Negative income tax

One's income after taxes is shown by the green line for lower incomes and by the red line for higher incomes.
  Negative income tax
  Base pay

In economics, a negative income tax (NIT) is a system which reverses the direction in which tax is paid for incomes below a certain level; in other words, earners above that level pay money to the state while earners below it receive money. NIT was proposed by Juliet Rhys-Williams while working on the Beveridge Report in the early 1940s and popularized by Milton Friedman in the 1960s as a system in which the state makes payments to the poor when their income falls below a threshold, while taxing them on income above that threshold. Together with Friedman, supporters of NIT also included James Tobin, Joseph A. Pechman, and Peter M. Mieszkowski, Jim Gray[1] and even then-President Richard Nixon, who suggested implementation of modified NIT in his Family Assistance Plan. After the increase in popularity of NIT, an experiment sponsored by the US government was conducted between 1968 and 1982 on effects of NIT on labour supply, income, and substitution effects.[2]

  1. ^ Gray, James P. (26 February 2004). "#262: Turn A Crutch Into A Ladder". Judge Jim Gray. Retrieved 24 January 2024. Republished in Gray, James P. (October 2023) [2019]. 2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions That Are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian. PageTurner: Press & Media. ISBN 979-8-89174-097-6. ISBN 978-170817785-0
  2. ^ Moffitt, Robert A (2003-08-01). "The Negative Income Tax and the Evolution of U.S. Welfare Policy". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 17 (3): 119–140. doi:10.1257/089533003769204380. ISSN 0895-3309.