奉上一篇诺贝尔经济学奖获得者Gary S. Becker 关于讨论是否应该给电子商务征税的经典文章,译文可参阅《一个经济学家的良知和社会责任》,樊林洲译,商务印书馆,2011版。请大家参考。
The Hidden Impact of Not Taxing e-Commerce
Gary S. Becker. Business Week. (Industrial/technology edition). New York: February 28,
2000. Iss. 3670; pg. 26.
A federal commission is badly split over whether to allow states to tax interstate
commerce conducted on the Internet. The supporters of a moratorium on taxation,
including Senator John McCain, former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes, and to some
extent Vice-President Al Gore, believe that Web sales should not be taxed in order to
encourage the growth of this revolutionary new medium for commerce. This argument is
weak, but there is a much stronger case for excluding Internet commerce that relies on
political-economy considerations.
Let's begin with the 150 American tax economists, conservatives as well as liberals, who
are supporting a petition against continuing the moratorium on taxation of cybershoppers.
They argue that the growth of e-commerce should be driven by its convenience and
competitive advantage, not by special subsidies. To make collections easier, they want
taxes to be based on where consumers live, not on the location of e-commerce producers.
The argument for taxing Web sales relies on the concept of economic efficiency. When
Internet commerce is exempt from sales taxes, some consumers buy over the Web simply
because it it cheaper, not because it is more efficient or convenient. They use the Internet
only because tax advantages artificially lower the cost of Internet purchases compared
with traditional retailers. This is why the petition favors the same sales tax rate on
Internet and brick-and-mortar retailers.
FALSE ASSUMPTIONS. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee shows that
the rapid growth in e-commerce is in good part due to the tax factor. He finds that
Internet sales have grown more rapidly in states and localities that have higher sales taxes
on retail shopping.
My economist colleagues are correct in their analyses of the efficiency effects of
exempting e-commerce from taxes. But their perspective is too narrow and they do not go
far enough. Their recommendations are crucially dependent on the assumptions, never
made explicit, that both other taxes and government spending are independent of whether
the Internet is taxed. Yet one does not have to be a cynic about governments to recognize
that these assumptions are false. For their analysis of the effects of Internet taxes on
revenues and spending is static, and ignores the dynamic changes these taxes have on the
behavior of individuals, businesses, and politicians at the state and local level.
If Internet sales are permitted to be taxed at a lower rate than brick-and-mortar retailers,
these retailers are likely to put strong pressure on politicians to greatly lower, perhaps
even eliminate, taxes on their sales as well. If they are politically successful, tax rates on
conventional and Web sales would become more equal, but at much lower levels than at
present. By contrast, the tax economists' petition advocates equal treatment at the present
high tax rates imposed on conventional merchandisers.
SMALLER GOVERNMENT. A more relevant analysis would also incorporate the
common sense belief that public spending rises when governments can tax more readily.
If the Internet continues to receive special exemption from all sales taxes, it should slow
the increase in overall tax revenues and also slow government spending. Once this effect
is recognized, the case for taxing Internet sales would not be persuasive, especially to
persons who are concerned about the size of governments.
Clearly, the link between taxes and public spending is not unique to Internet taxation. A
colleague, Casey Mulligan, and I have shown that public spending in most democracies
does in fact grow faster when governments have easier access to more efficient taxes,
such as sales, value added, and social security taxes. According to our analysis, it is not
surprising that both the Republican-dominated Congress and President Clinton have
proposed sizable increases in federal government spending in response to the almost $2
trillion surplus in the federal budget anticipated during the coming decade. This is why I
continue to maintain a prediction in an earlier BUSINESS WEEK column that most of
the surplus will be spent on government programs such as medical care and social
security rather than remitted to individuals and businesses through tax reductions.
Of course, not everyone will like these implications of Web tax exception. But surely
these effects on overall tax policy and the size of government must be included in any
complete evaluation of whether e-commerce should continue to be exempt from sales and
other taxes.