The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) tax is a small, uniform tax on all economic transactions, which would involve simplification, base broadening, reductions in marginal tax rates, the elimination of tax and information returns and the automatic collection of tax revenues at the payment source. This proposal is to replace all United States taxes with a single tax (using a low rate) on every transaction in the economy. The APT approach would extend the tax base from income, consumption and wealth to all transactions. Proponents regard it as a revenue neutral transactions tax, whose tax base is primarily made up of financial transactions. It is based on the fundamental view of taxation as a "public brokerage fee accessed by the government to pay for the provision of the monetary, legal and political institutions that protect private property rights and facilitate market trade and commerce." The APT tax extends the tax reform ideas of John Maynard Keynes, James Tobin and Lawrence Summers, to their logical conclusion, namely to tax the broadest possible tax base at the lowest possible tax rate. The goal is to significantly improve economic efficiency, enhance stability in financial markets, and reduce to a minimum the costs of tax administration (assessment, collection, and compliance costs). History The system was developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Economics Dr. Edgar L. Feige, a student of Milton Friedman who earned his PhD in Economics at the University of Chicago. Feige first presented the idea of taxing all transactions at the International Institute of Public Finance meetings in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1989. Brazil took Feige's advise and adopted a plan similar to the APT Tax. However, Brazil added it on top of its existing taxes. Despite this, the tax has been relatively successful according to a 2009 report. It was first put in the US national spotlight in February 2003 when it was covered by The New York Times. The Times endorsed the plan as "fair, simple, and efficient." On April 28, 2005, the APT proposal was presented to the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform in Washington, DC. Dr. William J. Hermann Jr. has been one of the most vocal supporters of the APT Tax in recent decades, becoming the Director of a group advocating for the tax in 2004. In 2021, Dr. Hermann began pushing a differing proposal called the Automated Deposit Tax, which he also calls the