tax incidence

In economics, tax incidence is the analysis of the effect of a particular tax on the distribution of economic welfare. Tax incidence is said to "fall" upon the group that, at the end of the day, bears the burden of the tax. The key concept is that the tax incidence or tax burden does not depend on where the revenue is collected, but on the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply. The concept was brought to attention by the French Physiocrats and in particular François Quesnay who argued that the incidence of all taxation falls ultimately on landowners and is at the expense of land rent. For this reason they advocated the replacement of the multiplicity of contemporary taxes by the Single Tax, or Impôt Unique. A leading advocate of this tax was Turgot. In the first instance, however, the incidence of the tax falls elsewhere. For example, a tax on apple farmers might actually be paid by owners of agricultural land but the incidence may initially fall on consumers of apples.


Initially, the incidence of all labour related taxes such as income tax and NI contributions falls on employers. This must be so at the margin since the employee must receive more net of tax ie take-home than they can receive from the alternative, such as welfare benefit payments. The tax surcharge may be as high as 80%.


In that all business taxes reduce profitability, and in accordance with the principles set out by the Physiocrats, they reduce the amount of rent that the business can pay and thus the incidence falls on the landowner. The land owner may be the business itself but the effect is to cut into that part of the revenue stream that consists of land rental value. A secondary effect is that locations with low land values become sub-marginal when taxes are imposed. That is, viable economic activity would be minimal.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_incidence


2011-04-12 13:12:54 補充：
稅務負擔 (tax burden) 又稱為稅務歸宿 (tax incidence)：個人或團體最終所承受的稅擔。