VII. Complete the following sentences:

1. In order to have an effective tax system, government must have ... . 2. One such criterion is ... . 3. A second criterion is ... . 4. Tax laws should be written so that ... . 5. A third criterion is ... . 6. A final criterion is ... . 7. In general taxes are based chiefly on two principles: ... . 8. The Ability-to-Pay Principle of taxation says that ... . 9. The only means most people have of paying taxes is ... . 10. Since the benefits of government services to individuals are hard to measure, ... .

VIII. Ask someone:

if the second criterion is clarity; tax laws should be written so that both the taxpayer and tax-collector can understand them; this is an easy task; a tax should be easy to collect; the tax should be administered at the lowest possible cost; taxes should be imposed justly;

what government must have in order to have an effective tax system; the first criterion is; the third criterion is; this criterion also includes; the final criterion is; two principles taxes are based on; you can say about the Benefit Principle of taxation; the Ability-to-Pay Principle of taxation says; the only means most people have of paying taxes is.

IX. Translate into English:

1. Для того щоб мати ефективну податкову систему, уряд повинен розробити певні критерії та стандарти. 2. Закони про податки треба писати так, щоб і той, хто їх сплачує, і той, хто збирає, розуміли їх. 3. Люди не завжди згодні відносно того, що справедливо, а що ні, коли йдеться про податки. 4. Взагалі податки базуються на двох принципах: пільговому принципі та принципі платоспроможності. 5. Люди повинні сплачувати податки пропорційно до кількості послуг чи пільг, які вони одержують. 6. Люди з вищим доходом менше потерпають від незруч­ностей, ніж ті, хто отримує нижчий дохід, навіть коли вони платять більші податки. 7. Єдиний засіб, який має більшість людей, щоб спла­чувати податки  це дохід від їхнього заробітку.

Communicative situations

1. Taxes provide the principal source of income to all levels of government. Income taxes are the principal source of federal tax income. State and local governments rely on sales, income and property taxes as their principal sources of revenue.

In evaluating taxes focus on the following questions:

• Who ought to pay taxes?

• What types of taxes should be levied?

• Who will actually pay the tax?

2. What are the principal taxes you and your family pay? Add the sales taxes, property taxes and others together to determine what percentage of your family’s income is actually spent on taxes.

3. What taxes do businesses pay?

4. A «good tax» is said to have the following characteristics:

• Fairness — based on the ability to pay. A tax should also treat people equally.

• Clarity and certainty — Taxpayer should know the rate of the tax and how it is to be paid.

• Convenience of payment — easy for taxpayers to pay and easy for government to collect.

• Ease of administration — cost of collecting a tax should be low.

• Flexibility — adjusts to economic conditions (in prosperous times the tax should collect more revenue and in hard times less).

Evaluate personal income taxes, sales taxes, and real estate taxes according to the above characteristics and, based on your findings, rate each tax on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).