Surplus Revenue Research Articles

Can a charity charge for Filet Mignon?

Abstract This article considers whether there is any rule in Canadian charities law or the Canadian Income Tax Act prohibiting a registered charity from charging a fair market fee for the charitable goods or services it provides or from realizing a net surplus of revenues over expenses by charging such a fee. In particular, It considers whether a modern educational institution (such as a private university) may charge a market rate of tuition and remain a charity, even if it realizes a surplus of revenue over expenses while doing so.

What are the roles of consumers, automobile production enterprises, and the government in the process of banning gasoline vehicles? Evidence from a tripartite evolutionary game model

To alleviate the pressure on energy and the environment, and promote the upgrading of automobile industry, it is imperative to ban the sale of gasoline vehicles. Therefore, based on co-evolutionary game theory, we considered consumers, automobile production enterprises, and the government involved in banning gasoline vehicles. The main results are as follows. (1) When the potential benefits of enterprises selling gasoline vehicles exceeded the potential penalties, and the potential benefits of positive supervision for the government was less than the potential benefits of negative supervision, the policy of banning gasoline vehicles became invalid. (2) When the utility of non-gasoline vehicles (NGVs) was higher than the penalty for violations, the producers' excess revenue exceeded the research and development (R&D) investment in NGVs, and the excess incentive of the government was less than the cost of positive supervision, the system eventually reached the ideal evolutionary equilibrium status. (3) Changes in factors such as media exposure, the utility of NGVs, R&D investments, technical subsidies, and double integral prices affected the speed that the system moved toward an ideal equilibrium strategy. Our findings have significant implications for how to banning gasoline vehicles, which can guarantee the implementation effect of this policy.

Interdisciplinary Learning about People, Planet, and Profit in Germany

For several years, our university partnered with a manufacturing company in Germany that is well known for its sustainable business practices and generates revenues in excess of 2 billion Euro annu...

The Indirect Tax Canon, Apportionment, and Drafting a Constitutional Wealth Tax or Accrual-Income Tax Reform

The Constitution requires that “direct taxes” be “apportioned”—that is, that the revenues collected from each State be in proportion to population. Based on this obscure provision, prior scholarship has debated whether unapportioned wealth tax or related accrual-income tax reforms should generally be held constitutional, unconstitutional, or whether specific proposals should be held constitutional and others unconstitutional. This Article takes a different approach. Recognizing the real uncertainty about how the Supreme Court might ultimately decide, this Article explains how Congress can draft a reform to navigate through that uncertainty. Specifically, this Article explains how Congress can draft a wealth tax or accrual-income tax reform that should survive constitutional scrutiny regardless of how the Supreme Court might ultimately rule on the disputed constitutional questions. To that end, this Article argues that the long line of cases on direct and indirect taxes, combined with the 16th Amendment, synthesize into what we label as the “Indirect Tax Canon.” This Article further argues that courts following that Canon should uphold properly constructed wealth tax or accrual-income tax reforms structured as indirect taxes—without requiring apportionment. Yet this Article then additionally explains how Congress can bolster such reform proposals by drafting fallback provisions to easily transform these reforms into apportioned taxes, fairly and practically, in the event of the Court ruling that apportionment is required. Any interstate inequities from this can be remedied through a fiscal equalization program that would rebate excess revenues to poorer states. As a result, with careful drafting, the constitutional risks for a wealth tax or related accrual-income tax reform should be minimal.

Evaluating financial performance of commercial service airports in the United States

Studies on airport performance have focused primarily on productivity and operational efficiency. There are very few studies on airports’ financial viability and strength, especially those in the United States. Most of the U.S. commercial service airports are government-owned entities and operated for the service of the community rather than for profit, but expected to be financially self-sufficient and raise capital funds mainly through the bond markets. However, past studies of the financial performance of U.S. airports have relied on traditional profitability measures and financial efficiency measures that are more appropriate for airports owned and operated by for-profit entities. Based on the literature for non-profit organizations and the practices of credit rating agencies and government oversight bodies, this paper adopts six pertinent financial performance metrics to measure and compare the operational financial performance, leverage, and liquidity of 60 large and medium commercial service airports in the United States during the 2010–2017 period. The paper further examines factors that may affect airport financial performance. The results reveal that large hub airports have better liquidity while medium airports have better leverage during the study period. These results suggest that the effect of airport size on financial performance is inconclusive. Regression analysis shows that airports with high productive efficiency and those without a dominant carrier tend to have more surplus revenues for meeting their operational financial needs and capital spending and have better liquidity. The paper highlights the importance of using appropriate metrics to evaluate the financial performance of public sector entities and provides relevant information to bond investors. The devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on airports accentuate the significance of leverage and liquidity. Therefore, the financial metrics discussed in this paper would help support public policy debates and allocate public funds to the airports.

Paid to produce absolutely nothing? A Nash-Cournot analysis of a proposed power purchase agreement

We investigate the incentive, market-behavior, and welfare effects of a proposed profit guarantee and associated power purchase agreement (PPA), which was introduced to ensure that generating firms remain viable through periods of higher-than-normal costs. The PPA ensures a guaranteed profit level either by transferring excess revenues from the affected firms to consumers or levying a surcharge on consumers to fund a subsidy for the affected firms. We develop and analyze a stylized Nash-Cournot model of a wholesale electricity market to examine the incentive effects of the proposed PPA. We find that the proposed PPA has incentive impacts that are contrary to its stated aim. The PPA incentivizes uneconomic firms to remain in the market when otherwise they would exit and incentivizes the shutdown of otherwise economically viable firms to restrict output, increasing prices. We find that the effects are pronounced by the corporate-separation asset-ownership structure that is employed in many jurisdictions. The theoretical results of the Nash-Cournot analysis are illustrated with a numerical case study which shows the deleterious consumer- and social-welfare effects of this incentive scheme. We discuss practical implications for regulatory policy, namely, that the proposed mechanism is ill-conceived, inefficient, and creates perverse incentives.

Exploratory Evaluation of a Concept Combining Incentivized On-Demand Ridesharing with Congestion Pricing

This paper presents an innovative transportation demand management concept involving congestion pricing synergistically combined with incentivized on-demand ridesharing. An exploratory evaluation of the concept was undertaken using sketch-planning tools developed by the Federal Highway Administration. The analysis suggests that the concept could be financially viable, achieve significant economic benefits, and potentially generate surplus revenues that could be sufficient to address transportation funding gaps.

Sustainable Organic Corn Production with the Use of Flame Weeding as the Most Sustainable Economical Solution

Flame weeding is an alternative method of weed control. Essentially, it is a supplement to other physical and mechanical processes used in organic production. Weed control costs have a large share of the total cost of crop production. This study aimed to investigate hand weed hoeing’s cost-effectiveness, accompanied by inter-row cultivation and flame weeding applied in organic maize production using two different machines to determine the economically best solution. For this purpose, the prototype flame weeder and commercial flame-weeding machinery were used. Designed primarily for smaller fields, the prototype flame weeder was equipped with a cultivator and a 70 kg propane bottle. Commercial Red Dragon flame weeder, fitted with an 800 kg propane tank and featuring no cultivation implements, is designed for larger areas. The analysis has shown that hand hoeing produced a higher yield (8.3 t/ha in total), but it contributed significantly to the production costs. The costs per hectare decreased when the prototype flame weeder and the commercial Red Dragon flame weeder were used compared to hand hoeing. More beneficial economic impacts were recorded when the prototype flame weeder was used (489.39 €/ha) than in applying the Red Dragon flame weeder (456.47 €/ha). The efficacy of flame weeding is somewhat limited and could be enhanced by additional hand hoeing, if the effect of the machine in terms of weeding is observed. However, the analysis has shown that, in this case, investments in additional hand hoeing are not economically justified because the operating costs incurred therein (168 €/ha) were not met by a yield increase of 500 kg/ha, i.e., a surplus revenue of 100 €/ha. Moreover, the economic impacts of flame weeding would be considerably more significant in larger fields.

The Impact of Selfish Mining on Bitcoin Network Performance

Selfish mining strategy allows miners to gain unfair advantage and excess revenue in Bitcoin network, but it also disrupts the normal operation of the network. In this work, we analyze the impact of selfish behavior on the Bitcoin network through a number of performance indicators such as network connectivity, block arrival rate, node response time, and block delivery time for selfish and honest blocks, respectively. We also discuss the probability of unintentional as well as intentional forks. We have found that the impact of selfish mining on network performance is noticeable, and in extreme cases, disproportional to the number of selfish miners or their hash power compared to honest nodes. Our analysis has also found that forking probability is dominated by intentional forking resulting from selfish behavior, which has the potential to increase the ledger inconsistency time and open the door to security attacks.

СУТНІСТЬ ДОХОДІВ ТА ПРИБУТКУ НЕПРИБУТКОВИХ УСТАНОВ ТА ПІДХОДИ ДО ЇХ ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ

The key characteristic of the XXI century is the rapid development of productive resources and information technologies. This feature results in the fast development of new and existing forms of entities and to the globalization of their activities. Non-profit organizations, regardless of organizational and legal form, are beginning to play a significant role in the socio-political and economic life of modern states. Such organizations promote the development of civil society and freedom of speech, and they can be a tool for achieving both the long-term and short-term goals of the state, or a group of people united on a certain basis. That is why the legal and tax regulation of non-profit organizations is an important factor in their development and serves as a tool to control the activities of non-profit institutions by the state. By regulation of the kinds of non-profit activity, the state may promote concepts of national development as, for example, an increase of life term through granting non-profit status to sports clubs and defined hospitals. Such an approach, in the long-term perspective, may result in economic growth through an increase of lifecycle of productive resources. As of today, one of the most discursive categories related to accounting and taxation of non-profit organizations is the concept of profit which appears as a result of excess revenue of the non-profit organization over expenses related to the execution of the statutory activity. In this article, the approaches to the definition of the concept of profit and income of a non-profit institution were analyzed through the analysis of existing approaches to its definition applied to classical business entities, also the definition of a profit of a non-profit organization was proposed. Additionally, possible sources of income of a non-profit institution in accordance with current legislation, and the peculiarities of payment of remuneration to employees of non-profit institutions were analyzed. Moreover, based on the normative requirements of the Ukrainian state authorities the general formula for calculation of the taxable income of non-profit organizations was designed.

Predicting the actual location of faults in underground optical networks using linear regression

AbstractOptical cables are enormous transmission media that carry high‐speed data across transatlantic, intercontinental, international boundaries, and cities. The optical cable is essential in data communication. The cable has become an indispensable component in optical communications infrastructure; hence, conscious efforts are always adopted to prevent or minimize faults in the optical network infrastructure. Typically, tracing fault in the underground optical network has been difficult even though the optical time‐domain reflectometer (OTDR) has been used to measure the distance of faults in the underground fiber cable. The methodologies deployed in the reviewed literature indicate a vast gap between the fault distance measured by the OTDR and the actual distance of fault. This paper observed the difficulties involved in tracing the actual spot of fault in the underground optical networks. The difficulty of tracing these underground faults mostly result in an undue delay and loss of revenue. This research presents a machine learning approach to predict the actual location of a fiber cable fault in an underground optical transmission link. Linear regression in the python sci‐kit learn library was used to predict the actual location of a fault in an underground optical network. The mean square error and MAE evaluation matrix used provided good accuracy results of 0.061291 and 0.080143, respectively. The result obtained in this paper indicates that faults in underground optical networks can be found quickly to avoid the delays in the fault tracing process, which leads to an excessive revenue loss.

Participation by design: Integrating a social ecological approach with universal design to increase participation and add value for consumers

BackgroundPhysical activity is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. Health clubs encourage sustained healthy lifestyles but are still largely not accessible to people with disabilities. Cost is a barrier for accessibility enhancements. HypothesisWe postulate that: (A) universal design coupled with a social ecological approach improves measured accessibility compared with existing fitness facilities constructed since the adoption of the ADA; (B) increased accessibility coupled with an environment friendly to people with disabilities attracts more participants to a YMCA than predicted by traditional industry market research producing a recovery of the cost of increased accessibility; and (C) attitudes of facility members toward people with disabilities may improve if an accessible facility facilitates more personal interactions between people with and without disabilities. MethodsAccessibility is measured with the Accessibility Instruments Measuring Fitness and Recreation Environments (AIMFREE). Cost recovery is determined by comparing excess membership revenue to the cost of universal design elements beyond regulatory requirements, and attitudes toward people with disabilities are measured with the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale. ResultsAIMFREE scores were significantly higher than comparison facilities in all areas except for equipment, parking, training, and programs. Excess revenue exceeded the extra cost of accessibility enhancements and attitudes toward people with disabilities did not change. ConclusionsUniversal design coupled with a social ecological approach improves accessibility in fitness facilities and results in a reasonable payback time. Attitudes toward people with disabilities did not change in a YMCA designed to accommodate people with disabilities.

Clarifications of and improvements to the equations used to calculate the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), and comments on the weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is a metric commonly used in the academic literature. Electricity-supply projects can be financed by the project developer, equity partners, or through debt, with the timing of investments and returns different for all three. The LCOE metric is equally applicable to all three sources of financing although the calculation does not explicitly represent these differences in timing. The LCOE metric implicitly assumes that surplus revenue earned during the operation of a powerplant can be re-invested with a rate of return equal to the return on equity, an assumption that is not valid. A modified LCOE equation that accounts for this difference and for steadily declining output and increasing O&M costs is presented here. The errors entailed in using a simple weighting of the returns to equity and debt (the weighted average cost of capital, WACC) in the non-linear LCOE equation entails an error of less than 0.5% if the interest rate on surplus revenues equals the discount rate. Otherwise, it is necessary to separately consider the equity and debt financing portions (even if returns to equity and debt are the same, as the modified LCOE equation applies only to the debt portion). • The LCOE equation is equally applicable to alternative financing structures. • A modified LCOE equation accounts for interest rate differing from discount rate. • A modified LCOE equation accounts for increasing O&M costs and declining output. • Use of WACC should be abandoned in favor of separate debt and equity calculations.

Calculation of Exclusive Right Contribution Rate (Excess Revenue Rate) Based on Exclusive License Royalty & Non-exclusive License Royalty in Calculating Employee Invention Remuneration

Calculation of Exclusive Right Contribution Rate (Excess Revenue Rate) Based on Exclusive License Royalty & Non-exclusive License Royalty in Calculating Employee Invention Remuneration

A nem kormányzati szervezetek Kenyában

The role of African civic and non-governmental organizations has grown exponentially over the past ten years. Their number in Kenya has reached eleven thousand, with annual revenues in excess of one and a half billion dollars. However, the country has come a long way since the “difficult 1990s”, Kenya’s period of democratization. Fostering cooperation between NGOs and the government continues to have its problems, but without “civilians” there would be a huge gap in the field of development aid. In our article, we have reviewed the history and regulatory framework of the non-governmental sector in Kenya and its re-emergence.

Achieving self-sustainability of service delivery in an eye care program in Madagascar using time-driven activity based costing

BackgroundIn the absence of adequate and reliable external funding, eye care programs in developing countries need a high level of financial self-sustainability for maintenance and growth. To cope with these cost pressures, an eye care program in Sava, Madagascar adopted a Time-Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC) methodology to better manage the cost of, and to improve revenue associated with, their three principle activities: consultation visits, cataract operations, and sale of glasses.MethodsDirect (variable) and indirect (fixed) cost estimates and revenue sources were gathered by activity (consultation, cataract operation, sale of glasses) and location (hospital or outreach) and TDABC models were established. Estimates were made of the proportion of the ophthalmologist’s time (by far the scarcest and most expensive resource) dedicated to consultation, cataract operation, or sale of glasses. These proportions were used to attribute costs by activity. The hospital manager and medical director modified staff roles, program activities, and infrastructure investments to reduce costs and expand revenue sources by activity while monitoring activity specific efficiency and profit.ResultsThe TDABC model for patient consultations showed that they were time consuming for the ophthalmologist and only resulted in net profit for the institution if the ophthalmologist converted most cataract patients into accepting surgery and refractive error patients into purchasing glasses from the hospital optical shop. The TDABC model for cataract surgery showed the programs needed to reduce the cost of imported consumable surgical products, reduce operation time, and, most importantly, reduce the number of very costly surgical camps providing essentially free surgery. In addition the model pushed the hospital to train staff in marketing skills so that a higher proportion of cataract cases come directly to the hospital willing to pay for surgery. The TDABC model provided the optical shop manager, for the first time, data on both the cost of supplies (frames and lenses) and the price of glasses sold resulting in strategies to maximize profit through preferential product presentation and customer experience. The eye program in the Sava region in northern Madagascar improved its cost recovery from 68 to 102% through patient revenue.ConclusionsTDABC models helped the Sava eye care program develop more efficient service delivery and increase revenue in excess of steadily increasing costs.

Optimization of parabolic trough power plant operations in variable irradiance conditions using all sky imagers

The continuously growing penetration of intermittent electricity sources will increase the future demand for dispatchable power plants, which balance out fluctuations within the electrical grids. Parabolic trough power plants with thermal energy storages could be one renewable solution for regions with a high yearly direct normal irradiance (DNI) sum, but in order to compete against other renewable as well as non-renewable technologies, the economic competitiveness must be ensured. Price reductions can be achieved for example by optimizing the plant operation. One shortcoming of state of the art plant controllers is that they only use the DNI measured at one or a few positions in the solar field. Due to the spatial variability of the DNI throughout the solar field this DNI information can be misleading.In this paper, we investigate the optimization potential of solar field control strategies with access to spatially resolved DNI information from all sky imagers (ASI). Uncertainties of the ASI system are considered by introducing additional independent spatial DNI information from a shadow camera system. The spatial and temporal DNI variability of the DNI seen by the controller is classified in distinct DNI variability classes. Two new control strategies are developed, with optimized control parameters for distinct combinations of the spatial and temporal DNI variability classes.These new variability class dependent control strategies are benchmarked in a simulation environment. A relative increase in revenue in excess of 1.9% is observed over a test period with 22 days, compared to a state of the art reference controller.

Equity in the Distribution of Tax Preferences for Pensions: Capping the Amount Allowable in Tax-Preferenced Retirement Plans

Tax-preferenced retirement plans are designed to be vehicles for saving for retirement, not massive tax shelters for wealthy individuals. Because tax preferences for retirement savings cause a loss in federal tax revenue, and are one of the largest sources of tax expenditures, it has long been a principle in pension policy and tax law in the United States and in other countries to limit the amount of retirement tax preferences an individual can receive. Specifically, U.S. tax law sets limits on the maximum benefit provided by a tax-preferenced defined benefit plan and the maximum contribution to either a tax-preferenced defined contribution plan or individual retirement account (“IRA”). It was never the intent of Congress, the tax policy, or pension policy communities that tax-preferenced plans should provide a tax preference for wealthy individuals to accumulate massive savings in retirement plans. Indeed, the conventional understanding of providing tax subsidies for the affluent to save for retirement is not to incentivize them to save, since the affluent will save adequately without such incentives, but to induce them to establish plans to capture tax benefits for themselves and then require them to include rank-and-file employees in the plans thus established. The purpose of the section 415 limits is to control the tax subsidies for the wealthy so that the tax incentives for them to establish plans do not impose excessive revenue loss to the government treasury.

Using a 'Debt Brake' to Solve Colorado's Debt Crisis

In recent years debt in Colorado has increased at an unsustainable rate. A debt brake is simulated for the Colorado economy. When the debt brake is triggered the spending cap imposed by the Tabor Amendment is reduced, with surplus revenue earmarked for debt reduction. The simulation analysis reveals that with the debt brake in place, over two decades debt in Colorado could be reduced to a sustainable level.

Chemchina-Sinochem: The New Mega-Company

There are rumours that ChemChina and Sinochem will announce shortly that they will merge although both parties deny that such a plan is in place. If and when it happens it will completely change the landscape of China's chemical industry. Such a new company will surpass the Dow DuPont merger to become the world's largest chemical group with annual revenues in excess of $110 billion. This would place the combined group, with units spanning seeds to iron ore trading to oil, at the forefront of the consolidating global agricultural chemicals sector. It is claimed that the move will be the final piece in the jigsaw of President Xi Jinping's plan to consolidate the debt-laden state enterprises.