WHAT CAN AMERICA LEARN FROM THE BRITISH TAX-SYSTEM

This paper examines elements of British tax policy and discusses their implications for the United States, where several recent proposals wo uld mirror aspects of the British system. These include reducing filin g requirements under the individual income tax, indexing capital gains for inflation, cutting mortgage interest deductions, enacting a value -added fax, and integrating the corporate and personal income taxes. T he paper also discusses implications of the poll tax for tax reform. B ritain and America have made different choices involving equity, effic iency, simplicity, and other goals. These choices offer the chance to help identify the impact of tax policy.