This book explores a number of critical issues related to tax systems around the world. Drawing upon a wealth of literature, it compares and contrasts modern tax systems in developed and developing countries, identifying factors that suggest they are converging and others that continue to distinguish them. It addresses the taxation of incomes (personal and corporate), wealth and consumption at the local, national, supra-national and international levels; considers the use of environmental taxes; provides an analysis of modern trends in tax administration including issues of tax complexity and of tax compliance; and addresses the process and outcomes of tax reform. Readers will include anyone interested in how tax systems are formed, how they operate in practice, and how they are reformed. An ideal text for academic study at the intermediate or advanced levels.