State and Local Tax Issues

Term Paper # 101307

Economics > Taxation
Political Science > Fiscal Policy (economy)

An analysis of state sales tax and the development of tax policy in the United States.

2,304 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper examines state and local tax issues in the United States. It begins by analyzing the state sales taxes, describing the history behind the implementation of the tax and how it is viewed in the current economy. The paper then looks at the development of an equitable tax policy and the issues that local and state authorities face today with regards to this policy.

Table of Contents:
Sales Tax
Tax Policy

From the Paper:

"Another issue is whether the development of a more equitable tax system would be a proportional tax system in which all taxes are adjusted by real income. This type of tax system is also termed a flat tax system where everyone would pay the same percentage of their income in taxes and regressive tax policies would be reworked to account for income levels (Stocker 147). While some of this might be impractical such as adjusting sales tax by income, the flat tax rate within the progressive tax system is conceivable albeit a difficult challenge for local and state authorities to implement without federal support and oversight to a degree."

Sample of Sources Used:

Caves, Roger and Barry Cullingworth. Planning in the USA: Policies, Issues, and Processes. Routledge, New York; 2003.
Ebel, Robert, and Bill Cook. The Sales Tax in the 21st Century. Ed. Matthew N. Murray and William F. Fox. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997.
Enomoto, Carl E., Christopher A. Erickson, and Soumendra N. Ghosh. "Revenue-Stabilizing Tax Rates over the Business Cycle: Implications for States." Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics 31.3 (1992): 84+.
Fox, William F., ed. Sales Taxation: Critical Issues in Policy and Administration. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992.
Oakland, William H., and William A. Testa. "State-Local Business Taxation and the Benefits Principle." Economic Perspectives 20.1 (1996): 2+.