Taxing Economic Rents 2nd Ed

This is the second edition of this book, containing an additional mathematical proofs on taxing banks, and on the treatment of lending and borrowing. The purpose of this book is to explain the nature of, and the benefits of, a tax on economic rents. Taxes on economic rents are considered by economists to be an "ideal tax". That means that there are no distortions when the tax is applied. The currently applied taxes have distortions that shift the burden of the tax onto the...
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This is the second edition of this book, containing an additional mathematical proofs on taxing banks, and on the treatment of lending and borrowing. The purpose of this book is to explain the nature of, and the benefits of, a tax on economic rents. Taxes on economic rents are considered by economists to be an "ideal tax". That means that there are no distortions when the tax is applied. The currently applied taxes have distortions that shift the burden of the tax onto the economically weak, reduce investment, reduce growth, increase unemployment, and apply an invisible "tax on tax" the reduces the possible amount of tax revenue that can be raised. Economic rent taxes are free of these harmful effects. Economic rents are the return over and above opportunity costs or the normal return necessary to keep a resource in current use. The ultimate cause of economic rents are restrictions in supply, caused not by monopolies, but by transaction costs. As such economic rents are always with us, and they can be taxed. In fact, potential revenues exceed revenues from all current taxes put together. Yet growth is higher and the tax is far more equitable than any current tax.