Ilan Benshalom (Hebrew University, Faculty of Law) presents Taxing Cash at the University of British Columbia today as part of its National Centre for Business Law Speakers Series hosted by David Duff:

Nobody likes to pay taxes, so collecting taxes is never easy. Indeed,
when it comes to cash transactions, collection is more difficult
because cash enables, or at least significantly simplifies, many tax
evasion schemes. The article provides an original proposal that goes
beyond the classic paradigm to reduce tax evasion by investing more
in audit-based enforcement. While the public finance literature
emphasizes the need to deter and detecting tax-evading cash
transactions, this Article argues for a tax on the usage of cash (that
does not distinguish legitimate from illegitimate tax evasion
transactions). Taking behavioral responses into account, the paper
argues that taxing cash transactions on a crude fault-free basis could
significantly help to minimize the revenue loss, inefficiencies, and
inequities of income underreporting (in developed economies).