BUOYANCY AND ELASTICITY: DETERMINANTS OF
LOCAL TAX SYSTEM’S PERFORMANCE
Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet-dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list—the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation.
Karl Marx
Every citizen, whether young or old, wealthy or poor, property owners or property-less, pays taxes to help finance governmental functions. Every business pays taxes, which almost certainly enter into the prices the consumers pay. The wages of the workers are withheld for income taxes. No one can avoid paying taxes.
Taxes have always been the traditional sources of government revenues. Recourse to taxation to finance the operational costs of government has been availed of by rulers of all times and climes from antiquity down to the present. It is what the government uses for community development.
Taken in this light, therefore, taxes are not mere contributions of the people to their governments, but represent the peoples' investments for their own welfare and future. Despite this, however, and the compulsory nature of taxes, many delinquent taxpayers manage to evade or avoid the payment of their taxes in one way or another. Tax evasion has become a serious societal problem. Too many people fail to pay their rightful tax. As a consequence, the government incurs huge deficit, and its delivery of basic services is tremendously affected.
With R.A. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991, providing greater degree of fiscal autonomy to local government units, a periodic evaluation of the performance of the prevailing local tax system from the perspective of resource mobilization is, therefore, an imperative task among local government units.
Estimation of Tax Buoyancy and Elasticity
An important point to consider in any tax system is the responsiveness of the tax revenue to changes in income. According to Mansfield (Majuca, 1998), this responsiveness is measured by the concepts of tax elasticity and tax buoyancy.
Tax buoyancy is a ratio of the percentage change in tax revenue to the percentage change in aggregate income with the revenue changes inclusive of the increment in revenue brought about by discretionary factors. Modifications in the statutory rates ...
... middle of paper ...
...mp;#61669;T1Y = (T1 / T1) / (Y/ Y)
= ((Ti / Ti) / (Bi / Bi)) . ((Bi / Bi) / (Y/ Y))
=  Ti Bi  Bi Y
 Ti Bi will be estimated econometrically by regressing tax receipts on tax base while BiY will be obtained by regressing tax base on aggregate income.
LITERATURE CITED
Manasan, Rosario G. “Survey and Review of Forecasting Models in Internal Government Revenues,” Philippine Institute for Development Studies, No. 81-13, March 1981.
Mansfield. "Elasticity and Buoyancy of a Tax System: A Method Applied to Paraguay", IMF Staff Papers, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1972.
Osoro and Leuthold. "Changing Tax Elasticities Over Time: The Case of Tanzania", African Development Review, Vol. 6, No.1, June 1994.
Trinidad, Emmanuel and Perio Sylvia de, “Buoyancy and Elasticity of Revenue,” Journal of Philippine Development, Vol. VIII, Nos. 1 and 2, 1981.
http.//www.students.uiuc.edu/~majuca/buoyancy.html
http.//www.students.uiuc.edu/~majuca/growth.html
Our current system of taxation is a varied rate percentage based on different income brackets. Many say that it violates our constitutional rights through unequal taxation. Multiple deductions, loopholes, special rates, and a complex system of regulations all characterize our Federal Income Tax System, prompting many to question why it is still being used (Peters, 2013). The current system although bringing in over $3 trillion, taxes income multiple times, and includes the taxing of estate, labor, savings, and investments (National Priorities Project, 2013). The system itself is complex with over 20,000 pages of regulations, requiring a massive filing system, which is set up and maintained by an even larger IRS, requiring over $225 billion in compliance costs (Hall, 2001). One can be hard pressed to find an advantage in the current system, other than the fact that it provides the government with an enormous amount of funds, and it has...
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Taxation has always been a major controversy. Just like any major corporation, the government is constantly looking to raise revenue. The easiest and fairest way to do this is by taxing the people. However, how the people will be taxed is always an issue.
The government use of taxes plays a crucial role in today’s economy as well as personal finances, it has and will continue to leave its mark on the world we live in.
Gurría, Angel. "Improve tax fairness and help the developing world." OCED. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 24/04/2009. Web. 9 Oct 2011. .
Every citizen has some taxing obligations and that is given. Taxes are plain required by the state in order to help raise funds for purposes directed to the wellness of the general public. However, there might be some instances where you just can't pay your entire taxing obligation due to a number of occurrences resulting to severe financial constraints. Ergo, you end up having a huge sum of debt to pay to the government.
The four types of taxes this paper will discuss are income tax, sales tax, property tax, and user fees. Income tax was not permanently established until the 16th Amendment was passed in 1913. Most federal taxes had been previously derived from excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol and other consumer goods. The US Constitution, when written and still continues to, legitimize taxation in the United States through Article I, Section 8, that Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, duties et al, pay the debts or provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States (Cornell Law LII). Investopedia defines income tax as ‘a tax government(s) impose on financial income generated by all entities within their jurisdictions (Investopedia, 2014). Businesses and individuals are required to file an income tax return every year to determine if they owe taxes or qualify for a refund. That is determined by measuring the total income one earns to a designated tax rate, calculating one’s taxable income, which are some or all items of income reduced by other adjustments or expenses in that tax year. There are different subcategories of income tax; there is a federal income tax that is set by the federal government, apart from a few states, there is a state income tax that is imposed on their respective residents, as well as the possibility of there being local income tax ...
Ministry Of Finance. 2013. White Paper on Tax Reform to Secure Adequate Revenues for the Future Bahamas.
Entin, Stephen. J. (2004). Tax Incidence, Tax Burden, and Tax Shifting: Who really pays the tax? Retrieved January 24, 2008 from http://www.heritage.org/research/taxes/cda04-12.cfm
Taxation is a compulsory levy imposed on the income, value of goods and services of individuals, partners and companies by the government. It is can be said to be an approach of imposing tax on the citizen. This imposition of tax, is expected to yield income which should be utilized in the provision of both basic and substantial infrastructural amenities, both social and security, as well as creates conditions for the economic well-being of the society at large.
Lehan, Edward A., Simplified Governmental Budgeting. Chicago: Municipal Finance Officers Association of the US and Canada, 1981.
Fiscal Affairs Department of IMF in 2009 declared that a statement of the main central government tax expenditures should be required as part of the budget or related fiscal documentation, indicating the public policy purpose of each provision, its duration, and the intended beneficiaries. In addition, there is an area of the budget that routinely escapes rigorous inspection. This is the large allocation of state resources through the use of tax expenditures which reduce the taxes that might otherwise be collected. The tax expenditure report supplements the annual or biennial budget document (Benker, 1986).