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Monitoring the OECD’s Campaign Against Tax Competition, Fiscal Sovereignty, and Financial Privacy: Strategies for Low-Tax Jurisdictions
The tide is now turning against high-tax nations – particularly as more people understand that ever-increasing fiscal burdens inevitably lead to Greek-style fiscal collapse. Political changes in the United States further complicate the OECD’s ability to impose bad policy. Because of these developments, low-tax jurisdictions should be especially resistant to new anti-tax competition initiatives at the Bermuda Global Forum.
An Update on the OECD’s Campaign Against Tax Competition, Fiscal Sovereignty, and Financial Privacy
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has an ongoing project to prop up Europe’s inefficient welfare states by attacking tax competition in hopes of enabling governments to impose heavier tax burdens. This project received a boost when the Obama Administration joined forces with countries such as France and Germany, but the tide is now turning against high-tax nations – particularly as more people understand that such an approach inevitably leads to Greek-style fiscal collapse.
Government-Run Health Care Means Higher Deficits and Debt: Realistic Assumptions Show 10-Year Deficits Easily Could Exceed $600 Billion
The proposals on Capitol Hill will make government more expensive and increase deficits. Government programs almost always cost more than the preliminary estimates, and projections for healthcare spending have been notoriously inaccurate. Moreover, tax increases will not collect as much revenue as politicians want because of “Laffer Curve” effects. Last but not least, the promised spending restraint is a farce. If congressional forecasts are modified to be more realistic, deficits and debt will climb by at least $600 billion – and perhaps more than $850 billion – over the next 10 years.
The Health Care Choice Act: Lowering Costs by Allowing Competition in the Individual Insurance Market
According to one estimate, freedom to purchase insurance policies issued in other states could save some families as much as 30 percent on their health policies. Unleashing the Constitution’s promise of unfettered interstate commerce is the most effective way of breaking up the inefficient oligopolies created by state politicians.
The Global Flat Tax Revolution: Lessons for Policy Makers
Atleast 24 nations have adopted some form of single-rate tax regime. These reforms have generated impressive results, including faster growth, more jobs, and increased competitiveness. While politicians generally are most concerned about losing tax revenue, they should not worry. Flat tax systems oftentimes generate higher tax revenues because of more income and better compliance.
Labour Supply and Marginal Tax Rates: A case study of Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America
The Prosperitas study by Bram de Bruin (Erasmus University, Rotterdam), originally prepared as a masters’ thesis and with assistance from the European Independent Institute (The Hague, The Netherlands) investigates the effect of labour income taxes on the supply of paid labour for several Western countries over the last two decades.
The Iceland Tax System: Key features and lessons for Policy Makers
Market-oriented tax policy has played a key role in Iceland’s rebirth. Major tax reforms include slashing the corporate tax rate from 50 percent to 18 percent, abolition of the wealth tax, a low-rate 10 percent flat tax on capital income, and an intermediate-rate 36 percent flat tax on labor income. These supply-side reforms, along with policies such as privatization and deregulation, have yielded predictable results. Incomes are rising, unemployment is almost nonexistent, and the government is collecting more revenue from a larger tax b
Making Section 911 Universal is Good Economic Policy and Good Tax Policy
America is one of the few nations to tax citizens who live and work abroad. Indeed, no other industrialized nation imposes a second layer of tax on its expatriates. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has introduced legislation, the Working American Competitiveness Act (S. 3496), to eliminate the worldwide reach of the IRS. By creating a territorial system for labor income, the DeMint legislation will put American workers and U.S.-based multinationals on a level playing field with competitors from other nations. This is a welcome move, particularly since American expatriates were just hit with a tax hike.
Territorial Taxation for Overseas Americans: Section 911 Should Be Unlimited, Not Curtailed
If policy makers created a level playing field by making Section 911 universal, more Americans could find jobs in the global economy, U.S. companies would become more internationally competitive, and U.S. exports would substantially increase.
Who Writes the Law: Congress or the IRS?
The Internal Revenue Service has proposed a regulation (133254-02) that would require U.S. financial institutions to report bank deposit interest paid to certain nonresident aliens. The IRS admits that the information is not needed to enforce U.S. tax law, and instead seeks to collect the information so it can be provided to the tax authorities of 15 specified nations. But since nonresident alien depositors easily can shift their funds to other jurisdictions if they wish to protect their privacy, the regulation has attracted considerable opposition. Critics fear the regulation would drive capital from the U.S. economy and undermine the competitiveness of American financial institutions.
