Tax exemption
Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, reduced rates, or tax on only a portion of items. Examples include exemption of charitable organizations from property taxes and income taxes, veterans, and certain cross-border or multi-jurisdictional scenarios.
Tax exemption generally refers to a statutory exception to a general rule rather than the mere absence of taxation in particular circumstances, otherwise known as an exclusion. Tax exemption also refers to removal from taxation of a particular item rather than a deduction.
International duty free shopping may be termed "tax-free shopping". In tax-free shopping, the goods are permanently taken outside the jurisdiction, thus paying taxes is not necessary. Tax-free shopping is also found in ships, airplanes and other vessels traveling between countries (or tax areas). Tax-free shopping is usually available in dedicated duty-free shops. However, any transaction may be duty-free, given that the goods are presented to the customs when exiting the country. In such a scenario, a sum equivalent to the tax is paid, but reimbursed on exit. More common in Europe, tax-free is less frequent in the United States, with the exception of Louisiana. However, current European Union rules prohibit most intra-EU tax-free trade, with the exception of certain special territories outside the tax area.
Specific monetary exemptions[edit]
Some jurisdictions allow for a specific monetary reduction of the tax base, which may be referred to as an exemption. For example, the U.S. Federal and many state tax systems allow a deduction of a specified dollar amount for each of several categories of "personal exemptions". Similar amounts may be called "personal allowances". Some systems may provide thresholds at which such exemptions or allowances are phased out or removed.[1]
Exempt individuals[edit]
Certain classes of persons may be granted a full or partial tax exemption within a system. Common exemptions are for veterans,[16] clergymen[17] or taxpayers with children (who can take "dependency exemption" for each qualifying dependent who has lived with the taxpayer. The dependent can be a natural child, step-child, step-sibling, half-sibling, adopted child, eligible foster child, or grandchild, and is usually under age 19, a full-time student under age 24, or have special needs).[18] The exemption granted may depend on multiple criteria, including criteria otherwise unrelated to the particular tax. For example, a property tax exemption may be provided to certain classes of veterans earning less than a particular income level.[19] Definitions of exempt individuals tend to be complex.
Historical uses[edit]
In 1 Samuel 17:25 in the Hebrew Bible, King Saul includes tax exemption as one of the rewards on offer to whoever comes forward to defeat the Philistine giant Goliath.
Gregory of Tours, in his history of the Franks, claimed that the people of the city of Tours were given tax exemption by the Merovingian kings on account of the presence of the relics of St Martin of Tours and suggested that divine punishment from the saint could fall on anyone who violated this to reimpose taxes.[20]
During some of the historical Muslim caliphates, those who believed or converted to Islam could be tax exempt.
The inhabitants of Domrémy-la-Pucelle in France, were given tax exemption when Charles VII of France received a request from Joan of Arc to exempt the community (which was her home town) from taxes. This community was exempt from taxes until the time of French revolution, when the republican government restored taxation. [21]
In the Ottoman Empire, tax breaks for descendants of Muhammad encouraged many people to buy certificates of descent or forge genealogies; the phenomenon of teseyyüd – falsely claiming noble ancestry – spread across ethnic, class, and religious boundaries. In the 17th century, an Ottoman bureaucrat estimated that there were 300,000 impostors; In 18th-century Anatolia, nearly all upper-class urban people claimed descent from Muhammad.[22] The number of people claiming such ancestry – which exempted them from taxes such as avarız and tekalif-i orfiye – became so great that tax collection was very difficult.[23]
Most income tax systems exclude certain classes of income from the taxable income base. Such exclusions may be referred to as exclusions or exemptions. Systems vary highly.[24] Among the more commonly excluded items are:
Some tax systems specifically exclude from income items that the system is trying to encourage. Such exclusions or exemptions can be quite specific[30] or very general.
Among the types of income that may be included are classes of income earned in specific areas, such as special economic zones, enterprise zones, etc. These exemptions may be limited to specific industries. As an example, India provides SEZs where exporters of goods or providers of services to foreign customers may be exempt from income taxes and customs duties.
Certain types of property are commonly granted exemption from property or transaction (such as sales or value added) taxes. These exemptions vary highly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and definitions of what property qualifies for exemption can be voluminous.[31]
Among the more commonly granted exemptions are:
Conditions imposed on exemptions[edit]
Exemption from tax often requires that certain conditions be met.
Multi-tier jurisdictions[edit]
Many countries that impose tax have subdivisions or subsidiary jurisdictions that also impose tax. This feature is not unique to federal systems, like the U.S., Switzerland and Australia, but rather is a common feature of national systems.[33] The top tier system may impose restrictions on both the ability of the lower tier system to levy tax as well as how certain aspects of such lower tier system work, including the granting of tax exemptions. The restrictions may be imposed directly on the lower jurisdiction's power to levy tax or indirectly by regulating tax effects of the exemption at the upper tier.
Cross-border agreements[edit]
Jurisdictions may enter into agreements with other jurisdictions that provide for reciprocal tax exemption. Such provisions are common in an income tax treaty. These reciprocal tax exemptions typically call for each contracting jurisdiction to exempt certain income of a resident of the other contracting jurisdiction.
Multi-jurisdictional agreements for tax exemption also exist. 20 of the U.S. states have entered into the Multistate Tax Compact that provides, among other things, that each member must grant a full credit for sales and use taxes paid to other states or subdivisions. The European Union members are all parties to the EU multi-country VAT harmonisation rules.