IT'S INCOME TAX TIME FOR AMERICANS And It's Time for the Entire World to Lower Income Taxes and Raise Environmental Taxes

Earth Policy Institute Book Bytes - IT�S INCOME TAX TIME FOR AMERICANS And It�s Time for the Entire World to Lower Income Taxes and Raise Environmental Taxes: "Lester R. Brown
As Americans are filing their income taxes, many of their counterparts in several European countries are benefiting from a steady decline in income taxes as governments lower taxes on income and raise taxes on environmentally destructive activities�like burning gasoline or coal. The purpose of this tax shifting is to incorporate the environmental costs of products and services into the market price to help the market tell the environment truth. This rewards environmentally responsible behavior such as reducing energy use.

Among the various environmentally damaging activities taxed in Europe are coal burning, gasoline use, the generation of garbage (so-called landfill taxes), the discharge of toxic waste, and the excessive number of cars entering cities. Germany and Sweden are the leaders among the countries in Western Europe that are shifting taxes in a process known there as environmental tax reform. A four-year plan adopted in Germany in 1999 systematically shifted taxes from labor to energy. By 2001, this plan had lowered fuel use by 5 percent. It had also accelerated growth in the renewable energy sector, creating some 45,400 jobs by 2003 in the wind industry alone, a number that is projected to rise to 103,000 by 2010.

In 2001, Sweden launched a bold 10-year environmental tax shift designed to convert 30 billion kroner ($3.9 billion) of taxes from income to environmentally destructive activities. Much of this shift of $1,100 per household is levied on cars and trucks, including substantial hikes in vehicle and fuel taxes. Electricity is also being taxed more heavily. This tax restructuring is an integral part of Sweden�s plan to be oil free by 2025. Among "