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The Excess Burden of Taxation and Why it (Approximately) Quadruples When the Tax Rate Doubles

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Abstract

The 'excess burden' of taxation represents an efficiency loss which must be compared with any perceived gains arising either from income redistribution or the non-transfer expenditure carried out by the government. An important property is that, under certain assumptions, it increases disproportionately with the tax rate. This result provides the basis of a general presumption in favour of a broad-based and low tax rate system: any exemptions which reduce the tax base inevitably raise the tax rate required to obtain anunchanged amount of total tax revenue. The aims of this paper are to provide a nontechnical explanation of the concepts of welfare change and excess burden used in the public finance literature, and to demonstrate the result that an approximation to thisburden depends on the square of the tax rate.

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  • John Creedy, 2003. "The Excess Burden of Taxation and Why it (Approximately) Quadruples When the Tax Rate Doubles," Treasury Working Paper Series 03/29, New Zealand Treasury.
    • Handle: RePEc:nzt:nztwps:03/29
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    File URL: https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2007-10/twp03-29.pdf
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    5. Auerbach, Alan J., 1985. "The theory of excess burden and optimal taxation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 61-127, Elsevier.
    6. John Creedy, 1998. "Measuring Welfare Changes and Tax Burdens," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1579.
    7. Auerbach, Alan J. & Hines, James Jr., 2002. "Taxation and economic efficiency," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 21, pages 1347-1421, Elsevier.
    8. King, Mervyn A., 1983. "Welfare analysis of tax reforms using household data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 183-214, July.
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    1. Helmut M. Dietl & Markus Lang & Stephan Werner, 2009. "Social Welfare in Sports Leagues with Profit‐Maximizing and/or Win‐Maximizing Clubs," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(2), pages 375-396, October.
    2. Henry Ergas & Jonathan Pincus, 2014. "Have Mining Royalties Been Beneficial to Australia?," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 33(1), pages 13-28, March.
    3. Felicity C Barker & Robert A Buckle & Robert W St Clair, 2008. "Roles of Fiscal Policy in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 08/02, New Zealand Treasury.
    4. Tol, Richard S.J., 2023. "The fiscal implications of stringent climate policy," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 495-504.
    5. John Creedy, 2004. "The Effects on New Zealand Households of an Increase in The Petrol Excise Tax," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/01, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Jason Nassios & James Giesecke, 2022. "Inefficient at Any Level: A Comparative Efficiency Argument for Complete Elimination of Property Transfer Duties and Insurance Taxes," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-337, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    7. Michael Littlewood, 2010. "Pre-funding a government's future financial obligations - the New Zealand Superannuation case study," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 91-111.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Taxation; excess burden; equivalent variation; compensating variation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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