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Michael J. Boskin, together with many of the world's leading scholars and policy makers who met at a Washington, D. C., conference in May 1995 sponsored by the Hoover Institution, sheds light on five major tax reform proposals now finding strong proponents in Congress: flat tax, value-added tax, national retail sales tax, the Nunn-Domenici USA Tax, and a hybrid progressive consumption tax.The unique insights offered here represent the first authoritative perspective on the current tax reform debate.These essays first provide a useful framework for understanding key issues,and proposed fundamental goals for tax reform and then evaluate the benefits and consequences of each alternative.This volume will be an indispensable resource for those wishing to evaluate how fundamental tax reform can best restore strong economic growth.

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In the natural order, virtue and vice each carries its own consequences. On the one hand, virtue yields largely positive results. Hard work, patience, and carefulness, for example, tend to generate prosperity. Vice, on the other hand, brings negative consequences. Sloth, impatience, and recklessness, for example, tend toward suffering.

In Slaying Leviathan, Leslie Carbone argues that since the early twentieth century, U.S. tax policy has been designed to mitigate the natural economic results of both virtue and vice. When the government disrupts the natural order through taxation by creating incentives and disincentives that overturn these natural consequences, the government perverts its own function and becomes part of the problem—a contributor to social breakdown—rather than part of the solution or an instrument of justice.

Slaying Leviathan envisions an approach to tax policy rooted in natural justice. To achieve this goal, Carbone first traces the historical evolution of U.S. tax policy, from the 1765 Stamp Act to the 1997 tax cut. She then assesses the current American tax burden and George W. Bush’s tax cuts and explores the fundamental problems with U.S. tax policy. After providing a historical analysis of federal spending and of expanding governmental expectations, she offers a set of over-arching principles and instructions on how to apply them to tax policy proposals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A valiant attempt still falls short
Leslie Carbone conducts a sufficiently comprehensive yet readable survey of American tax history.The author crisply points out the moral perils that have attended taxation throughout (a relevant period of) history.Where the work falls short, in my view, is in lighting the path out of the moral morass, and this is especially interesting because as my sister in Christ, Leslie Carbone definitely recognises the sin nature of man as manifested in government.

Ideas have consequences.I am fond of saying that the tombstone of a civilisation may be laid at precisely that point where truth is no longer defended because it cannot be known.In no area of American life is this more true than with respect to the 96-year-long check-skimming scam run by the U.S. Congress.In the Age of Obamanation, these scoundrels no longer even attempt to mask their disdain for the Supreme Law, and for their constituents -- the working hosts of their parasitic lives.

The author entirely misses this, the century-long real game in American 'tax policy'.Painting the IRS as the black-hooded executioner to mask its own scandalous corruption, Congress skates free through trillion-dollar heists; smiling all the while.Note the member of Congress' attitude?It is of the untouchable Latin American drug kingpin.Beyond the law because they WRITE the law, and then defraud their hosts about what the law says.

A far shorter read than Ms. Carbone's book -- and I promise you, a far more educational and valuable one to your future -- is the "Tax Honesty Primer" (Google it) online.It is not only a much shorter read (ca. 2 hours) but takes the fraudulent bull by the horns, and shows the hapless Taxpayer not only the history of the largest financial fraud in human history -- but exactly how we 67 million non-filers escaped the "fair share" line.

I would still buy Leslie Carbone's book; it's an excellent survey and analysis.But there are far more efficacious ways forward, for those who have had their fill of thieves and scoundrels; who are willing to perform due diligence; and who have stopped fearing their employees.

Taxation And Morality
There have been plenty of books and policy papers written, plenty of speeches and television and radio interviews, about the economic reasons that high progressive taxation is a bad idea. We've heard many times about how it restricts innovation by discouraging investments, or how higher tax rates actually have the seemingly perverse impact of decreasing government revenue, while lower tax rates lead to more money in the Treasury. Those arguments have been made and re-made, stated and re-stated, so many times that most fiscal conservatives can restate them on their own.

What we haven't seen very often, though, is an argument about tax policy from a moral perspective, an examination of the impact that tax policy has on society in the manner that it punishes good behavior and rewards bad behavior. That is exactly the argument that Leslie Carbone takes up here, and it's a welcome addition to the debate.

Through a combination of history, economic analysis, and good old-fashioned common sense, Carbone demonstrates quite clearly how tax policies over the past 70 years or longer have succeeded in sending the wrong signals to citizens and helped to encourage behaviors that have adverse consequences for individuals and society as a whole. In one compelling section, Carbone examines the immorality behind the IRS's tax enforcement mechanism.

The book concludes with an insightful analysis of the various tax reform proposals that have been made in recent years, ranging from the flat tax to the national sales tax, and makes clear that only reform that allows the people to keep more of what they earn can ever be considered moral.

For a quick read, this is an excellent edition to the voluminous literature condemning the leviathan that has become America's tax system.

An Outstanding Book on Taxation
Slaying Leviathan is an excellent mix of history lesson and moral argument for and against taxation in the United States.This is a well written and researched book. It is written in a language that is easy for the average person to grasp the concepts without being condescending.Ms Carbone makes several profound points equating the compensation we receive (money) for our labor and progressive and regressive taxes.She also makes an excellent analysis of the current suggestions for tax reform under the rubric of morality and "fairness".

I learned more from reading Ms Carbone's book than from sitting 4 years of high school and 2 years of college history and civics.I recommend that Slaying Leviathan be used as a primmer on taxation in any economics or government class.Home schoolers take note.

[...] ... Read more

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Winning entry, Professional Cover/Jacket Category, in the 2009 New England Book Show sponsored by Bookbuilders of Boston.

Reform of the federal income tax system has become a perennial item on the domestic policy agenda of the United States, although there is considerable uncertainty over specifics. Indeed the recent report of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform recommended not one but two divergent policy directions (and included extensive discussion of a third). In Fundamental Tax Reform, top experts in tax policy discuss a wide range of issues raised by the prospect of significant tax reform, identifying the most critical questions and considering whether the answers are known, unknown—or unknowable.

The debates over tax reform usually concern the advantages and disadvantages of income-based taxation as opposed to any of the several alternative forms of consumption-based taxation. The book opens with chapters that discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and political feasibility of these options. Other chapters consider the effects of tax reforms on businesses, especially their investment behavior, and include a discussion of possible problems in any transition to a consumption-based tax; international taxation issues arising in an era of globalization; and individual behavioral response to tax reform, including a view of the topic from the perspective of the relatively new field of behavioral economics.

Contributors:
Rosanne Altshuler, Alan J. Auerbach, John W. Diamond, Harry Grubert, Arnold C. Harberger, Kevin A. Hassett, Thomas J. Kniesner, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Edward J. McCaffery, Kathryn Newmark, David Rapson, Daniel Shaviro, Joel Slemrod, James P. Ziliak, George R. Zodrow.

Discussants:
James Alm, Henry J. Aaron, Charles L. Ballard, Leonard E. Burman, Robert S. Chirinko, Robert D. Dietz, Malcolm Gillis, Roger H. Gordon, Jane G. Gravelle, Timothy S. Gunning, James M. Poterba, Thomas S. Neubig, Alan Viard, George Yin. ... Read more

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This book brings together research from some of the world's leading tax economists to discuss appropriate directions for tax reform in small open economies.

The eminent contributors (including Altshuler, Creedy, Freebairn, Gravelle, Heady, Kalb, Sørensen and Zodrow) investigate the beneficial directions for medium-term tax reform in the light of global developments and lessons from the latest taxation research. In addressing this issue, they review recent advances in both the theoretical and empirical tax literature and reform evidence from individual countries. Topics covered include the impact of taxes on economic performance; international and corporate taxation; personal tax and welfare systems; environmental taxation; and country-specific tax reform experiences.

Bringing together leading international experts to explore specific policy reforms, this book will prove essential reading for academics and researchers of public economics, fiscal policy and tax reform. It will also be warmly welcomed both by undergraduate and graduate students of public economics or the economics of taxation, as well as policymakers and government officials working in the area of tax policy. ... Read more

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The author discusses key concepts in consumption and income taxes and identifies the problems of a transition to a consumption-based system. He specifically addresses how such a a transition would affect interest rates and shows how price changes would alter the distribution of gains and losses. ... Read more

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Tax reform debates in the United States have for some time been dominated by the question of whether the existing corporate and individual income tax system should be replaced with some form of a national consumption tax.This book contains essays by a group of internationally recognized tax experts who describe the current state of the art in economic thinking on the issue of whether fundamental tax reform is preferable to continued incremental reform of the existing income tax. The collection covers a wide range of tax policy issues related to consumption tax reforms, including their economic effects, distributional consequences, effects on administrative and compliance costs, transitional issues and the political aspects of fundamental tax reform, and international comparisons. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

loved it
this is an amazing book!!! it has very good points!! you have to read it!!! you wont regret it!!

loved it
I thought this was the best tax reform book i have ever read. it had amazing points. it is the best book ever. you have to read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Read more

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No government can be sustained without the ability to tax its citizens. The question then arises how can a nation do so in a way that's fair and equitable to taxpayers while simultaneously promoting economic growth and providing the state with the funds it needs to adequately address the needs of its citizens?This insightful work, featuring contributions from a stellar array of international tax experts and economists, addresses the crucial, relevant issues which developed countries will confront in the early decades of the 21st century:The pursuit of tax reform. Personal tax base: income or consumption? Tax rate scale: equity and efficiency aspects. Business tax reform: structural and design issues. Interjurisdictional issues. Controlling tax avoidance. ... Read more

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This volume provides readers with concise but varying perspectives on the possibilities of tax reform and focuses attention on key questions in the scholarly debate. ... Read more

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This book presents 15 original papers and commentaries by a distinguished group of tax policy and tax administration experts. Using international examples, they highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, present new thinking about the issue, and analyze useful policy options. The book’s general goal is to examine the current and emerging challenges facing tax reformers and to assess possible directions future reforms are likely to take. More specific themes include distributional issues, how to tax capital income, how to design specific taxes (e.g., the income tax, the value-added tax, the property tax), how to consider the politics and administrative aspects of tax reform, and how to combine the separate insights into comprehensive tax reform.

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This book presents a comprehensive treatment of the cost-of-capital approach for analyzing the economic impact of tax policy. This approach has provided an intellectual impetus for reforms of capital income taxation in the United States and around the world. The cost of capital and the marginal effective tax rate are combined with estimates of substitution possibilities by businesses and households in analyzing tax and spending programs. This makes it possible to evaluate tax reforms and changes in government spending. Studies of the economic impact of tax policies have taken two forms. First, the cost of capital has been incorporated into investment functions in macroeconomic models, which are used to model the short-run responses to tax policy changes. Second, the cost-of-capital approach has been integrated into applied general-equilibrium models used in evaluating the long-run economic effects of tax reforms.The cost-of-capital approach suggests two avenues for tax reform. One would retain the income tax base of the existing U.S. tax system, but would equalize tax burdens on all forms of assets as well as average and marginal tax rates on labor income. The other would substitute consumption for income as a tax base, while equating average and marginal tax rates on labor income. ... Read more

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The European Commission presented a strategy that would allow EU companies to compute their EU tax base under a single set of tax rules at the EU level and use a common formula to distribute this tax base across the individual Member States.

Company Tax Reform and Formulary Apportionment in the European Union provides broad guidance for the EU in shaping a system of consolidated base taxation with formulary apportionment. It evaluates how the U.S. states and Canadian provinces have resolved the economic, political, and technical aspects of the formulary apportionment method.

The book discusses the landscape for company tax reform in the European Union and illustrates how formulary apportionment might distribute the tax base across the Member States. It provides practical information on how to design an apportionment formula and discusses selected compliance and administrative issues. It analyzes how formulary apportionment might affect investment, employment, tax revenues, and tax competition in the European Union.

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Few people realize that one of the nation's largest health programs runs through the tax system. Reformers of all stripes propose to modify current tax rules as part of larger programs to increase coverage and control costs. Is the current system working? Will tax-based reforms achieve their goals? Several of the nation's foremost experts on taxation and health policy address these questions in "Using Taxes to Reform Health Insurance", a joint product of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the American Tax Policy Institute.Led by respected economists Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution and Leonard Burman of the Urban Institute, contributors examine the role taxes currently play, the likely effects of recently introduced health savings accounts, the challenges of administering major subsidies for health insurance through the tax system, and options for using the tax system to expand health insurance coverage. No taxpayer or consumer of health care services can afford to ignore these issues. ... Read more

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The last decade has seen important changes taking place in the tax regimes of many European countries. A comprehensive picture of what is happening in European fiscal systems has not been easy to find--until now. This impressive book featuring contributions from leading scholars, will be of great interest not only to academics but also to those involved in the financial sectors across the world. ... Read more

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This study approaches the subject of tax reform from basic economic principles.The objectives are to develop guidelines for the design of tax policy; to show how the principles can structure systematic research into tax reform in terms of the consequences for households, producers and government; and finally, to combine the guidelines and applied research into a practical tax package for Pakistan, where tax reform has become an urgent priority.Professors Ahmad and Stern provide a coherent framework to show how principles can be formulated, applied research structured, and policies developed and appraised in a systematic manner. The careful application of the ideas presented here should lead to a real improvement in the development of policy and to further empirical and theoretical research. ... Read more

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This book examines the present status, recent tax reforms and planned tax policies in some South and East Asia countries since the 1990s. The evidence is presented in a user friendly manner, but at the same time uses technically sophisticated methods. The main countries studied are China, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.

It is unique for being the first systematic treatment of the topic: hitherto, the information available has been widely dispersed and difficult to access. It should prove to be a natural companion to two previous books on taxation published by Routledge and also edited by Luigi Bernardi.

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Building on the work carried out in the 2004 Routledge book, Tax Systems and Tax Reforms in Europe, an international team of contributors now turn their attention to the new EU member states. The book compares conditions in the new and potential EU Member states to those in the long-standing EU countries.  Topics covered include:

* A Comparative View of Taxation in the EU and in New Members 
* Tax Policy in EU New Members
* Tax Policy in New Members under the Stability Pact 
* Tax Administration and the Black Economy.

As well as investigating countries such as the Czech Republic, Estonia and the Baltics, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, this outstanding book contains a foreword by Vito Tanzi and will be a valuable resource for postgraduates and professionals in the fields of economics, politics, finance and European studies.

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In Taxing Ourselves, Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija offer a guide to the tax reform debate in clear, nontechnical language without misleading the reader with oversimplifications. The second edition takes account of tax developments through 1998, examines recent research on the economic impact of taxation, and includes a new appendix containing the key statistics on the U.S. tax system throughout its history.The book gives a historical perspective on taxation in the United States along with a concise description of our current federal income tax system. It reviews basic criteria by which tax policy should be judged and examines how the tax burden is distributed. The book then covers the key elements of various tax reform proposals, including a single rate, a clean base, and a consumption base. The book closes with a voter's guide to tax reform for the concerned citizen to keep handy, to help separate fact from fiction and reality from campaign promises. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book on complex topic!
This is a really great and readable text on what is often a challenging topic.The authors really have provided some insightful analysis on what is always a timely topic.I learned a tremendous amount and easily made myway through the flowing prose.I suggest this book for anyone interestedin taxation and also for those of us who are simply "taxcurious".This is a particularly relevant book given the upcomingelections!

'User-friendly' tour of tax reform
This slender volume is a readable and entertaining survey of the woes of the current income tax system and of a variety of tax reform proposals intended to replace the current system. The section of the book that discusses the tax system's effect on labor supply, saving & investment, incentive to work, international competiveness, and other economic 'macro' effects, is especially insightful. The authors conclude (probably correctly) that the tax system's effect on these things is probably marginal, and, in any event, difficult to measure empirically. Therefore, any tax reform that promises 'economic nirvana' should be taken with a grain of salt.The authors suggest, without endorsement, that the hallmarks of any new (or improved) tax system should be simplicity, enforcability, and revenue- raising efficiency; the last denotes the absence of 'social tinkering' through the tax system. Unfortunately, the authors note that all of the various tax reform proposals being floated by politicians suffer severe political defects. A national sales tax would be difficult to enforce (that's probably correct); a broad-based value added tax (VAT) would be highly regressive; the 'flat tax' (wage tax) would be less progressive than the current income tax; and the consumed income tax (consumption tax) would be more complicated than the current income tax (that's probably not correct, and the authors do not explain this assertion well). These are principally political impediments to reform- the authors suggest that it will take an act of political courage by Congress or the president to make any progress on the tax reform front. That's clearly correct, but don't hold your breath.

If you want to know about tax reform, read this book.
Tax reform isn't usually one of those topics that gets people excited -- most people view it the same way George Bush looks at broccoli.But Slemrod and Bakija do a great job of making it interesting and explaining complex ideas in simple language.If you want to know how Steve Forbes' flat tax will hit your wallet or how much the current income tax system stymies growth, this is the book for you.Simply, it is a great, great place to start to learn about tax reform.It's as good as it gets on the topic ... Read more