Tax incentive

A tax incentive is an aspect of a country's tax code designed to incentivize, or encourage a particular economic activity.

Disambiguation

Many "tax incentives" simply remove part or all the burden of the tax from whatever market transaction is taking place. This is because almost all taxes impose what economists call an excess burden or a deadweight loss. Deadweight loss is the difference between the amount of economic productivity that would occur absent the tax and that which occurs with the tax imposed

This is illustrated by the following examples. If savings are taxed, people save less than they otherwise would. Tax non-essential goods and people buy less. Tax wages and people work less. And taxing activities like entertainment and travel reduces their consumption as well. Sometimes the goal is to reduce such market activity as in the case of taxing cigarettes. But reducing activity is most often not a goal because greater market activity is considered desirable.

When a tax incentive is spoken of, it usually means removing the tax (or a portion thereof) and thereby lessening the burden, really removing a disincentive. To understand how removing a tax increases the level of market exchange by removing the excess burden, it is possible to make an analogy with the use of carrots and sticks.