Summary. In a national study of almost 7000 primary school children, parents' perceptions were used to test the hypothesis that the child's irritability was associated with food intolerance independently of other symptoms. After adjustment in a multiple regression analysis for asthma or wheeze, cough, eczema, hives, diarrhoea and vomiting, rhinitis, hay fever and headache, and the social factors of father's social class, maternal education and maternal age, a highly significant association between perception of food intolerance and irritability (P<0.001) remained. Though we cannot rule out that irritable children's parents could be biased towards diagnosing food intolerance the possibility that some children do have behavioural disturbance associated with reactions to food needs to be explored further, preferably with a double blind challenge assessment.
The recent secular trend in height of primary school children was estimated using data from schools participating in the National Study of Health and Growth in 1972, 1979 and 1986. About 50% of the trends from 1972 to 1979 for English and Scottish boys and girls were accounted for by changes in family size, with some contribution from increases in parental height and from birthweight, but almost none from changes in social class distribution. Estimates for 1979-1986 showed that the trend towards increased height in five-to eleven-year-old children has now ceased.
Is it a reasonable alternative to raise federal revenue ? The value-added (VAT) is viewed widely as a panacea for much-needed deficit reduction and revenue generation in the United States. The popular argument is the VAT is a relatively painless tax, since consumers may not know the amount of they actually are paying. The VAT also is viewed as * A that does not affect business profits. * A tremendous revenue raiser with relatively low rates. * A self-enforcing collection process. * An encouragement to save. * A textbook answer to the nation's balance-of-payments problem. In addition to raising revenue, policy also must satisfy a nation's social, economic and political aims. The pros and cons of a VAT can be debated at length in these terms. In his landmark work, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith outlined five characteristics of a tax: equity, neutrality, certainty, economy and simplicity (see the sidebar on page 47 for more complete definitions). For a to be good it should meet one or more of Smith's five characteristics or be desirable in terms of one of the three aims listed above. Should the United States adopt a VAT? Within the framework of these eight characteristics and aims, this article will examine this question to determine if a VAT is a logical solution to the nation's economic and budget woes. COMPUTING THE VAT As the name implies, a VAT is a on the value added at each stage of a product's production, distribution or retail sale. In its most common form, it simply is the on a company's sales minus the paid on the company's purchases. This is the credit (invoice) method of computing the VAT. (See the exhibit on page 48, for a Treasury Department description of three methods of computing VAT.) The subtraction method VAT creates fewer administrative burdens for both government and taxpayers since information to compute it already is available on businesses' federal income returns. This method, however, would be difficult to administer if Congress created many different rates and exempted or zero-rated goods or businesses. Under the addition method, a company's VAT base is primarily untaxed inputs (wages, salaries, depreciation, profit and interest). The base is simply multiplied by the rate. Most countries do not consider this method as an alternative; the European Community (E C) requires use of the invoice method. Given the need for flexibility in administering any tax, some experts consider the credit method the best for the United States. There are three methods of treating VAT paid on capital purchases: * Consumption method. Gross purchases are added to all other inputs. * Income method. The VAT paid is amortized. * Gross product method. No deduction is permitted for VAT paid. The consumption method is most common and also considered best for the United States. VAT-HISTORY AND CURRENT STATUS The VAT is a multistage tax; the retail sales is a single-stage tax. Many European countries have had one of these taxes for many years. Even before the first VAT (in France in 1954) European countries had a turnover tax on each stage of a product's production. In the late 1960s, other countries joined the VAT movement: Denmark, 1967; Germany, 1968; and the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, 1969. Today all 12 members have a VAT as part of their system. The Organization for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) includes 17 European countries, Japan, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. Of these 23 nations, at least 19 use a form of VAT. The latest countries to join the ranks were Japan in 1989 and Canada in 1990. The credit method currently is used by 18 of the 19 OECD nations that have a VAT. In the United States, the VAT has been discussed at the national level since President Richard Nixon's Task Force on Business Taxation proposed a VAT as a corporate income alternative. …
STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aim was to investigate relationships for residents of English district health authorities between rates of discharges from acute hospitals for all conditions and variations in discharge rates for eight common conditions (five surgical, three medical). DESIGN--Hospital Inpatient Enquiry data on discharges for 1984 were analysed. Standardised discharge ratios (ratios of actual to expected numbers of discharges x 100) were derived for selected conditions and all conditions; and correlation coefficients for these statistics were calculated. Districts were grouped into quintiles according to the value of the standardised discharge ratio, and systematic variation within each quintile was calculated for the selected conditions. SETTING--The study involved all 192 English district health authorities, but 57 were excluded because the proportion of unspecified diagnoses exceeded 5%. PATIENTS--The analyses were based on 336,799 cases from 135 districts. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--Discharge ratios for the medical conditions and one surgical condition were significantly correlated with the levels of total discharge rates (p less than 0.01). The medical conditions showed greater systematic variation in discharge ratios than the surgical conditions. There was no consistent pattern in the values of systematic variation for the selected conditions across the different levels of discharge ratios for all conditions. CONCLUSIONS--It is argued that the changes in the NHS introduced in April 1991 are intended to introduce greater equity in the standardised discharge ratios and increase the total numbers of discharges. The results of this analysis suggest that, even if these objectives were achieved, they may not result in increased levels of elective care, nor result in greater equity in terms of rates of discharge for individual conditions.
IRC Sec. 165(a) allows as a deduction any loss sustained during the taxable year and not compensated for by insurance or otherwise. Included in the Sec. 165(c) list of allowed losses is a loss due to theft. Treas. Regs. Sec. 1.165-8(d) provides a basic definition of theft. Theft ..shall be deemed to include, but shall not necessarily be limited to larceny, embezzlement, and robbery. Rev. Rul. 72-112 states Considering the broad general meaning of theft, it must be presumed that Congress used the term 'theft' so as to cover any theft, or felonious taking of money or property by which a taxpayer sustains a loss, whether defined and punishable under the penal codes of the states as larceny, robbery, burglary, embezzlement, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, threats, or blackmail. The existence of criminal intent is an important element. As with most deductions, the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer. There are three elements of theft that a taxpayer must prove the: loss was caused by theft, amount of the loss, and year in which the loss was discovered. Treas. Regs. Sec. 1.165-1(d)(2) disallows loss deduction for any portion of a loss for which there is a prospect of recovery...until it can be ascertained with reasonable certainty whether or not such reimbursement will be received. A theft loss must be claimed in the year of discovery of the loss (absent reasonable prospect of recovery) regardless of the year the loss was sustained. The year of discovery is the year ...when a reasonable man in similar circumstances would have realized the fact that he had suffered a theft A theft loss is postponed if there exists a reasonable prospect of recovery. If the claim for recovery later becomes worthless, the result is a bad debt deduction under IRC Sec. 166. As recently as March 2004, the IRS has reaffirmed that it will disallow any theft loss deduction for a in market value of stock purchased on the open market even if the decline in market value of their stock [was] caused by disclosure of accounting fraud or other illegal misconduct of the officers or directors of the corporation that issued the stock. Seizure of property by a foreign government certainty seems like theft to a taxpayer suffering a loss. However, even when property is taken by a government, the requirement of criminal intent still applies and no loss is allowed. Theft of inventory is another instance where a theft loss is not allowed. The accounting treatment for lost inventory results in an increase in cost of goods sold; the same reduction of income that would be achieved by recording a loss deduction.
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