Tax Shifting: An Innovative Approach to Environmental Tax Policy for Nigeria

2. Literature Review

Environmental tax shifting is essentially about using a new powerful tool taxes to send new price signals, change behavior and guide out producing and consuming activities so that we can give sustainable future of our generation and beyond. Tax shifting, in an environmental context, involves income taxes while raising taxes on environmentally destructive activities (World Watch Institute, 1997). Tax shifting is the passage of the tax burden from one economic agent to another (Huntler,2009). Environmental tax shifting is also defined as shifting a portion of government’s tax base onto goods, services and activities associated with harmful environmental impacts that impose cost on society and recycling the revenue generated from those taxes in a transparent manner, (OECD, 2001).