Implementing a (Modern) Progressive Consumption Tax
47 Pages Posted: 4 May 2021
Date Written: April 29, 2021
Abstract
Progressively taxing consumption has much normative appeal, but previous legal scholarship has incorrectly assumed that directly accounting for the expenditures of individual taxpayers is administratively infeasible. Changes in consumer spending and advances in technology require revisiting this assumption. This Article proposes a novel framework through which an individual accounting progressive consumption tax (“IAPCT”) can be implemented and establishes the IAPCT’s superiority to previously proposed forms of progressive consumption taxation. IAPCT advantages include a significant reduction in tax filing costs, improved enforcement, and the immediate deployment of place-based tax policy.
Keywords: tax policy, consumption tax, progressivity
JEL Classification: K34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation