عنوان

Taxation and economic decisions :

TLets808240

Taxation and economic decisions :

[Thesis]

James, Simon Robert

tax administration, policy and reform, with special reference to self-assessment for income tax

Leeds Metropolitan University

1998

Thesis (Ph.D.)

1998

This thesis focuses on two case studies in order to provide evidence relating to the central hypothesis that effective policy analysis can require a wider approach than that offered by Economics alone and that an interdisciplinary analysis can lead to further insights into the relevant issues. The main case study involves self-assessment for income tax. It is argued that a cost-benefit type study of current administrative and compliance costs is insufficient to analyse the desirability of operating a self-assessment system. The work that follows therefore analyses the UK tax system and its administration in order to understand the development of the present system and what it is required to do. It makes comparisons with the Swedish tax system and draws on the findings of two important publications, the Report of the Meade Committee and The Reform of Personal Taxation. The research goes on to use management methods to analyse the future likely enviromnent in which the tax system will have to operate. It includes important related issues such as tax compliance where it is shown that taxpayer compliance is influenced by psychological and sociological as well as purely economic factors. The second case study is concerned with economic decision-making. The research presented here on female economic decision-making similarly takes a wider approach to policy analysis. It does this by locating the decision-making process in a social, family, context rather than only as a result of the independent actions of utility maximising individuals, which would be the more normal mainstream economic approach. It finds that social and gender-related factors are also important variables in economic decision-making in households. The overall conclusion is that to achieve a fuller understanding of human economic behaviour and to develop appropriate policy solutions to important questions, economic analysis needs to be supplemented by a wider approach drawing on other disciplines as appropriate.

Economics & economic theory

Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y