Talk:Lump-sum tax

Criticisms
Hi,

I think there are many things incorrect in this article. Someone specialist in this topic should consider changing the article, if my points are valid of course.

First, "fixed amount" is overemphasized. Lump-sum tax are not necessarily a fixed amount. They may depend on the level of income. The only think is that it does not depend on the type of activity a person does.

Stating that a lump-sum tax is "regressive" is not true either. It can well be progressive.

The main characteristic of lump-sum taxes that is not stated in this article is that these taxes are non-"distortionary", ie they do not induce behavior to people (e.g. by giving fiscal incentives for doing an activity).

Thanks. J707 (talk) 08:28, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Wecome! You may well have some valid poits. You might wish to check all your points against the one reference in the text of the stub article.  --Thomasmeeks (talk)

The example of the senior citizen facing a higher tax burden from real estate taxes is not an example of a lump sum tax unless the tax in question is levied on something like a per lot or per unit basis. That particular example of possible regressiveness is related to taxation on land (LVT) or property value (PVT). I've changed that entire sentence, but it still leaves much to be desired, not least because I don't know if such real estate taxes actually exist anywhere (?)D P J (talk) 04:52, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

How can a lump-sum tax be progressive? It is characterized by the fact that the amount is fixed. And a fixed amount will always be regressive, because it is higher in proportion to income for low-income people — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.2.39.15 (talk) 14:33, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Merge with poll tax
This article appears to cover the same subject as poll tax.

The poll tax article begins "a poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual [...] The word poll is an archaic term for 'head' or 'top of the head'.."

Please note that the poll tax article does not follow the more narrow definition of a poll tax as a tax paid by someone as a pre-condition for voting. Iota (talk)