Document summary
The European Union has entered an era of global and regional turmoil and challenges that include low economic growth, labour market challenges and widespread unemployment, climate change and materials supply risks. Strategies such as Europe 2020 and the Sustainable Development Goals seek to address these challenges through a focus on the eradication of poverty and unemployment, and on reducing carbon emissions, energy use, air pollution and water consumption. These are issues that nations cannot solve on their own. The cohesion and long-term success of the EU will depend on the Union’s capability to make EU-economies more inclusive, fair and resilient. An update of our tax systems requires a long-term vision on the role of taxation in facilitating growth based on human capital, skills and knowledge, rather than the extraction of natural resources. This report contributes to both these purposes through the development of the The Ex’tax Policy Toolkit which an inventory of tax base options as the ‘buttons’ governments can ‘push’ to shift taxation from labour to natural resources.