Law Commons^™

Tax Rationality And The Independence Of Irrelevant Alternatives, James P. Spica

Akron Tax Journal

Patricia White recently asked a simple question: What is the value of systemic coherence, or rationality, in tax legislation. This is asked along the way of an errand that does not require its answer, but White supposes, in passing, that the value queried is relative: no doubt systemic coherence is desirable, but it may conflict with other values predicable of a tax system, values it cannot invariably trump. This entails, on the one hand, that normative claims for rationality in this sphere regularly imply assignments of weights, and, on the other hand, that systemic coherence ought to be irresistible whenever …