Volume VI in the Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation series contains an interdisciplinary, selection of peer-reviewed papers written by international experts in the field. The volume contains nearly forty articles written by authors representing disciplines such as law, economics, accounting, taxation, environmental policy and political sciences. The articles were selected from papers presented at the Eighth Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in October 2007 in Munich, Germany.
The book is clearly structured with the articles divided into parts and organized by topic. Part 1 it features analysis of the effect of environmental tax policies on innovation, technology, and competitiveness, Part 2 on implementation issues, Part 3 on issues relating to energy and innovation, Part 4 on land use, planning, and conservation and Part 5 closes with papers dealing with international approaches to environmental taxation that use market-based instruments.
The book and its sister volumes in the series are a unique and invaluable resource for anyone interested in the next generation of policy instruments for transitioning to sustainable economies.

The Panama Papers demonstrated that the superrich hide their wealth from the rest of us. Dirty Secrets shows that this was not by accident, but by design. It was the result of a powerful alliance of the wealthy, their advisers and the state that has undermined all attempts to solve the tax haven problem. This is because tax havens are the unacknowledged heart of globalized capitalism. Their purpose is to provide freedom from regulation. The exponents say this makes markets work and so we all gain. But this argument has now failed. Furthermore democracy itself is being threatened by the political fallout from the mistrust this regime has created. The result is that tax havens are now a threat to the very system that supposedly spawned it. Dirty Secrets is the most revelatory examination of the crisis by a leading expert, but also offers solutions on how governments can regulate havens and what the world might look like without them.

Tax law changes at a startling rate - not only does societal change bring with it demands for change in the tax system, but changes in the political climate will force change, as will many other competing pressures. With this pace of change, it is easy to focus on the practical and forget the core underpinnings of the tax system and their philosophical justifications. Taking a pause to remind ourselves of those principles and how they can operate in the modern tax system is crucial to ensuring that the tax system does not diverge too far from what it should be or could be. It is essential to understand the answers to some of the seemingly basic questions that surround tax before we can even begin to think about what a tax system should look like. This collection brings together major themes and difficult questions in the philosophical foundations of tax law. The chapters consider practical issues such as justification, enforcement, design, and mechanics, and provide a full and coherent analysis of the basis for tax law. Philosophical Foundations of Tax Law allows the reader to consider how tax systems should move forward in the modern world, with a sound philosophical basis, to provide the practical tax system that the state requires and citizens deserve.