Evidence indicates that the current high duty rates, coupled with weak tax administration, lead to widespread evasion of the tax through underdeclaration. This underdeclaration of property values directly affects collection of other taxes, among them, property taxes and capital gains tax. Moreover, it indirectly affects the collection of all taxes through the impact of underdeclaration on the circulation of black money. Simulations indicate that revenues lost due to a lowering of stamp duty rates closer to international levels are quite likely to be recovered in higher collections of other taxes. However, these taxes would at least in part be collected by other levels of government. So reform could be made a more viable option through appropriately designed intergovernmental transfers.
In The Theory Of The Leisure Class, His First And Best-Known Work, Thorstein Veblen Challenges Some Of Man S Most Cherished Standards Of Behavior And With Devastating Wit And Satire Exposes The Hollowness Of Many Of Our Canons Of Taste, Education, Dress And Culture. Veblen Uses The Leisure Class As His Example Because It Is This Class That Sets The Standards Followed By Every Level Of Society.The Sign Of Membership In The Leisure Class Is Exemption From Industrial Toil And The Mark Of Success Is Lavish Expenditure Conspicuous Consumption Is The Famous Term He Invented To Describe Spending Which Satisfies No Real Need But Is A Mark Of Prestige.The Process Veblen Criticized Continues Today The Same Worship Of An Empty Scale Of Values, The Same Urge To Prove Oneself Better Than One S Neighbor By The Conspicuous Accumulation Of Useless Objects And By Time And Money-Wasting Activities.
'Impressive! . . . The authors have given us a searching account of the crisis and provided some memorable portraits of officials in America impaled on the dilemma of having to enforce a measure which they themselves opposed.'--New York Times 'A brilliant contribution to the colonial field. Combining great industry, astute scholarship, and a vivid style, the authors have sought 'to recreate two years of American history.' They have succeeded admirably.'--William and Mary Quarterly 'Required reading for anyone interested in those eventful years preceding the American Revolution.'--Political Science Quarterly The Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the American colonies, provoked an immediate and violent response. The Stamp Act Crisis, originally published by UNC Press in 1953, identifies the issues that caused the confrontation and explores the ways in which the conflict was a prelude to the American Revolution.