tax expenditure

A tax expenditure is a tax provision that allows particular activities or goods to bear less than the usual tax. . Frequently governments have used these measures to exert control over economic development and personal preferences. . They have been used over the years to allow small businesses to pay much less than the usual rate of corporate tax, to grant special concessions (such as accelerated writeoffs) to manufacturing and resource activities to encourage development, and to provide tax credits for charitable donations. . Each of these provisions was designed to encourage a particular type of activity, but each also carried with it a reduction in overall tax revenues that had to be made up by other taxpayers. . Further, tax expenditures can frequently distort business and consumer choices, making the economy less efficient than it otherwise would be by shifting resources from more to less economically valued activities.