"The Impact of Public Perceptions on General Consumption Taxes"

Professor Rita de la Feria will be delivering the online presentation on the impact of public perceptions on general consumption taxes.

Bio:

Professor Rita de la Feria joined the School of Law at the University of Leeds in January 2016 as Chair in Tax Law. She is also an International Research Fellow at the Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University.

Abstract:

The traditional view as regards general consumption taxes is that excluding certain products from the base decreases their natural regressivity. Whilst this view has been consistently questioned over the last forty years, public perceptions are still heavily influenced by it. Drawing insights from the legislative history of the old European VAT system and the newer Australian VAT system, this paper demonstrates how policy debates and changes in VAT rates have been heavily influenced by those public perceptions; and how special interest groups, which would be set to lose out from broad base VATs, are able to use the information asymmetry behind those perceptions to defend their interest in favour of base narrowing, or against base broadening reforms. The paper presents a novel analytical and conceptual framework – informed by tax law, political economy, political science, behavioural science, and regulatory theory – of the likely factors behind the prevalence of those public perceptions. It demonstrates how, in the absence of external pressures, they result in increased use of reduced rates over time, and the consequent narrowing of the tax base. It concludes by presenting a new pathway to shift public perceptions, and to overcome the political resistance to broad based consumption taxes.

The event will take place via Zoom and will be recorded. Registration for this event will be understood as indicating consent to the talk being recorded.

Joining instructions will be sent 24 hours before the event via email once you have registered.

Register now via eventbrite.