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53 IRET Policy Bulletin 1 (1991)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretpbul0012 and id is 1 raw text is: September 6, 1991 ~No. 53 TAX FAIRNESS OR MORAL BANKRUPTCY? The issue of fairness in the tax code has emerged as the most prominent tax policy concern of the early 1990s. Considerations of whether high income taxpayers are bearing the appropriate burden of taxation was the driving force behind most of the tax changes enacted in the Fall of 1990 and continues to be the dominant influence in nearly all tax policy debates. This issue has almost completely displaced economic efficiency and growth, the principal tax policy concerns of the 1980s. Regrettably absent from the calls for greater tax fairness is any effort to define fairness or to delineate the standards of fairness against which the existing tax system should be judged. Changes in the tax law are proposed in the name of fairness without demonstrating or explaining how the proposed changes would contribute to this goal. As a result of this ambiguity, the empirical standard that should be used to judge tax fairness is also unclear. Should fairness be identified in terms of criteria for the assignment of tax liabilities, i.e., the rate structure, or in terms of the results of that assignment, i.e. the proportion of total taxes that is being paid by one income group or another? In the latter case, some reliable and meaningful system of measuring these results against an appropriate fairness standard clearly is needed, but no such measurement system is identified. Regrettably absent fr-om the calls for greater tax fairness is anly effort to definle 'fairness or to delineate the standards offairness against which the existing tax system should bejudged...If the debate is to be constructive and ultimately lead to a fairer tax system, alternative concepts offafrness need to be mlade explicit and subjected to critical examination. If the debate is to be constructive and ultimately lead to a fairer tax system, alternative concepts of fairness need to be made explicit and subjected to critical examination. It is only against a backdrop of a clear concept of fairness that the tax code can be appropriately evaluated. Fairness as invoked, if only implicitly, by the critics of the existing tax code should be analyzed for internal Institute for IRET is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)3 economic policy research and educational Research organization devoted to informing the public about policies that will promote on the economic growth and efficient operation of the market economy. Economics of 1730 K Street, N.W., Suite 910 * Washington, D.C. 20006 Taxation (202) 463-1400 . Fax (202) 463-6199 e Internet www.iret.org

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