Economist here.

If you’re looking for what to tax instead of income, the best things are: land, pollution and consumption.

Land is great because people will not use less of it, no matter how high the tax. Pollution is great to tax, because we want to produce less of it. Consumption (or purchases or spending) is good to tax because economic growth is good and this tax encourages investment rather than spending your wealth. The most common consumption taxes are the sales tax or VAT tax.

You may have heard of consumption taxes described as “regressive “, but that comes from looking at only part of the policy. For example, a universal basic income funded by a sales or VAT tax would see the poor better off than the rich.