The future of capital income taxation

Despite our limitations as forecasters, economists are prone to thinking about the future. A declining number of economists see a future for capital income taxation. The disenchantment with capital income taxes is not new, of course. Joseph Pechman's 1990 presidential address to the American Economic Association had a title similar to mine ('The Future of the Income Tax'), and took on many of the issues I will address here. Pechman concluded that 'there is no good reason for the disenchantment of economists with the income tax. The main rival of the income tax - the consumption expenditure tax - is distinctly inferior on theoretical as well as practical grounds.'