Asingle taxis a system of taxation based mainly or exclusively on one tax, typically chosen for its special properties, often being atax on land value.[1][2]
Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de BoisguilbertandSébastien Le Prestre de Vaubanwere early advocates for a single tax, but, rejecting the claim thatlandhas certain economic properties which make it uniquely suitable for taxation, they instead proposed aflat taxon allincomes.[3]
In the late 19th and early 20th century, apopulistsingle tax movement emerged which also sought to levy a single tax on the rental value of land and natural resources, but for somewhat different reasons.[4]This "Single Tax" movement later became known asGeorgism,after its most famous proponentHenry George.It proposed a simplified and equitable tax system that upholds natural rights and whose revenue is based exclusively on ground andnatural resourcerents,with no additional taxation of improvements such as buildings. Somelibertariansadvocate landvalue captureas a consistentlyethicalandnon-distortionarymeans to fund the essential operations of government, the surplus rent being distributed as a type of guaranteedbasic income,traditionally called thecitizen's dividend,to compensate those members of society who by legal title have been deprived of an equal share of the earth's spatial value and equal access to natural opportunities (seegeolibertarianism).
Related taxes derived in principle from the land value tax includePigouvian taxesto internalize theexternal costsof pollution more efficiently than litigation, as well asseverance taxeson raw material extraction to regulate the depletion of unreplenishable natural resources and to prevent irreparable damage to valuable ecosystems through unsustainable practices such asoverfishing.
There have been other proposals for a single tax concerning property, goods, or income.[5]Others have made proposals for a single tax based on other revenue models, such as theFairTaxproposal for aconsumption taxand variousflat taxproposals on personal incomes.[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"English definition of" single tax "".Cambridge University Press.Retrieved14 December2014.
- ^Shearman, Thomas G. (1899)."The Single Tax: What and Why".American Journal of Sociology.4(6):742–757.ISSN0002-9602.
The single tax, therefore, implies the total abolition of all taxes upon personal property, buildings, and improvements, of all custom tariffs, all excise duties, all stamp duties, all poll taxes, and, in short, every tax of every description, except that which is now levied upon the rent of bare land.
- ^Steiner, Phillippe (2003)"Physiocracy and French Pre-Classical Political Economy",Chapter 5. in eds. Biddle, Jeff E, Davis, Jon B, &Samuels, Warren J.:A Companion to the History of Economic Thought.Blackwell Publishing,2003.
- ^Young, Nichols (1916).The single tax movement in the United States.Princeton University Press.Retrieved2012-10-21.
- ^Seligman (1894). "The Income Tax".Political Science Quarterly.9(4):610–648.doi:10.2307/2139851.JSTOR2139851.
- ^"Calls for single 30% income tax rate"