Introduction

Abstract

In the 1980s taxation became one of the top priorities on the agenda of policy-makers in almost the whole OECD area. This increased interest in taxation is still apparent in the 1990s. The implementation of taxation into actual policies can be divided into two separate parts. First, it took the form of a tax reform, i.e., a revenue-neutral change in tariffs. Secondly, it took the form — and in most countries in addition to the said revenue-neutral tax reform — of a reduction in the average and marginal tax rates at the expense of increasing budget deficits or accompanied by a simultaneous cut in public spending. A most remarkable characteristic of this kind of tax policies was that in many respects the actual implementation of tax policies ran in front of developments in economic theory. Another remarkable phenomenon was that almost all OECD countries started programmes of tax reform and/or tax reductions more or less simultaneously while there was no international policy co-ordination whatsoever on the implementation of these policies within an international context. As a result, all the nationally pursued tax policies had on the one hand important common features but on the other, also significant international differences.