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» possibly income-tested I strongly oppose income/means testing for many reasons: weird unintended consequences at edge cases and extra hoops to jump through.

• C1sc0cat 7y ago
  Its also cheaper to implement
• eru 7y ago
  What really matters is the effective marginal tax rate. So it doesn't really matter whether we means test taxes only, or whether we also means test cash benefits. The former is simpler, as you suggest. You can make the latter work without weird edge cases; but it's more work to keep everything consistent. (Income tax is paid as a function of income. In that sense, it's already means tested. For the argument I am making is doesn't matter whether that function is linear or convex, ie whether we have a 'flat' income tax or a progressive one. A tax that's fixed per head would not count as means tested. Whether you'd want to call a sales tax means tested is debatable. Your absolute sales tax burden goes up with your consumption, but not directly with your income.)