IMF Working Papers

Progressive Taxation of Extractive Resources as Second-Best Optimal Policy

By Jean-François Wen

June 13, 2018

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Jean-François Wen. Progressive Taxation of Extractive Resources as Second-Best Optimal Policy, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2018) accessed November 13, 2024

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Summary

The paper provides a critical review of the literature on the concept of progressivity in the taxation of petroleum and mineral resources and offers a fresh perspective on its purpose and measurement. Regressive taxes, such as royalties, exist to satisfy policy objectives other than revenue maximization, such as achieving early revenues, while rent-based or profit-sensitive fiscal instruments must be designed with progressive marginal rates to maximize government revenues. Hence, the emphasis should be placed on tax rate progression of the direct taxation of profit or rent, rather than progressivity in the overall government take. However, as regressive taxes, by their very nature, tend to be distortionary, the optimal degree of progression in the rent- or profit-tax rates must take these distortions into account. The central ideas are illustrated with a simple analytical model in which a second-best optimal tax rate schedule on profit is characterized in the presence of the tax distortions caused by the regressive taxes. Some practical implications of the analysis are discussed.

Subject: Average effective tax rate, Marginal effective tax rate, Progressive taxation, Rent tax, Revenue administration, Tax policy, Taxes

Keywords: Average effective tax rate, Capture mechanism, Economic rent, Factor tax, Income tax, Input choice, Marginal effective tax rate, Minerals, Petroleum, Production function, Profit tax, Progressive tax, Progressive taxation, Rate schedule, Rent capture, Rent tax, Revenue tax, Second-best optimality, Tax instrument, Tax rate, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    32

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2018/130

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2018130

  • ISBN:

    9781484361627

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941