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{{Short description|Tax system}}
{{About|systems of taxation based on one tax|the economic philosophy based on the writings of Henry George|Georgism}}
{{About||the monthly newspaper|The Single Tax|the tax on unmarried people|Bachelor tax}} 
{{Taxation}}

A '''single tax''' is a system of taxation based mainly or exclusively on one tax, typically chosen for its special properties, often being a [[land value tax|tax on land value]].<ref>{{cite web|title=English definition of "single tax"|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/business-english/single-tax|publisher=Cambridge University Press|access-date=14 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shearman |first=Thomas G. |date=1899 |title=The Single Tax: What and Why |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2761859 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=4 |issue=6 |pages=742–757 |issn=0002-9602 |quote=The single tax, therefore, implies the total abolition of all taxes upon personal property, buildings, and improvements, of all custom tariffs, all excise duties, all stamp duties, all poll taxes, and, in short, every tax of every description, except that which is now levied upon the rent of bare land.}}</ref>

[[Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert]] and [[Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban]] were early advocates for a single tax, but, rejecting the claim that [[land (economics)|land]] has certain economic properties which make it uniquely suitable for taxation, they instead proposed a [[flat tax]] on all [[income tax|incomes]].<ref>Steiner, Phillippe (2003) [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470999059.ch5/summary "Physiocracy and French Pre-Classical Political Economy"], Chapter 5. in eds. Biddle, Jeff E, Davis, Jon B, & [[Warren Samuels|Samuels, Warren J.]]: ''A Companion to the History of Economic Thought''. [[Blackwell Publishing]], 2003.</ref>

In the late 19th and early 20th century, a [[populism|populist]] single tax movement emerged which also sought to levy a single tax on the rental value of land and natural resources, but for somewhat different reasons.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Young | first1 = Nichols | title = The single tax movement in the United States | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1916 | url = https://archive.org/details/singletaxmoveme00youngoog | access-date = 2012-10-21}}</ref> This "Single Tax" movement later became known as [[Georgism]], after its most famous proponent [[Henry George]]. It proposed a simplified and equitable tax system that upholds natural rights and whose revenue is based exclusively on ground and [[natural resource economics|natural resource]] [[economic rent|rents]], with no additional taxation of improvements such as buildings. Some [[libertarianism|libertarians]] advocate land [[value capture]] as a consistently [[non-aggression principle|ethical]] and [[distortion (economics)|non-distortionary]] means to fund the essential operations of government, the surplus rent being distributed as a type of guaranteed [[basic income]], traditionally called the [[citizen's dividend]], to compensate those members of society who by legal title have been deprived of an equal share of the earth's spatial value and equal access to natural opportunities (see ''[[geolibertarianism]]'').

Related taxes derived in principle from the land value tax include [[Pigouvian tax]]es to internalize the [[negative externality|external costs]] of pollution more efficiently than litigation, as well as [[severance tax]]es on raw material extraction to regulate the depletion of unreplenishable natural resources and to prevent irreparable damage to valuable ecosystems through unsustainable practices such as [[overfishing]]. 

There have been other proposals for a single tax concerning property, goods, or income.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Seligman|title=The Income Tax|journal=Political Science Quarterly|volume=9|issue=4|pages=610–648|doi=10.2307/2139851|jstor=2139851|year=1894}}</ref> Others have made proposals for a single tax based on other revenue models, such as the [[FairTax]] proposal for a [[consumption tax]] and various [[flat tax]] proposals on personal incomes.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18137548 "Calls for single 30% income tax rate"]</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Excess burden of taxation]]
* [[FairTax]]
* [[Flat tax]]
* [[Geolibertarianism]]
* [[Georgism]]
* [[Land value tax]]
* [[List of taxes]]
* [[Distortion (economics)|Market distortion]]
* [[Optimal tax]]
* [[Proportional tax]]
* Single tax parties:
** [[Henry George Justice Party|Henry George Justice Party (Australia)]]
** [[Justice Party of Denmark]]
** [[Single Tax League|Single Tax League (Australia)]]
* [[Equity (economics)#Taxation|Tax equity]]
* [[Tax incidence]]
* [[Tax reform]]
* [[Tax shift]]
* [[9-9-9 Plan]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Property taxes]]
[[Category:Economic ideologies]]
[[Category:Tax reform]]
[[Category:Georgism]]
[[Category:Land value taxation]]