Individuals work and produce goods and services to earn money for present or future consumption

From Rich States, Poor States by Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Jonathan Williams.

Always a sucker for lists. Ten Golden Rules of Effective Taxation

1 - When you tax something more you get less of it, and when you tax something less you get more of it.

2 - Individuals work and produce goods and services to earn money for present or future consumption.

3 - Taxes create a wedge between the cost of working and the rewards from working.

4 - An increase in tax rates will not lead to a dollar-for-dollar increase in tax revenues, and a reduction in tax rates that encourages production will lead to less than a dollar-for-dollar reduction in tax revenues.

5 - If tax rates become too high, they may lead to a reduction in tax receipts. The relationship between tax rates and tax receipts has been described by the Laffer Curve.

6 - The more mobile the factors being taxed, the larger the response to a change in tax rates. The less mobile the factor, the smaller the change in the tax base for a given change in tax rates.

7 - Raising tax rates on one source of revenue may reduce the tax revenue from other sources, while reducing the tax rate on one activity may raise the taxes raised from other activities.

8 - An economically efficient tax system has a sensible, broad base and a low rate.

9 - Income transfer (welfare) payments also create a de facto tax on work and, thus, have a high impact on the vitality of a state’s economy.

10 - If A and B are two locations, and if taxes are raised in B and lowered in A, producers and manufacturers will have a greater incentive to move from B to A.

I suspect that 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, and 10 are each almost certainly true based on empirical evidence. 4 and 5 are certainly true under defined circumstances. 8 is simply a value judgment based on an unstated goal.