Het vermogen te dragen

Tested parties with a better understanding of the impact of policy measures on the financial position of households. A household’s ability to pay is largely determined by other financial factors, such as manifestations of wealth (home ownership or investments, pension position). Non-quantifiable variables, such as type of income and household or family situation, are often even more important. The application of the model based on these premises to the changes in income tax law in 2001 is the preliminary result of a quest to understand as well as possible the impact of policy measures. This brings us full circle. The levying of tax should be based on the moral ideal of the socio-legal community. The ability-to-pay principle is the guiding distribution criterion. The PAP category model is a tool that can be used to illustrate and analyse the impact of fiscal and non-fiscal policy measures on the ability to pay of clustered households. The changes to the treatment of capital and capital income made in the 2001 Tax Review have been described and analysed using an economic model. The changes in the prosperity and ability-to-pay position of the clustered households following this review have been illustrated, testing whether and, in my opinion, demonstrating that the PAP category model is a useful complement to the existing methodologies for recording the impact of policy measures on prosperity and ability to pay. This approach makes us better able to determine the implications of linking taxpayers’ contributions to public-sector spending to ‘ability to pay’.