Alternate Roads to Consumption Taxation — Administration versus Tax Structure

The debate about the theoretical and practical advantages of taxing income or consumption will no doubt outlive us all. In this paper I shall not try to resolve — or even advance — that debate. Rather I shall focus on a subsidiary question. If it is decided that consumption is a more appropriate tax base than income, how would administrative considerations influence the choice among alternative ways to tax consumption? Judgments about the administrative ease of shifting from income to consumption taxation would bulk large even if the theoretical debate were resolved. Absent such a conclusive outcome, they are likely to be dominant.