Quote:
Originally Posted by Battlebasset
If we would just work to simplify the tax code this would become more difficult, and we would need less IRS (which costs money) to track it down.
I would also be in favor of a national sales tax if it would result in lower income tax rates and simplification. But it wouldn't, and we need look no further than Europe for how that would work.
|
I wish I could support you on that. Sounds good. But if you look into it, you discover that it falls much more heavily on “hardworking men and women” than on people earning more than a couple million a year. Sales tax only or an income tax with the same percentage for everyone makes the rich smile broadly and applaud. They make so much more than they spend, and so much of it is not classified as income. Meanwhile, those of us who spend most of what we earn would be soaked. The equivalent VAT (Value Added Tax) in the UK is now 20%, plus the other income taxes they pay. Imagine a sales tax only system, and it was, say, 30%. Currently most people have way less than that withheld by the IRS, and lots of low income people get much or most of the withholding refunded. Imagine paying a 30% tax on everything you buy! Instead of 6%, which is bad enough. And of course the state would still need its 6% sales tax.