Abstract
Tax policy is one way to promote sustainability, and this paper focuses on the role of taxation for SDG 8 on economic growth and decent work. Three basic values for sustainability are identified—equity and equality, environmental protection, and coherence. All these values are important for SDG 8, but they are not easily or naturally combined as there are intermittent tensions among the various values. Equal treatment is important for both efficiency and legitimacy. However, globalization calling for equal treatment across borders may be hard to implement as it requires international agreements. This, in turn, may violate the required local coherence if taxes are more aligned with other countries than with the local context. Environmental taxation will likely play an increasing role in steering economies in a more sustainable way. A crucial issue and a possible challenge is to do that in a way that does not hamper growth.