By Alan Thein Durning and Yoram Bauman
“Revolution comes in small packages.” – Independent Publisher
In the other Washington, there’s always talk of scrapping the federal tax code. It’s no mystery why. The Internal Revenue Code runs to 7.5 million words and occupies, with regulations, one and one-half feet of shelf space. But complexity is not the worst fault of taxdom.
The biggest and least-discussed problem is this: We tax the wrong things. Mostly, we tax things we want more of, such as paychecks and enterprise, not things we want less of, such as pollution and resource depletion. Naturally, we get less money and more messes. Doing the opposite would yield double dividends: cleaner air and flusher bank accounts. Tax Shift is a blueprint for a revolt that would get taxes off our backs and onto our side.
Tax Shift PDF (2930 downloads )
This book is also available for purchase from Amazon.
Here are a few links to key fact sheets from Tax Shift.
- Green Taxes: How to use Cascadia’s tax system to improve the region’s long-term well-being.
- Use Fuel Taxes Wisely: Using gas taxes to fuel alternative transportation.
Alan Durning is executive director of Sightline. Yoram Bauman holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington.
