MIKE SCHUSSLER: Narrowing the terms of the tax debate
Taxes are taxes. Total government revenue is something else
I thank professor Philippe Burger from the University of the Free State for taking an interest in the column I wrote (On My Mind, February 21) for the FM’s budget supplement. I have some points to clarify. First, the difference between tax revenue and total government revenue: total government revenue includes tax revenue and nontax revenue. For example, the dividends that oil countries get from their oil companies, toll fees and income from mineral rights are nontax revenue — revenue that Burger includes in his analysis. In my column, I focused only on tax revenue — personal income tax, company taxes, VAT and the like — in comparing taxes. Only once did I include nontax revenue, in the form of non-resource revenue that a government collects. Because of the complexity of the issue, the International Centre for Tax & Development (ICTD) — which produces the most comprehensive tax and government revenue data available — measures government income as a percent of GDP in different ways. ...
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