Avoiding the Pitfalls in Taxing Financial Intermediation

Honohan, Patrick

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNTING;    ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS;    ARBITRAGE;    ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION;    BALANCE SHEET;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3056
RP-ID  :  WPS3056

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Enthusiasts for financial sector taxreform typically come either with some form of "flattax" (including value added tax on financial services,zero taxation on capital income, or a universal transactionstax) or advocating corrective taxes designed to offsetmarket failures or achieve other targeted objectives. As aresult the tax systems in most countries often end up with acomplex mixture. Honohan argues that practical policy fortaxation of the financial sector needs to take into accounttwo key features of the sector: its capacity for arbitrageand its sensitivity to inflation and thus to nonindexedtaxes. Where these aspects have been neglected, poorlyconstructed tax systems-whether the consequence of a drivefor revenue or of misdirected sophistication-often havesizable unexpected side effects. A defensive stance makingthe minimization of such distortions as its cornerstone isthe best policy.