关于最优增值税的探索

An Exploration on Optimal Value Added Tax

本文在完备商品税制和不完备商品税制下,探索了劳动供给有弹性情况下的最优增值税税率。我们分析了:(1)最优的增值税税率是否是统一的;(2)增值税的中性能否实现;(3)反弹性法则和生产效率法则是否适用于增值税制等问题。所谓完备商品税制是指政府能够根据商品的用途(作为中间品还是最终消费品)制定税率,不完备的商品税制则指政府无法依据商品的用途区别征税。本文发现,在我国的增值税税制下:(1)税制完备时最优增值税税率满足反弹性法则。这意味着最优的增值税税率不是统一的,在消费环节不是中性的;(2)完备税制下不应对中间品征税,或者说中间品税收应该被完全抵扣,从而实现生产环节的税收中性;(3)在不完备的税制下,最优的中间品税收不再为零,且反弹性法则也不再成立。这意味着最优商品税在消费环节和生产环节都不是中性的。此时,对于用途不可区分的商品,其税率设计需要兼顾其对消费与生产环节的扭曲。

This paper explores optimal value added tax with elastic labor supply. The following questions are analyzed. （1） Whether optimal value added tax is uniform; （2） Whether tax neutrality can be real- ized with value added tax; （3） Is inverse elasticity rule and production efficiency rule tenable under val- ue added taxation. The results are. （1） Inverse elasticity rule is true for the design of value added tax when the usage of commodity can be observed by government, which means optimal value added tax rate is not uniform; （2） At the same time, taxes on intermediate goods should be zero; （3） When gov- ernment can not observe the usage of commodity, inverse elasticity rule is no longer true and the optimal tax on intermediate goods is not zero.