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This book is designed to be a short, critical introduction to the controversies in tax policy. The main thesis of the book is that there is a deeper substructure to debates about tax policy that underlie many of the controversies. By understanding the nature of this substructure one can place the debates about tax policy into a broader perspective. The book elucidates this underlying architecture, drawing on ideas from economics, law, philosophy, psychology, and political science. It uses these tools to shed light on conventional debates on tax policy, such as whether to tax all sources of income or instead just tax consumption. It also touches on current and emerging debates. These include the appropriate goals for tax reform, the most judicious way to tax multinational corporations, our ability to tax the very wealthy, and whether the tax system has a racial subtext.
“A clear, up-to-date and even-handed guide to the leading controversies of tax policy that draws on economics, law, philosophy, psychology and political science. Sheffrin’s book is a great place to start to make sense of policy debates in which participants usually talk past each other” — Joel Slemrod is the David Bradford Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan and the Paul W. McCracken Collegiate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
List of Tables; Preface; 1.What Are Tax Policy Controversies About?; 2.The Rise and Fall of Classic Tax Reform; 3. Should We Tax Income or Consumption?; 4. Do We Need a New System to Tax Multinational Corporations?; 5. Competing Perspectives on Tax Fairness; 6. Is the Tax System Racially Biased?7. How Can We Tax the Very Wealthy?; 8. Looking Back, Looking Ahead; References; Index