How do we decide if a tax is good or bad? And which ones are ‘damaging’ Australia’s economy?

Some experts say there is a case for using increased GST revenue to pay for income tax relief. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

How do we judge whether one tax is better than another? That question will lie at the heart of the tax reform agenda at the economic reform roundtable on Thursday.

Four principles have guided tax reform over the decades: efficiency, equity, simplicity and sustainability (or revenue adequacy).