烟草在线据Tax-News.com报道编译　　某些州，特别是加利福尼亚，希望增加卷烟税，来获得额外的收入减少财政赤字，美国国会预算办公室(CBO)已经描述了提高联邦消费税会如何缓解卫生支出的压力，并能减少联邦预算的压力。

　　在一项研究中，CBO指出，由于美国联邦政府每年为卫生保健计划支出约1万亿美元，不难想象，促进人们更健康的政策，在这种情况下指的是戒烟，可能会给联邦预算带来重大影响。

　　它认为，假想在2013财政年度，对每包卷烟和小雪茄增加0.50美元的联邦消费税，小雪茄的从1.01美元增长到1.51美元，增加幅度每年都进行调整以跟得上通货膨胀，从长期来看，与人们的收入增长一致。

　　CBO发现，随着卷烟消费税的增加，平均每年人均的医疗保健支出将下降，因为健康状况改善了。因此，这项主要的联邦卫生保健计划的支出将比多年来的降低了，否则不会下降。

　　此外，健康状况的改善可能会通过收入的增加促进税收，部分是因为人们会比其他情况下工作的时间更长，从而使联邦从收入和工资税中征收的税收收入增加了。

　　然而，在长期来看，联邦会增加对联邦退休和医疗保健计划的开支，因为受益者的数量增加了，因为对长寿者的开支超过了平均每年人均医疗保健支出的减少。

　　CBO的分析表明，卷烟消费税增加0.50美元，将把联邦预算赤字减少到2021年的总计约420亿美元。

　　据税收联合委员会估算，在2013年和2021年间，更高的消费税所产生的额外收入将总共380亿美元。在此期间，健康状况的改善，使人们能更多地工作而且更富有成效，将提高劳动力收入，增加大约30亿美元的收入。

　　政府在最大的卫生保健计划即医疗保险和医疗补助计划上的开支，会略低，因为人们的健康改善了，而社会保障支出会略高，因为越来越多的人寿命更长了。在此期间，联邦支出的净减少会不到10亿美元。

　　从长期来看(在其分析中直到2085年)，CBO发现，该政策对人们的长寿将发挥越来越大的作用，与现行法律下的数额相比，联邦支出最终将上升。但是，相对于所涉及项目规模，增加的幅度将继续非常小。然而，主要由于额外的消费税收入，在长期的计划期间，税收增加将小幅减少联邦预算赤字。

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.