Although
all taxes discourage the behavior which is taxed, taxation is not
intrinsically bad. Certain taxation proposals are harmful only when
they effectively discourage behaviors which are good and necessary
for people to survive and thrive. The solution is simply to tax only behaviors which you intend to discourage; offering a tax incentive not to commit crimes and defraud
people.
Therefore
the least harmful tax is the Single Tax on the undeveloped value of
land, as opposed to improvements to land, which includes earnings /
income, sales / trade / consumption, and savings (behaviors necessary
for people to survive and thrive).
Conservatives
and Republicans tend to support sales taxation as a complement to
land taxes, while liberals and Democrats tend to support individual
income taxation to complement land taxes. The first steps towards
implementing the Single Tax involve eliminating the general sales tax
(as mostly liberal states Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, and
Delaware have done) and eliminating the general individual income tax
(as more or less conservative states Washington, Nevada, South
Dakota, Texas, and Florida have done).
New Hampshire has fully eliminated the general sales tax, but not the individual income tax. However, its state and local governments combined have some of the lowest percentage of revenues from individual income taxes in the country. Considering that the state's total revenues from landed property taxation is now around 60%, this means that states could feasibly double or even triple their total percentage of revenues from land taxation in order to make unnecessary general taxes on sales and income.
New Hampshire has fully eliminated the general sales tax, but not the individual income tax. However, its state and local governments combined have some of the lowest percentage of revenues from individual income taxes in the country. Considering that the state's total revenues from landed property taxation is now around 60%, this means that states could feasibly double or even triple their total percentage of revenues from land taxation in order to make unnecessary general taxes on sales and income.
From
there, the only major task in the way of enacting the Single Tax is
deciding whether, when, how, and in what order government should next
seek to abolish - and make unconstitutional - the remaining types of
taxes (which include selective sales and luxury taxes, and corporate
income and capital gains taxes).
For
more entries on land, land reform, and land taxation, please
visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/case-examination-of-policy-for-natural.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/case-examination-of-policy-for-natural.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/sen-cliven-bundy-harry-reid-owes-feds.html
For more entries on taxation, please visit:
For more entries on taxation, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/tax-cuts.html
For
more entries on theory of government, please visit:
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