Wall Street Journal on a VAT

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/07/wall-street-journal-on-a-vat

The Wall Street Journal has a news-section article on the idea of a federal value-added tax, a topic we've been covering here for some time. The part of the Journal article that drew my attention was this:

"If you're looking for more revenue, I think raising rates under the current income tax probably is not a good idea and could do significant economic harm," says Eric Toder, a co-director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank. By contrast, a VAT "doesn't interfere with where goods are produced...and doesn't interfere with savings, investment and capital formation."

Nonpartisan doesn't really do the Tax Policy Center justice as far as a thumbnail description. I'm not saying it's partisan, but it is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, two center-left think tanks. That actually makes the claim that "raising rates under the current income tax probably is not a good idea and could do significant economic harm" even more newsworthy, because of the man-bites-dog aspect of a center-left institution opposing increases in income tax rates.

by Ira Stoll  |  Jul 12, 2010 at 10:37 am Related Topics:  Press, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list