Tax policy discussions are dominated by economic theories, and do not often involve philosophical analysis. Because tax is applied distributive justice, it makes sense to bring the insights of philosophy to bear on the work of creating and implementing tax laws. As one model of how philosophy can inform discussions of tax policy, this dissertation looks in particular at the taxation of wealth transfers from three different philosophical perspectives. Because wealth transfer taxes, more than most income or consumption taxes, are enacted primarily to redistribute wealth and to increase equality of opportunity, focusing on these taxes, rather than on the more widely used income tax, allows the analysis to focus on how the tax does or does not comply with the philosophical goals of the society that enacted the rule. In order to evaluate whether a system of wealth transfer taxation is compatible with the philosophical beliefs of contemporary American society, the dissertation examines three commonly held philosophical belief systems: libertarianism, liberalism, and utilitarianism. In each case, after explicating the theory, the dissertation adopts the perspective of that theory to analyze whether a wealth transfer tax system is desirable. Further, the dissertation analyzes what form of wealth transfer tax system is most compatible with the system. The final chapter of the dissertation explores what form of wealth transfer tax system is most compatible with all of the philosophical theories explored in the dissertation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11192016-110045 |
| Date | 30 November 2016 |
| Creators | Bird-Pollan, Jennifer Erin |
| Contributors | Larry May, Daniel Halperin, Marilyn Friedman, John Lachs |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11192016-110045/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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