To take just one example, let's look at a noise tax. At the Zaventem airport in Belgium, airlines are charged for the noise their planes emit. If this charge were simply a flat fee per airplane landing at the airport, there would be no incentive to make less noise. But the tax is higher for noisier aircraft, and also higher if the landing time is more likely to cause disturbance to the airport's neighbors. By contouring the tax in this way, the Belgians have built in incentives for the airlines to use less noisy aircraft and to use the airport at times that cause less disturbance.
Companies can plan effectively if they can predict the economic outlook for their business reliably.
If governments raise your taxes one year, cut them the next, and change tax laws in random fashion, a business will be less likely to invest for the future. If taxes affecting a certain business are solidly predictable, however, a business can make long-term calculations and commitments with much more reliability. The most noticeable example of this comes from Germany. Germany has levied a water-effluent charge since 1981, applied to the discharge of toxic substances into water. Some pollutants are taxed more heavily than others, based on their perceived dangers.