Taxation - Introduction
Lecture notes on the Introduction to Taxation
Lecture notes on Tax Incidence
For interest:
For a long, long time the US government supported itself with tariffs and taxes on things like alcohol.
The income tax was backed by the advocates of the Prohibition movement, with a lot of interesting results
Reviews of Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, 2010
Prohibition Life: Politics, Loopholes, and Bathtub Gin. NPR's Fresh Air, May 10, 2010
Last Call (New York Times, May 23, 2010)
People really don't like taxes. And are kind of dumb. (The New Republic, January 13, 2010)
Is it a tax or is it a fee? (Slate, Sept. 28, 2009)
Why do people put up with such high taxes on cigarettes? (Slate, September 8, 2010)