增值税的效率方面

Efficiency Aspects ofthe Value Added Tax Ruud de Mooij, Shafik Hebous, and Michael Keen WP/25/165 IMF Working Papersdescribe research inprogress by the author(s) and are published toelicit comments and to encourage debate.The views expressed in IMF Working Papers arethose of the author(s) and do not necessarilyrepresent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board,or IMF management. 2025AUG IMF Working Paper Fiscal AffairsDepartment Efficiency Aspects of the Value Added Tax Prepared byRuud de Mooij*, Shafik Hebous* and Michael Keen** Authorized for distribution byRuud de MooijJune2025 IMF Working Papersdescribe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicitcomments and to encourage debate.The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management. ABSTRACT:This paper examines the efficiency of the Value Added Tax (VAT), focusing on its role as arevenue-raising tool and its use to achieve non-revenue objectives. The analysis highlights the VAT's potentialability to generate revenue with minimal distortions, emphasizing its advantages over alternative taxes, such asturnover taxes and tariffs, particularly in minimizing the cascading effects of input taxation. The paper alsoexplores the VAT as a macroeconomic policy tool, especially in counter-cyclical fiscal policy, and its potential toaddress environmental and health objectives. It concludes that a well-designed and implemented VAT is ahighly efficient revenue-raising tool, surpassing other forms of consumption taxation, but cautions against itsmisuse in industrial policy and other contexts for which it is ill-suited. RECOMMENDED CITATION:De Mooij, R., Hebous, S., and Keen, M. (2025). Efficiency Aspects of the ValueAdded Tax. IMF Working Paper WP/25/165. Contents 1. Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................22. TheVAT as an Efficient Revenue-Raiser......................................................................................................22.1 Why Tax Consumption?...............................................................................................................................32.2 Efficiency in the taxation of final consumption.......................................................................................112.3 Why a VAT?.................................................................................................................................................142.4 How Large are the Welfare Gains from the VAT?....................................................................................182.5 Who Really Pays the VAT?.........................................................................................................................193. Beyond Revenue...........................................................................................................................................223.1 The VAT and Short Run Macroeconomic Management..........................................................................233.2 The VAT and Long Run Economic Performance.....................................................................................273.3 The VAT inPursuit of Other Objectives....................................................................................................304. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................32References.........................................................................................................................................................34 BOXES 1.Individual-based Consumption Taxation....................................................................................................32. Distortions from input taxation....................................................................................................................73. Gains from Shifting from a Tariff to a Consumption Tax............................................................................9 FIGURES 1. Deadweight loss from taxing inputs...........................................................................................................62. Searching for a Correlation between Inflation and VAT Rate Changes...................................................27 1.Introduction This paper is concerned with the question of whether, and, if so, to how significant an advantage, the ValueAddedTax (VAT)is suited to the pursuit of ‘efficiency’ in relation to a range of objectives that governmentsmight set for it. The most fundamental purpose that the VAT serves, of course, is raising revenue: Efficiency inthis dimension, and the related question of whoit is that really pays the VAT, are the subject of the first part ofthis paper (Secti