Tax Shifting

The time has come to reform our tax systems in ways that strengthens our economy, cleans up our environment, and benefits all members of society. Our current tax system tends to discourage activities most of us believe are good for society; earning income, owing property, purchasing goods, and being employed. But other activities are worth discouraging; air pollution, water pollution, and solid waste disposal. Implementing a tax shifting system is a smart way of improving economic efficiency and human and environmental health.

Tax shifting is about removing taxes on activities society wants to encourage and placing taxes on activities we want to discourage. Tax shifting is not about raising overall taxes. The revenue collected would still be the same, but revenues would come from taxes on activities we want to reduce.

A tax shift can be accomplished by reducing or eliminating property, sales, personal income, and payroll taxes. Or, we can offer incentives for socially beneficial activities. For example, we can give people rebates for purchasing renewable energy products.

At the same time, we can discourage socially harmful activities by taxing or placing a fee on activities that harm the public good. For example, we can place a fee on purchases of inefficient vehicles, a higher sales tax rate on fuel, or higher taxes on solid waste.

A tax shift would use taxes that can work for us rather than against us. They can strengthen our economy and clean up our environment. The power of a tax shift can greatly improve public good instead of work against it, with lasting benefits for our economy, environment and lower-income citizens.