On the Moral Maze last week I was asked why I thought we should tax. I was going to offer five reasons, but by the time I'd done four my right wing questioner was bored and I never got to offer the fifth. So these are the five reasons, otherwise called the 5 Rs of tax:<\/p>\n
1. Raise revenue;<\/p>\n
2. Reprice goods and services considered to be incorrectly priced by the market such as\u00a0tobacco, alcohol, carbon emissions etc.;<\/p>\n
3. Redistribute income and wealth;<\/p>\n
4. Raise representation within the democratic process because it has been found that only\u00a0when an electorate and a government are bound by the common interest of tax does\u00a0democratic accountability really work; and finally to facilitate:<\/p>\n
5. Reorganisation of the economy through fiscal policy.<\/p>\n
Alex Cobham, now of Save the Children wrote the first 4; I added the fifth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"