Tax Expenditure Management

A tax expenditure is a 'tax break' allowed to a taxpayer or group of taxpayers, for example, by way of concession, deduction, deferral or exemption. This book deals with how a tax expenditure might be defined and managed in a modern democracy. The book is broadly divided into two parts. The first part introduces the tax expenditure concept, reviews the existing literature and considers the range of intractable controversies. Furthermore, it examines the different approaches to defining the tax expenditure concept and also to identifying tax expenditures, and surveys contemporary tax expenditure management practices. The second part considers the significance of tax expenditures from various perspectives while acknowledging the empirical difficulties with quantifying the impacts of tax expenditures. It looks back over the theoretical controversies and considers the political challenges. The final chapter reviews the preceding chapters before setting out what the authors think should be considered during the democratic deliberation upon a community's approach to tax expenditure management.