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Wouldn't moving taxes from income to sales-based resolve many of these issues?

• danieltillett 11y ago
  The problem with basing company tax on sales is some industries have higher margins than others. If you introduce a flat turnover tax on business then you effectively tax low margin businesses more than high margin businesses. It also creates an incentive for businesses to vertically integrate even if this is not the optimal economic structure.
  • analog31 11y ago
    Out of curiosity, does value-added tax solve this problem?
    • danieltillett 11y ago
      Value added tax is a consumption tax, not an income tax. The tax is paid by the consumers and is highly regressive (i.e. the poor are taxed more than the rich). There have been some attempts to tax companies based on gross income, but it tends to only be applied to a limited range of companies like utilities [1]. Personally I like Land Value Taxes [2] since they are impossible to avoid, but this makes them very unpopular with the rich and powerful who own most of the land. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_receipts_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_receipts_tax 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax