True Cost Economics is currently creating a sizable ruckus in the academic world, and its value as a system of thought is starting to be recognized by the economic establishment. -- Brendan Themes Go there >>True Cost Economics
Combined with the fact that sales tax is tied to consumption rather than income, this leads some to the conclusion that low-income individuals and families pay a greater proportion of their incomes in sales taxes, therefore sales tax is regressive. You're supposed to read regressive as unfair.
The measure can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole; a year, multi-year, or lifetime. The opposite of a regressive tax is a progressive tax, in which the average tax rate increases as the amount subject to taxation increases. In between is a flat or proportional tax, where the tax rate is fixed as the amount subject to taxation increases.