| Taxes on food and drink would be regressive TegenArgument1 #351224 The Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that a "fat tax" would probably be regressive, costing the poor relatively more than the rich; because consumption of fat and other ‘bad’ nutrients does not differ much across the income distribution. |
- For the hypothetical tax we model, the poorest households lose around seven times more, as a proportion of income, than the richest households do, on the assumption that there is no behavioural change.
- The regressivity of a ‘fat tax’ is likely to hold no matter how the tax is implemented – whether on fat content, on calories or just attached at a particular rate to certain foods.
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