And, because it is difficult to tax capital efficiently, Europe has imposed exorbitant levies on labor.

Europe favors them by bumping them to the head of waiting lists and giving tax breaks to capital.

To encourage domestic investment, and recognizing that it is difficult to tax assets held abroad, an exit tax could also be imposed on capital taken out of the country.

To encourage domestic investment, and recognizing that it is difficult to tax assets held abroad, an exit tax could also be imposed on capital taken out of the country.

But the cause of Russia s so called capital flight is a poor bank system and its dysfunctional tax system.

With evidence of sudden capital outflows in response to certain tax policy changes, governments are reluctant to raise income tax rates which have fallen sharply since the late 1970 s or to tax dividend and interest income, for fear of capital flight. But, as direct tax concessions have little or no effect in diverting international investment, let alone in attracting such flows, they constitute an unnecessary loss of revenue.

For example, capital mobility increases opportunities for tax evasion, given that tax authorities capacity to monitor their citizens overseas incomes is limited, and some governments and financial institutions systematically conceal relevant information.

Tax reform.

Tax reform

It started on tax reform a 'flat' income tax, a single regressive social tax, a ban on the turnover tax, etc.

The key is to reflect on six kinds of capital goods business capital, infrastructure, human capital, intellectual capital, natural capital, and social capital.

Creating a fairer and more efficient tax system, by eliminating the special treatment of capital gains and dividends, is also needed.

The idea of increasing the low (12.5 ) withholding tax on capital gains met with accusations that Prodi intends to expropriate wealth.

With a lower capital stock, output would trend downward, reducing government revenues and substantially offsetting the direct gain from the tax.

Poor regions have a low base of economic activity to tax, which prevents them from investing in human and physical capital.

Poor regions have a low base of economic activity to tax, which prevents them from investing in human and physical capital.

With a lower capital stock, output would trend downward, reducing government revenues and substantially offsetting the direct gain from the tax.

All for One Tax and One Tax for All?

Unfortunately, any country that taxes capital too aggressively will only succeed in chasing it to regions where the tax burden is lighter.

According to conventional wisdom, the corporate tax burden is borne principally by the owners of capital in the form of lower returns.

A tax called a death tax is regarded very differently from a tax called an inheritance tax, even though the two are really identical.

There's a fine line between tax minimisation and tax avoidance.

There's a fine line between tax minimization and tax avoidance.

An Inequality Tax

Evading Tax Evasion

Tax Justice Reconsidered

Tax the Oligarchs

Half of tax revenue is collected with a value added tax, which is essentially a tax on consumption.

Russia could impose an excess capital gains tax, analogous in spirit to the tax imposed on US oil companies when their profits soared, through no effort of their own, from high oil prices in the 1970's.

As long as Britain was a haven of political stability and tax policies favorable to foreign investors, it had no problem attracting capital inflows.

That is in addition to explicit tax hikes on income, capital gains, and dividends, the implicit ones on energy via cap and trade, etc.

Tax competition means that capital may go not to where its social return is highest, but to where it can find the best deal.

The tax inspectorate has changed the procedure for sending tax assessment notices.

Japan s Tax Hike Test

Tax and spend (Please)

The Corporate Tax Conundrum

The price includes tax.

This amount includes tax.

Please pay the tax.

Capital Shrugged

Damming Capital

Capital flight

In a world of mobile capital, corporate tax rates matter, and business decisions about how and where to invest are increasingly sensitive to national differences.

The extra tax that US firms pay if they repatriate profits raises their cost of capital, thus reducing their ability to compete in international markets.

Fiscal tightening will escalate in 2012 and 2013, contributing to a slowdown, as will the expiration of tax benefits that boosted capital spending in 2011.