Tax Reform in Industrial Countries and the Impact of the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986

Abstract

This paper surveys many of the tax reforms that industrial countries have recently carried out or that have proposed to carry out. In addition to describing those reforms, the paper attempts to identify common features. A trait common to many of these reforms is the lowering of the tax rates for income taxes, accompanied by a widening of the bases. A reduction in the number of rates for individual income taxes is another. The paper emphasizes that these reforms represented a response to changes in political winds as well as to accumulating technical knowledge about the negative effects of taxes on economic efficiency.

JEL Classification: 3130, 3200, 4300