theory of Public Expenditure
48. Structure & Growth of Public Expenditure in India
49. Trends, Lessons & Priorities in Public Expenditure in India
50. Social Cost-Benefit Analysis: Project Evaluation, Estimation of Costs & Discount Rate
51. Performance Based Budgeting and Zero Based Budgeting
52. Theories of Tax Incidence: Concentration Theory, Diffusion Theory & Modern Theory
53. Tax System and Its Principles
54. Equity Principle and Efficiency Principle of Taxation: Meaning, Explanation & Examples
55. Ability to Pay and Benefits Received Principle of Taxation
56. Theory of Optimal Taxation: Excess Burden & Distortions of Taxation
57. Deadweight Loss of Taxation: Causes, Measurement & Example
58. Concept of Equity & Efficiency in Economics
59. Trade-Off Between Equity and Efficiency: Meaning & Example
60. Theory of Measurement of Dead Weight Loss
61. Double Taxation: Meaning, Desirability, Forms & Solution
62. Solution to Problem of Double Taxation: Intra-Country & International
63. Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and Indian Policy
64. Classical View on Public Debt
65. Compensatory Aspect of Public Debt Policy
66. Public Debt or Borrowings: Concept, Need, Sources & Types
67. Concept of Public Debt or Public Borrowings
68. Need for Public Debt or Public Borrowing
69. Sources of Public Debt
70. Classification of Public Debt
71. Burden of Public Debt: Meaning, Types & Explanation
72. Debt Through Created Money or Deficit Financing
73. Public Debt (Public Borrowings) and Inflation (Price Level)
74. Crowding Out of Private Investment and Activity
75. Principle of Public Debt Management and Debt Repayment