Smart Taxes Smart Taxes by Carolyn Chase ringing common sense to taxes seems impossible, especially at this time of year. More importantly, NEW provides the solutions that are needed to resolve basic structural conflicts between environmental and economic goals. These solutions vitally are needed to bring our Byzantine tax code into 21st century.
Taxes form a massive incentive system shaping all measured economic activities.
Tax shifting means taxing the things we don't want, like pollution and traffic congestion, instead of taxing things we do want, like our paychecks and our businesses. Reorienting our tax systems to tax pollution and not paychecks would bolster the economy and allow local and state governments to abolish most of their existing taxes. By penalizing work, enterprise and investment, our current tax system reduces economic output. In the long term, this is just plain stupid. A smart tax system would tax pollution and reward enterprise.