Reverse income tax - Gyakushotokuzei (English spelling) negative income tax

Japanese: 逆所得税 - ぎゃくしょとくぜい（英語表記）negative income tax

A minimum income guarantee for low-income earners below a certain level. It is a system that provides cash benefits of a certain percentage of the difference between a certain income level and earned income, and is also called a negative income tax, as it is a tax paid by the government. The core systems of modern income redistribution policies are the progressive income tax system and the Beveridge-type social security system, but in order to eliminate the functional shortcomings of these two systems, the purpose of this system is to integrate the cash benefit system for income security and the income tax system and operate them as a single unit. It was proposed by Milton Friedman and James Tobin in the United States in the 1960s, and in October 1972, the British Conservative government announced a specific plan called the "Tax Credit System," which attracted attention. In a broader sense, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the United Kingdom revised their income tax laws around 1975, abolishing the traditional child support deduction and instead implementing a system of providing a fixed amount of child allowance to all children after the first child, which can also be seen as the institutionalization of a kind of reverse income tax. It is argued that the inverse income tax can eliminate the shortcomings of the social security system, since it bases benefits only on income level and reduces only a certain percentage of the increase in earned income even if the income increases, whereas taking measures for each cause of poverty (disease, old age, unemployment, etc.) results in high administrative costs, and the public assistance system (→ public assistance) has the drawback of discouraging recipients from self-reliance because the amount of assistance is reduced as earned income increases. In addition, in the case of income tax, no matter what tax reduction measures are taken, the benefits do not reach people who are not subject to taxation due to their low income, but the inverse income tax is considered to have the advantage of being able to give appropriate consideration to low-income groups who are not eligible for public assistance and are not subject to income tax.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

一定水準以下の低所得者に対する最低限の所得保障。一定所得水準と稼得所得の差額の一定割合を現金給付する制度で，政府が支払う税という意味で負の所得税ともいう。現代の所得再配分政策の基幹をなす制度は，累進的な所得税制度とベバリッジ型の社会保障制度であるが，これら両制度の機能上の短所を解消するために，所得保障を目的とする現金の給付体系と所得課税の体系を統合し，一体的に運用することを目的とする。1960年代にアメリカ合衆国のミルトン・フリードマン，ジェームズ・トービンらによって提唱され，1972年10月にイギリス保守党政府が「タックス・クレジット制度」という具体的なプランを発表して注目された。広義に解釈すれば，1975年頃からドイツ連邦共和国（西ドイツ），イギリスが所得税法を改正し，従来の児童扶養家族控除を廃止して，代わりに第1子以降の全児童に一定額の児童手当を支給する制度を施行することにしたのも一種の逆所得税の制度化とみることができる。貧困の原因別（疾病，老年，失業など）に対策を講じると行政コストが高くつき，公的扶助制度（→生活保護）では稼得所得の増加に伴って扶助額が減額されるため受給者の自力更生の意欲を阻害するという欠点があるが，逆所得税は所得水準だけを給付の基準とし，かつ稼得所得が増加してもその増分の一定割合だけが減額されるため，社会保障制度の欠点を解消できると主張される。また所得税の場合はいかなる減税手段を講じても，低所得のために課税対象外である人々にはその恩恵は及ばないが，逆所得税の場合は公的扶助の対象外であって，所得税の課税対象にもならない低所得層にも適切な配慮ができるという利点が考えられている。

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