Inflation Tax

Inflation, Tax Rules, and Capital Formation brings together fourteen papers that show the importance of the interaction between tax rules and monetary policy. Based on theoretical and empirical research, these papers emphasize the importance of including explicit specifications of the tax system in such study.

Inflation Tax is the first book to present in simple easy to read way why inflation is such a big problem in the UK (even at low levels). It is reducing the standard of living of most people and redistributing wealth from savers to debtors. The book shows that inflation is not a mere by-product of random economic forces. Instead it is a stealth tax primarily paid by savers and pensioners. Furthermore, it has been used by successive governments since 1945 as a tool to manage the UK's debts. The book examines likely future inflation scenarios in the UK and the best ways to save and invest in those environments. Contents: SECTION I - INFLATION 1. Inflation - why you should be worried 2. What is inflation? 3. Theories of inflation 4. Measuring inflation: RPI/CPI SECTION II - DEBT 5. Government debt and the UK's Financial Dunkirk 6. Labour's post war solution to the debt 7. US inflation reduces UK debts 8. Debt: 1970s onwards SECTION III - INFLATION TAX 9. The benefits of inflation tax 10. Who pays inflation tax? 11. Disguising inflation tax 12. Problems with inflation tax SECTION IV - THE IMPLICATIONS 13. How to pay less inflation tax 14. Future debt and inflation scenarios 15. Concluding thoughts

Monograph on the financial aspects of inflation regarding profits and income taxes in the business sector in Canada - covers corporation taxes, cash flow effects, interest rates, capital cost allowances, depreciation expenses, etc. Bibliography pp. 139 and 140, graphs and statistical tables.

The present paper provides an analytical discussion on a popular issue: the measurement problems associated with the inflation tax. It is well known that conventional national accounts definitions usually misplace the proceeds from the inflation tax: they are typically not subtracted from disposable income, and they are not included as part of the Government’s revenues “above the line.” Using a simple, perfect foresight monetary model developed by Calvo (1986, 1987), this paper analyzes the difference between macroeconomically relevant concepts of public and private saving, and their national accounts counterparts. The paper goes on to show that the national account aggregates create the impression that heavier reliance on the inflation tax on the part of the Government is associated with higher private saving, even in situations where the composition of government revenues does not have any effect on private saving.

The observation that collection lags combine with inflation to erode fiscal revenues has long been a strong argument against seigniorage (Tanzi (1978)). However, with the exception of Dixit (1991), who used a general equilibrium model to reject this argument, the optimal tax literature has not analyzed how collection lags affect desired tax structures. In this paper, this issue is re-examined using an overlapping generations version of Dixit’s model. It is shown that depending on the specification of the collection cost function and the size of government spending in GDP, collection lags may increase, leave unchanged, or reduce the desired rate of inflation.

Edited by Vito Tanzi, Director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, the book consists of nine studies pertaining to monetary-fiscal links in both closed and open economies.