1 A regressive tax, like the poll tax, takes proportionately more of a poor person's income.

2 A regressive tax structure is one in which the average tax rate falls as income level rises.

3 Another useful classification is between progressive, proportional and regressive taxes.

4 Trade sanctions would in effect amount to a regressive tax.

5 The spokesperson said the information campaign was a fig leaf to hide the most regressive tax in history.

6 Any flat tax is inherently unfair, as are all regressive taxes.

7 A new education bill remained unfunded, and reform of a famously regressive tax system made no progress.

8 Kirk Smith, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, calls climate change the world's biggest regressive tax: the poorest pay for the behaviour of the rich (see map).

1 A regressive tax, like the poll tax, takes proportionately more of a poor person's income.