List of illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Why tax consumption? -- The case for the X tax -- Maintaining progressivity -- Fringe benefits and transfer payments -- Business firms -- Financial services -- International transactions -- The transition -- The nonbusiness sector --...

Good tax policy should be pro-growth, simple, and fair. An income tax, unlike a consumption tax, penalizes saving, which undermines economic growth and introduces complexity. An income tax is often thought to be fairer than a consumption tax, however, because it taxes saving, which is...

A number of recent proposals have called for broadening the individual income tax base while lowering statutory income tax rates. Such proposals would eliminate or curtail various preferential income tax provisions and use some or all of the resulting revenue to lower statutory tax rates. In...

Alan D. Viard of American Enterprise Institute reviews, "The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform -- Why We Need It and What It Will Take" by Bruce Bartlett. According to Viard, the book offers a highly readable overview of the federal tax system and key tax policy issues. While experts will...