Like all things it’s a mixed bag and there are a lot of unintended consequences. As an example I don’t think it’s easily evident to a poltician that taxing labor at a higher rate than capital favors capital over labor, but it does. Likewise giving a decuction for state and local taxes basically allowed states to run up huge taxes on their citizens without them paying as much attention.
The complications also allow wiggle room for favoritism. Favoritism is ok when it says we will tax gasoline at a higher rate than other goods to pay for road work. Favoritism is not ok when it says I will tax you less because you donated more money to my reelection campaign.
I have trouble with the word “fairer”. I think it would be “better” to tax “real” investment earnings of ordinary workers than taxing nominal earnings or not taxing them at all. There is some complexity in doing that. I think computers make that complexity a non-issue.
However, I can’t think of any examples beyond that. Maybe you have some.
Well we can debate what’s fair until the cows come home. If we think that it’s a good idea to give certain people or behaviors a tax break for one reason or another then perhaps the added complexity is worthwhile.
As far as going through each existing and hypothetical line item of the tax code… that would deserve its own thread. If you started such a thread I might participate.
Called Truth API, the application programming interface is intended to provide businesses with “a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths”
Once again, we’ve gone from subtle, to unsubtle, to shouting it from the rooftops.