Tax assignment in federal countries

Abstract

This book examines the assignment of taxes and other revenue sources among various levels of government in a federation. Four pap rs consider alternative normative approaches to revenue assignment - traditional, optimal taxation, public choice and tax effectiveness. Four papers are concerned with particular revenue sources - corporation income taxes, natural resource revenues, broad-based sales taxes and excises, and local government revenues in less developed countries. Five papers review the patterns of assignment which have been adopted in five economically advanced federations - the United States, Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland and Australia - and in four less developed federations - Brazil, India, Malaysia and Nigeria. The papers were originally presented to a conference at the Australian National University in Canberra in August 1982. The conference was convened by the International Seminar in Public Economics in association with the Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations.