A carbon tax would be enforced by the IRS---requires a robust infrastructure to prevent fraud
Bordoff and Larsen 18, *former senior director on the staff of the National Security Council and special assistant to President Obama. He is now a professor of professional practice in international and public affairs and the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, **Director in the Energy and Natural Resource practice at Rhodium Group (RHG) and leads the firm’s US energy research. John is also a non-resident Senior Associate in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, John worked for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis and led US federal and congressional policy analysis in the World Resources Institute’s Climate and Energy Program. (Jason and John, “US Carbon Tax Design,” Columbia SIPA, https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/pictures/CGEPCarbonTaxDesignOptions118_1.pdf)//BB
Tax Administration and Associated Infrastructure Given the focus on a federal carbon tax, we assume that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would be charged with administration of the program. While this is a logical choice, arguments could be made for other agencies to administer the program, such as the EPA or Department of Energy given their expertise in energy and GHG emissions. Assuming the IRS is administrating the tax, the agency will certainly need to incorporate data or infrastructure from other federal, and possibly state, sources into its tax guidance in order to implement the program. The importance of robust and reliable reporting and tax payment infrastructure cannot be overstated in the context of a carbon tax. First and foremost, accurate reporting is required to prevent fraud, which undermines faith in the program and its effectiveness, and also reduces revenue. Almost as important is the need to make calculation and payment of the tax as streamlined and as simple as possible to reduce political opposition to what is effectively a new regulatory requirement on businesses, and to minimize the cost of administering the program. There are a number of existing frameworks that could be used on their own or in combination to support the administration of a carbon tax.