> Are there any types of tax that are: 1. Reasonably within the means of cities to levy, and 2. Economically efficient? Economic orthodoxy says that taxes in o

> Are there any types of tax that are: 1. Reasonably within the means of cities to levy, and 2. Economically efficient? Economic orthodoxy says that taxes in order of efficiency (from most to least) are: Land value taxes > property taxes > consumption taxes > income taxes > capital taxes > wealth taxes. Cities in general are able to levy land value, property, and sales taxes fairly easily, and these are the most economically efficient taxes. (And if you want to move from theory to empirical evidence, when relatively rich societies want to raise a lot of money, they almost invariably lean heavily on very large consumption taxes. If you need to raise a lot of money and don't want to burn your economy entirely to the ground, you can do a lot worse than a 20% VAT.)