An underlying issue which inheres in any taxation framework relates to the manner in which it operates and the actual distribution of its imposts or appropriations. In this respect, a tax system needs to confront two fundamental (and interrelated) questions first, precisely how the tax or impost should be imposed and, secondly, who should bear the legal obligation or onus of payment. These issues can be conceptualised not only from a purely legal or positivist perspective, in terms of identifying who will incur the obligation to pay tax, but also in terms of a more economic and instrumental standpoint as to which entity or individual should effectively be paying the tax. These alternatives may not result in the same conclusions, particularly for the taxation of business forms. To provide one example, if the business form has separate legal entity status from its members, should the business form, as a legal person, be subject to tax separately from its members? From a legal standpoint the response to this question is that such a business form should bear the impost. However, from an economical perspective it may be preferable that the business income and/or losses are directly allocated to its members. Indeed, tax transparency (aggregate approach) has been argued as an economically superior model, although it is not without its critics...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/282443 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Freudenberg, Brett David, na |
| Publisher | Griffith University. Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.gu.edu.au/disclaimer.html), Copyright Brett David Freudenberg |
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