Ideal Income Taxation and Inflation Indexing

美国罗格斯大学法律博士(J.D.)，纽约大学法学硕士(LL.M.)，美国执业律师。现为厦门大学经济学院财政系专任教师，主讲比较税制、国际税收、税收政策等课程。
 

Should capital assets be indexed for inflation under an ideal income tax? Economists and US Treasury officials have been nearly unanimous in condemning the taxation of purely inflationary gains. Even Henry Simons opposed taxing inflationary gains. I consider the arguments and conclude that if the normative goals of an ideal income are to be advanced, purely inflationary gains must be included in the tax base. The objections to taxing inflationary gains are not based in science, but reflect a normative preference for taxing consumption rather than income.