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That's true, but making a sales tax progressive creates the same complication that exists in the current system, only with even more incentive for corporations
by rationalbeaver 16y ago
That's true, but making a sales tax progressive creates the same complication that exists in the current system, only with even more incentive for corporations to lobby for special exemptions, reclassifications, credits, etc., for the products that they produce.
- hga 16y agoExactly; all the companies who make goods that might conceivably qualify for an exemption start spending a lot of their focus on getting that (since it's a big discount if they do) instead of focusing on providing the best product/best price/whatever.
- fnid2 16y agoIt wouldn't be that difficult. Lots of states that have sales tax don't tax food. Simply make the essentials untaxed or any product of a particular category under a particular price untaxed. We have these measures in the current system. If you earn under $6,000 you pay no tax. The benefit is that you take the burden off the individual and leave it all to computers. There's a "Taxable" flag and the equation is simple. IF (item.category == Food or price < (select minprice from categorylimits where categorylimits.category = item.category)) then tax = 0 else tax = 0.25 * item.price Done. What a beautiful world that would be.