虚开增值税专用发票罪认定中的几个疑难问题

虚开增值税专用发票罪,在司法实践中存在比较大的争议:一是多人分别实施虚开与骗税行为如何适用刑法第二百零五条第二款;二是虚开数额的认定;三是虚开增值税专用发票罪与其他相关犯罪的竞合问题;四是单位和自然人构成虚开增值税专用发票罪的认定。     

Do Industrial Tax Abatements Spur Property Value Growth?

Despite ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of tax abatements, Michigan's Industrial Facilities Tax (IFT) abatement program has been widely and extensively used to boost local economic development. In this article, we estimate the effects of industrial property tax abatements on industrial, residential, and commercial property value growth in the context of regional competition for a panel of 152 communities in the five counties surrounding Detroit from 1983 through 2002. We find that: (1) offering tax abatements yields statistically significant positive impacts on industrial property value growth; (2) the impacts are larger in high tax than in low tax communities; (3) there are positive spillover effects of industrial tax abatements on residential and commercial property value growth; (4) tax abatements offered in competitor communities do not appear to influence own industrial property value growth; and (5) changes in the own as well as competitor property tax rates are important determinants of industrial property value growth. However, the fiscal benefits of tax abatements are quite small as compared with the costs of offering abatements even when spillover benefits to residential and commercial properties are considered.     

The low‐income housing tax credit as an aid to housing finance: How well has it worked?

Abstract

The Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit program has been operating for over 10 years and has helped finance thousands of developments with units set aside for low‐ or moderate‐income households. However, the program has been criticized for requiring additional layers of subsidy to leverage investment and for providing benefits to developers in excess of the amount necessary to induce them to invest.

An analysis of a sample of developments from Missouri finds that the tax credits are syndicated, with virtually all of the syndication proceeds (about 33 percent of the financing) used to pay for development costs. Conventional lending provides another 44 percent of the financing. Unfortunately, because these sources do not cover all of the costs, developers enter into a complex, costly process of layering additional subsidies, one on top of another, to fully finance the development.     

Comment on Michael A. Stegman,Walter R. Davis,and Roberto Quercia's “The Earned Income Tax Credit as an instrument of housing policy”

Abstract

The article by Stegman, Davis, and Quercia is a careful, comprehensive analysis of the current impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on the housing cost burdens of working families. Its major proposal, a graduated supplement to the EITC to reflect housing costs, is compared with my broader concept of addressing severe cost burdens through supplements to major income support programs. Criticisms of my concept, chiefly administrative difficulties and incompatibility with the EITC benefit structure, are discussed.

My primary concerns are that Stegman, Davis, and Quercia's proposal does not sufficiently target families with severe housing costs and that the formula for calculating the additional benefit does not reflect diverse housing costs throughout the country and provides the smallest increases to the recipients with the lowest incomes. However, it is more important to generate discussion of the reality that “income policy IS housing policy” than to argue about details.     

Expanding the R&;E tax credit to drive innovation,competitiveness and prosperity

The research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit has long been the subject of criticism. Some argue that if the goal is more research and innovation, it’s better to increase direct federal funding of research. Others argue that the credit is not effective, that companies would do the research in any case. Some object the very notion of using tax policy to influence private sector behavior, preferring instead a more “neutral” tax code. Still others, including Tassey in this volume, point to what they see are a host of design flaws in the current credit, including that its incremental nature reduces its effectiveness. I will argue here that most of these arguments are mistaken. To promote innovation in a global economy both direct funding and indirect tax incentives are needed. The credit, while it can be improved, has been shown to be effective in stimulating research. Moreover, far from distorting the market, the credit corrects for a market failure where firms are unable to capture all of the benefits of corporate research, leading them to under invest in research. Finally, while reform and expansion are needed, it would be a mistake to shift to a completely flat credit. However, several important changes should be made including doubling the current value of the credit, modifying the Alternative Simplified Credit to become incremental, and expanding the flat credit for collaborative R&D.

Technological innovation within the Spanish tax administration and data subjects' right to access: An opportunity knocks

In this paper, we analyse the data subjects' right to access their personal data in the context of the Spanish Tax Administration and the legal consequences of the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation. The results show that there are still difficulties related to the scope of this right, the establishment of proper storage criteria, and in the procedures used by the data controllers to provide accurate information to the data subjects. This situation highlights the necessity to incorporate such technological innovation as metadata labelling and automatic computerised procedures to ensure an optimum management of the data subjects' access to their tax related personal information.     

An economic rationale for firing whistleblowers

Organization members disclosing their superiors’ violations of duty are characterized by high ethical standards and, surprisingly often, fired for blowing the whistle. This paper provides an economic rationale for firing whistleblowers in a model where only the “ethical” type of agent can internally report the manager’s violation of duty. Revelation of an ethical type in the organization increases the perceived future probability of detecting and punishing the manager. Replacing the ethical type by an agent of unknown type restores this probability to its initial level, and this is optimal in organizations in which the standard of proof in establishing the manager’s violation of duty is low.

东亚储备库的成员收益、动力及监督机制:问题及对策

东亚储备库的实质是CMI的多边化。CMI多边化之后,部分成员可获得的贷款额度小于CMI时期。东亚储备库的收益在成员间的配置是不对称的,储备水平较高的经济体并不能从区域储备库中获益。从区域合作主导权的配置看,中、日两国没有获得有效激励。由于东亚各成员间的金融联系弱于各成员与区外的金融联系,东亚储备库缺乏对某一成员的危机做出快速反应的动力机制。东亚区域经济监督机制的建设必须进一步加强,使之成为一个有效且可信的系统。东亚储备库要成为一个更为稳定、有效且运行顺畅的区域合作机制,还需各成员进一步的共同努力。本文就东亚储备库运行过程中的成员收益配置、动力机制和监督机制等问题逐一分析,并提出东亚储备库发展的政策建议以及中国参与该进程的对策。     

税收协定的国内适用——基于《企业所得税法》第58条的考察

《企业所得税法》第58条试图全面解决税收协定在国内适用的三个问题,即条约的国内法效力、适用方式和法律位阶。对于如何理解第58条中的"不同规定"与"办理",存在"绝对主权说"和"国际条约说"之争。虽然两种学说的理论依据和具体主张有所不同,但它们均以维护法律体系的纯粹性为最高目标。这两种学说并不符合中国的混合一元条约适用体制。当前,中国应采取更具实质主义导向的方法适用税收协定。     

Tax Disputes under Institutional Instability: Theory and Implications

This article aims to offer the first structural analysis of tax disputes under institutional instability using a core element of the international tax regime as an example. It offers a theory grounded on Mancur Olson's seminal contribution to group dynamics, the logic of collective action. It also suggests implications of this theory that might help to address key enforcement issues faced by the international tax regime in a frequent context worldwide: institutionally unstable countries.