The Global Luxuries Tax

Mawe, Timothy; Bufacchi, Vittorio

The Global Luxuries Tax

Files

A_GLOBAL_LUXURY_TAX_(4).pdf(99.57 KB)

Accepted Version

Date

2015-02

Authors

Mawe, Timothy

Bufacchi, Vittorio

Publisher

Springer International Publishing Switzerland

Published Version

10.1007/978-3-319-13458-1_13

Abstract

This chapter proposes a policy to tackle the problem of global poverty, the Global Luxuries Tax (GLT). The GLT is a levy collected whenever a person, anywhere in the world, purchases a certain luxury good or service. The money collected will go towards a Global Poverty Fund to be used to alleviate the worst cases of global poverty. The tax is a miniscule percentage of the price of the good or service being purchased, so that the GLT raises money for the Global Poverty Fund by virtue of the high number of transactions taking place. The first part of the chapter will highlight two main pitfalls faced by any potential solution to the problem of global poverty, the Unintended Consequences Objection and the Implementation Objection. The second and third parts will introduce the idea of a Global Luxuries Tax, first in theory and then in practice. Examples of luxuries to be taxed by the GLT include air travel, financial transactions, texting on mobile phones, and procreation. In the final part some objections to the GLT will be considered, and appeased.

Keywords

Global justice , Tax , Luxuries , Mobile phone , Unintended consequence , Global fund , Financial transaction , Inflationary pressure

Citation

Mawe, T. and Bufacchi, V. (2015) ‘The Global Luxuries Tax’, in Gaisbauer, H., Schweiger, G. and Sedmak C. (eds.) Philosophical Explorations of Justice and Taxation. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, Vol. 40. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 203-217. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-13458-1_13