Expenditure taxes are not always well designed, however, particularly in federal countries.

然而，很多国家的支出税也存在各种问题，特别是联邦国家。

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In theory, expenditure taxes are better than income taxes, since they do not punish saving.

理论上说，由于支出税不抑制储蓄，所以支出税比所得税更好。

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France and Germany gain more than 40% of their tax take from social contributions and around a quarter from expenditure taxes, particularly VAT.

法国和德国税收的40%来自于社会税，25%来自于支出税，特别是增值税。

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That in turn would cause tax revenues for their governments to continue to shrink, such that reducing public-sector deficits would become a never-ending labour of cutting expenditure and raising taxes.

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Basing taxes partly on expenditure rather than just income would therefore go some way towards the ideal of progressivity over a person's lifetime.

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The logic behind this is derived from a theory called Ricardian equivalence, which holds that government spending cannot boost demand, since consumers cut their own expenditure in anticipation of higher taxes ahead.

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