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One of the significant issues with regard to any tax, and especially with regard to the overall tax system, is its degree of progressivity. The tax system in the United States is, overall, progressive, with people at the extreme lower end of the income distribution paying much less in taxes as a percentage of their incomes, and people at the extreme upper end paying much more, than average. For people who are not at the extremes of the income distribution, however, the tax system is roughly proportional. Income taxes are the most progressive taxes as a group, while sales and excise taxes are the most regressive, but the progressivity of income taxes more than offsets the regressivity of sales taxes.

With regard to both equity and efficiency issues, taxes are best considered within the context of the overall tax system. Some taxes, such as cigarette taxes, may be very regressive, yet they are a small part of the total tax payments of any group and therefore are not viewed as unfair because of their regressiveness. Similarly, the efficient tax treatment of dividends, capital gains, inheritances, and most kinds of property depends upon how related tax bases are treated throughout the tax system, so one cannot get a complete understanding of any individual tax without seeing how it works as a part of the entire system of taxes.

Ultimately, the tax structure is a product of the political system, so understanding the political forces involved in changing the tax laws goes a long way toward understanding the nature of the actual tax system, especially when the actual system seems to deviate from what appears to be fair and efficient. Special interests tend to have an undue influence over tax changes, as they do over legislation in general, with the result that if tax reform takes place on a piecemeal basis, the tax structure is likely to be increasingly riddled with special interest benefits that erode the tax base and make the tax code inefficient. More comprehensive tax reform has the chance of creating greater potential gains for the general public, which increases the likelihood that reform will take place in the general public interest rather than for the benefit of special interests. The federal tax reform of 1996 serves as a model in this regard.

Bibliography

1. Dr. Randall G. Holcombe. The Tax System in the United States. New York: Academic Press, 2000.

2. John Leslie Livingstone. The portable MBA in Finance and Accounting. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

E-resources:

1. www.aimr.org/knowledge

2. www.afajof.org

3. www.mrc.twsu.edu

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