Presumptive taxation raises both theoretical and practical issues of great importance. From a policy perspective, the most interesting issue is probably to what extent presumptions can be used to simplify the task of administration without fundamentally changing the tax base. From a practical perspective, the fundamental issue raised by presumptive taxation is the trade-off between accuracy and administrability. Using presumptions improves the administrability of a tax while lowering its accuracy, and the question is to what extent the former benefit justifies the latter cost. A related issue is whether presumptive taxation should be considered a permanent supplement to, or even replacement for, the more traditional tax system, or whether it should be viewed as merely a transitional phase until the tax administration is capable of collecting the normal tax without the widespread use of presumptions.