From Income Tax to Consumption Tax? The Case of Jamaica

Roy W. Bahl () and Sally Wallace ()
Additional contact information
Sally Wallace: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, http://aysps.gsu.edu/WallaceS.html

International Studies Program Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU from International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Abstract: Over the past decade, a number of countries have shifted to single rate tax systems with broader bases and lower rates. In the U.S. , there continues to be discussion of the merits of a consumption tax, and of base-broadening reforms to the income tax system. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how, over time, a conventional income tax could be converted to a flat rate consumption tax in a developing country. The value of this analysis, we hope, comes with the use of a real world situation ( Jamaica ), which allows us to focus on the detail that determines the feasibility of transitioning to a flat rate tax on consumption. Our main contribution is to show the conditions under which the switch can be revenue neutral.

Keywords: Income Tax; Consumption Tax; Jamaica; Jamaica tax system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-pub
Date: 2007-06-01
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://aysps.gsu.edu/isp/files/ispwp0712.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: From Income Tax to Consumption Tax?. The Case of Jamaica (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0712

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in International Studies Program Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU from International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Paul Benson ().