IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/prg/jnlpol/v2012y2012i5id868p649-667.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Progresivní nebo "rovná" daň - ekonomické i politické dilema
[Progressive or "Flat" Tax - Economic and Political Dilemma]

Author

Listed:
  • Beáta Blechová

Abstract

There are currently held tough discussions among economists and policy makers on the most appropriate form of taxation that would be fair, simple, enough incentive to wage work and entrepreneurship and withal also providing sufficient revenue for the state to fund the services provided to citizens. In this debate two opposing views on the basic form of this system stand against each other, namely, whether it should tax the income in a progressive manner, as is the case with tax systems applied today in most countries, or in a proportional manner, which has been introduced in a limited extent in several countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. This article provides a brief description of the basic characteristics of both these approaches and summarizes the main arguments presented by their proponents and opponents. The next section describes the different variants of a proportional system, also known as a flat tax system, some of which currently exist only in the yet unrealized proposals, and in the end, then compare their pros and cons.

Suggested Citation

  • Beáta Blechová, 2012. "Progresivní nebo "rovná" daň - ekonomické i politické dilema [Progressive or "Flat" Tax - Economic and Political Dilemma]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(5), pages 649-667.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpol:v:2012:y:2012:i:5:id:868:p:649-667
    DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.868
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://polek.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.polek.868.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://polek.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.polek.868.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18267/j.polek.868?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. European Commission, 2013. "Taxation trends in the European Union: 2013 edition," Taxation trends 2013, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    3. Tuomala, Matti, 1990. "Optimal Income Tax and Redistribution," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198286059, Decembrie.
    4. Emmanuel Saez, 2002. "Optimal Income Transfer Programs: Intensive versus Extensive Labor Supply Responses," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 1039-1073.
    5. Robert P. Hagemann & Brian R. Jones & Robert Bruce Montador, 1987. "Tax Reform in OECD Countries: Economic Rationale and Consequences," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 40, OECD Publishing.
    6. Smart, Michael, 1999. "A simple proof of the efficiency of the poll tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 459-465, March.
    7. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blumkin, Tomer & Sadka, Efraim & Shem-Tov, Yotam, 2011. "Labor Migration and the Case for Flat Tax," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275759, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Ugo Colombino & Nizamul Islam, 2021. "Combining microsimulation and optimization to identify optimal universalistic tax-transfer rule," LISER Working Paper Series 2021-06, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    3. François Bourguignon & Amedeo Spadaro, 2012. "Tax–benefit revealed social preferences," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(1), pages 75-108, March.
    4. Mathias Hungerbühler & Etienne Lehmann & Alexis Parmentier & Bruno Van Der Linden, 2006. "Optimal Redistributive Taxation in a Search Equilibrium Model," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(3), pages 743-767.
    5. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2012. "Optimal Labor Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 18521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Normann Lorenz & Dominik Sachs, 2011. "Optimal Nonlinear Taxation, Minimum Hours, and the Earned Income Tax Credit," Research Papers in Economics 2011-11, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    7. Roland Iwan Luttens & Erwin Ooghe, 2007. "Is it Fair to ‘Make Work Pay’?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 599-626, November.
    8. Louis Kaplow, 2007. "Optimal income transfers," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(3), pages 295-325, June.
    9. Robin Boadway & Motohiro Sato, 2015. "Optimal Income Taxation with Risky Earnings: A Synthesis," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(6), pages 773-801, December.
    10. Tomer Blumkin & Efraim Sadka & Yotam Shem-Tov, 2015. "International tax competition: zero tax rate at the top re-established," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(5), pages 760-776, October.
    11. Robin Boadway & Zhen Song & Jean‐François Tremblay, 2017. "Optimal Income Taxation and Job Choice," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(4), pages 910-938, October.
    12. Vincenzo Prete & Alessandro Sommacal & Claudio Zoli, 2016. "Optimal Non-Welfarist Income Taxation for Inequality and Polarization Reduction," Working Papers 23/2016, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    13. Alari Paulus, 2016. "The antipoverty performance of universal and means-tested benefits with costly take-up," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/12, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    14. Homburg Stefan & Lohse Tim, 2005. "Optimal Taxes and Transfers under Partial Information," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 225(6), pages 622-629, December.
    15. Li, Jinlu & Lin, Shuanglin, 2016. "Optimal income taxation with discrete skill distribution," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 58-70.
    16. Gruber, Jon & Saez, Emmanuel, 2002. "The elasticity of taxable income: evidence and implications," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-32, April.
    17. Rolf Aaberge & Ugo Colombino, 2014. "Labour Supply Models," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Handbook of Microsimulation Modelling, volume 127, pages 167-221, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    18. Mathias, HUNGERBUEHLER, 2004. "The impact of Union Power on the Optimal Income Tax Schedule," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2004034, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    19. Ruud de Mooij, 2007. "Reinventing the Dutch tax-benefit system; exploring the frontier of the equity-efficiency trade-off," CPB Discussion Paper 88, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    20. LUTTENS, Roland Iwan & OOGHE, Erwin, 2006. "Is it fair to ‘make work pay’ ?," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2006026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    progressive tax; proportional tax; flat tax; tax fairness; tax graduation; tax base; tax allowance; distribution of tax burden;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpol:v:2012:y:2012:i:5:id:868:p:649-667. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stanislav Vojir (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/uevsecz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.