Relationship Between Tax Rates And Tax Revenue

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In studying economic policies, there is considerable debate on how tax rates affect economic performance and impact government tax revenue. In the U.S economy, marginal tax rates are considered to be particularly important because they influence the incentives of individuals to earn additional income. This theory can be illustrated by the “Laffer Curve, a hypothetical representation of the relationship between government revenue collected by taxation and all possible rates of taxation identified in Figure 1 below. The curve suggests that as taxes increase from low levels, tax revenue collected by the government also increases, but tax rates increasing after a certain point (T) would cause individuals to not work as hard or at all, thereby reducing tax revenue. If tax rates reached 100%, there would be little or no tax revenue collected because all individuals would choose not to work since everything they would earn would be collected by the government. It is beneficial for the government to be at the middle point labeled “T” on the Laffer Curve because it is the point at which the government collects the maximum amount of tax revenue while individuals still continue to productively work. According to supply-side economists, it is claimed that high marginal tax rates are a big disincentive for people to work, save and invest. Cutting tax rates would actually increase government tax revenues because more people would work more often to make more money, and by having more money, more would be spent by consumers. This increased consumption would stimulate growth in the business sector of the economy, increasing business profits allowing businesses to hire more employees and the economy would grow. This economic growth would lead to more tax revenues for the government even though taxes were reduced. The government could get more tax revenue by taking a smaller slice
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