In two recent articles, I explore the conceptual question of how human capital would be treated under a pure, comprehensive, accrual income tax, pursuing the analogy to accrual treatment of physical and financial capital, which has received much academic attention. My central conclusion is that...

A substantial majority of all capital is human capital, and most revenue from the income tax is from returns on human capital, wage income. Nevertheless, work analyzing the comprehensive, accrual ("ideal") income taxation of capital has focused on physical and financial capital. Applying the...