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The Pitfalls of International Integration: A Comment on the Bush Proposal and Its Aftermath

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Author Info
Reuven Avi-Yonah (University of Michigan)
Abstract

In January 2003, the Bus Administration proposed a new system for taxing corporate dividends, under which domestic shareholders in U.S. corporations would not be taxed on dividends they received, provided the corporation distributed these dividends out of after-tax earnings (the "Bush Proposal"). The Bush Proposal was introduced in Congress in February 27,2003. Ultimately, however, Congress balked at enacting full-fledged dividend exemption. Instead, in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 ("JGTRRA") as enacted on May 28, 2003, a lower rate of 15% was adopted for dividends paid by domestic and certain foreign corporations, and the capital gains rate was likewise reduced to 15%. Significantly, and in stark contrast to the original Bush proposal, under JGTRRA the lower ate for dividends and capital gains does not depend on any tax being paid at the corporate level. This comment will focus primarily on the international aspects of both the Bush Proposal and JGTRRA. I will not lay out the proposal or the law in any detail. Instead, I will ask whether either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA make sense from an economic efficiency perspective when the international implications are taken into account. I will leave to others the question of whether either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA are sensible ways to stimulate the economy (for discussion for the effect of the 2001 tax cuts see Shapiro and Slemrod, 2001,2002). I will also omit ay discussion of the distributive effects of either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA, which have been extensively discussed elsewhere (e.g. Tax Policy Center, 2003; Burman, Gale and Orszag, 2003

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Paper provided by University of Michigan John M. Olin Center for Law & Economics in its series University of Michigan John M. Olin Center for Law & Economics Working Paper Series with number umichlwps-1007.

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  4. Gravelle, Jane G & Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1989. "The Incidence and Efficiency Costs of Corporate Taxation When Corporate and Noncorporate Firms Produce the Same Good," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 749-80, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1973. "Taxation, corporate financial policy, and the cost of capital," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-34, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Clemens Fuest & Bernd Huber, 2000. "The Optimal Taxation of Dividends in a Small Open Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Austan Goolsbee, 2002. "The Impact and Inefficiency of the Corporate Income Tax: Evidence from State Organizational Form Data," NBER Working Papers 9141, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Arnold C. Harberger, 1962. "The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70, pages 215. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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