21世纪的税制改-外文翻译.docx

21世纪的税制改革Tax Reform in the 21st Century作者：奥尔巴赫,艾伦?J起止页码：出版日期（期刊号）：2006年5月6日出版单位：Berkeley Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper Series, Berkeley Program in Law and Economics, UC Berkeley外文原文I. IntroductionDuring the next decade or so, can the United States undertake a major reform to make its tax system simpler, fairer and more efficient? In addressing this question, I will focus mostly on reforms that incorporate at least some elements of consumption taxation, because this is the direction in which both economic research and policy discussions have pointed in recent years. But what constitutes a consumption tax, or entitles a system to be characterized as providing “consumption-tax treatment,” is not so obvious. There are many characteristics that distinguish a consumption tax and, indeed, the importance of different characteristics in delivering a tax system that is simpler, fairer and more efficient is to a large extent what this conference has been about. Thus, I will frame my discussion by going through the attributes of a consumption tax, considering the impact of the choices made in constructing different reform proposals. This is one place where the state of our knowledge comes into play, as on some issues our knowledge is considerable, on others more research is required, while some decisions are of an unknowable nature, either because the necessary data won’t be available or because the circumstances we confront for the future go beyond our historical experience. I begin, though, with a review of our state of knowledge on the fundamental issues relating to the choice between income and consumption taxation. Here, too, our thinking has evolved over the years, in part because of advances in economic theory and empirical evidence, but also because of changes in the way we view the comparison. As with the choices among particular types of consumption tax, though, many important questions are still unanswered.II. The Choice Between Income and Consumpt