煙草在線據(jù)Tax-News.com報道編譯　　某些州，特別是加利福尼亞，希望增加卷煙稅，來獲得額外的收入減少財政赤字，美國國會預(yù)算辦公室(CBO)已經(jīng)描述了提高聯(lián)邦消費稅會如何緩解衛(wèi)生支出的壓力，并能減少聯(lián)邦預(yù)算的壓力。

　　在一項研究中，CBO指出，由于美國聯(lián)邦政府每年為衛(wèi)生保健計劃支出約1萬億美元，不難想象，促進人們更健康的政策，在這種情況下指的是戒煙，可能會給聯(lián)邦預(yù)算帶來重大影響。

　　它認為，假想在2013財政年度，對每包卷煙和小雪茄增加0.50美元的聯(lián)邦消費稅，小雪茄的從1.01美元增長到1.51美元，增加幅度每年都進行調(diào)整以跟得上通貨膨脹，從長期來看，與人們的收入增長一致。

　　CBO發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著卷煙消費稅的增加，平均每年人均的醫(yī)療保健支出將下降，因為健康狀況改善了。因此，這項主要的聯(lián)邦衛(wèi)生保健計劃的支出將比多年來的降低了，否則不會下降。

　　此外，健康狀況的改善可能會通過收入的增加促進稅收，部分是因為人們會比其他情況下工作的時間更長，從而使聯(lián)邦從收入和工資稅中征收的稅收收入增加了。

　　然而，在長期來看，聯(lián)邦會增加對聯(lián)邦退休和醫(yī)療保健計劃的開支，因為受益者的數(shù)量增加了，因為對長壽者的開支超過了平均每年人均醫(yī)療保健支出的減少。

　　CBO的分析表明，卷煙消費稅增加0.50美元，將把聯(lián)邦預(yù)算赤字減少到2021年的總計約420億美元。

　　據(jù)稅收聯(lián)合委員會估算，在2013年和2021年間，更高的消費稅所產(chǎn)生的額外收入將總共380億美元。在此期間，健康狀況的改善，使人們能更多地工作而且更富有成效，將提高勞動力收入，增加大約30億美元的收入。

　　政府在最大的衛(wèi)生保健計劃即醫(yī)療保險和醫(yī)療補助計劃上的開支，會略低，因為人們的健康改善了，而社會保障支出會略高，因為越來越多的人壽命更長了。在此期間，聯(lián)邦支出的凈減少會不到10億美元。

　　從長期來看(在其分析中直到2085年)，CBO發(fā)現(xiàn)，該政策對人們的長壽將發(fā)揮越來越大的作用，與現(xiàn)行法律下的數(shù)額相比，聯(lián)邦支出最終將上升。但是，相對于所涉及項目規(guī)模，增加的幅度將繼續(xù)非常小。然而，主要由于額外的消費稅收入，在長期的計劃期間，稅收增加將小幅減少聯(lián)邦預(yù)算赤字。

California: Cigarette Tax Hike Could Improve US Fiscal Health

Jun 15, 2012
Tax-News.com

　　With certain states, particularly California, looking at increasing cigarette taxes to provide additional revenue to reduce their fiscal deficits, the United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has described how an increase in the federal excise tax could ease health spending and reduce pressure on the federal budget.

　　In a study, the CBO points out that, as the US federal government spends roughly USD1 trillion on health care programmes each year, it is easy to imagine that policies that promote a healthier population, in this case to discourage smoking, could have a significant impact on the federal budget.

　　It considers a hypothetical increase of USD0.50 per pack in the federal excise tax on cigarettes and small cigars (from USD1.01 to USD1.51) in fiscal year 2013, with the increase adjusted each year to keep pace with inflation and, in the long-term, with the growth of people’s income.

　　CBO finds that, following an increase in the excise tax on cigarettes, average annual health care spending per capita would decline because of improvements in health. As a result, outlays for the major federal health care programmes would be lower for a number of years than they would be otherwise.

　　In addition, improvements in health could boost revenues by increasing earnings, in part because people might work longer than they would otherwise, thereby boosting the amount of federal revenues collected from income and payroll taxes.

　　However, over the long-term, federal spending would be higher for federal retirement and health care programmes as the number of beneficiaries rose because of greater longevity outweighing the decline in average annual health care spending per capita.

　　CBO's analysis suggests that increasing the excise tax on cigarettes by USD0.50 would reduce federal budget deficits by a total of about USD42bn in the period to 2021.

　　Additional revenues from the higher excise tax would total USD38bn between 2013 and 2021, according to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation. Improvements in health that allowed people to work more and be more productive would boost labour earnings and add roughly another USD3bn to revenues over that period.

　　Spending on the government's largest health care programmes, Medicare and Medicaid, would be slightly lower as people's health improved, while spending on Social Security would be slightly higher as more people lived longer. The net reduction in federal spending would be less than USD1bn over that period.

　　Over the longer term (until 2085 in its analysis), the CBO finds that the policy's effect on people's longevity would play a growing role, and federal spending would ultimately rise relative to the amounts projected under current law. The increase would continue to be very small, however, compared with the size of the programmes involved. Nevertheless, the net effect of the illustrative tax increase would be a reduction in the federal budget deficits by small amounts throughout the long-term projection period, primarily because of the additional excise tax receipts.