Reading drills

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:

a) stress the first syllable:

standard, yield, revenue, clarity, benefit, justly, staff, taxpayer, measure, spending, final, finally, fair, fairness, suffer, income;

b) stress the second syllable:

criterion, criteria, effective, efficiency, collect, enforcement, administer, impose, ability, proportion, discomfort, taxation, derive, distribute, distributing, require, design, avoid, convenience.

Text B

In order to have an effective tax system, government must have criteria or standards. One such criterion is that a tax yields enough revenue.

A second criterion is clarity. Tax laws should be written so that both the taxpayer and tax-collector can understand them. This is not an easy task but people seem to be more willing to pay taxes¹, when they understand them. A third criterion is ease of administration. A tax should be easy to collect. It should not require a large enforcement staff, and it should be designed so that citizens find it hard to avoid. This criterion also includes convenience and efficiency. That is the tax should be administered at the lowest possible cost. A final criterion is fairness. Taxes should be imposed justly. However, this is hard to do because people do not always agree about what is or is not fair when it comes to taxes².

In general taxes are based chiefly on two principles: the Benefit Principle³ and the Ability-to-Pay Principle⁴.

The Benefit Principle of taxation is based on two ideas. First, those who benefit from government services should be the ones to pay for them. Second, people should pay taxes in proportion to the amount of services or benefits they receive.

The Ability-to-Pay Principle of taxation says that people should be taxed according to their ability to pay, no matter what benefits or services they receive. This principle is based on three things. First it is not possible to measure benefits, derived from government spending. Second, people with higher incomes suffer less discomfort than people with lower incomes even if they pay higher taxes. Finally, the only means most people have of paying taxes is the income they earn. Since the benefits of government services to individuals are hard to measure, the other basis for distributing taxes is income.

Comments

1. ... people seem to be more willing to pay taxes — ... здається, що люди з більшою охотою платитимуть податки

2. ... when it comes to taxes — ... коли йдеться про податки

3. Benefit Principle — пільговий принцип

4. Ability-to-Pay Principle — принцип платоспроможності

VOCABULARY EXERCISES

I. Give the English equivalents for the following words and

word-combinations. Use them in the sentences of your own:

ефективна податкова система; платник податків; розподіл податків; дохід; платити податки; принцип платоспроможності; отримувати пільги від уряду; пільговий принцип оподаткування.

II. Define the parts of speech of the following words:

taxation, progressive, income, tangible, consumer, personal, compensate, anything, property, always, attach, weekly, purchase, nearly, revenue.

III. Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate terms from

the list:

taxes; taxpayer; benefits; taxation; tax-collector; tax system; taxed; services; imposed; income; Benefit Principle of taxation.

1. In order to have an effective _______ , government must have criteria or standards. 2. Tax laws should be written so that both the __________ and the ________ can understand them. 3. Taxes should be ___________ justly. 4. The _________ is based on two ideas. 5. People should pay ___________ in proportion to the amount of services or _________ they receive. 6. The Ability-to-Pay Principle of _________ says that people should be _________ according to their ability to pay, no matter what benefits or _____________ they receive. 7. The only means most people have of paying taxes is the ________ they earn.