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A consumption tax (a tax on sales) is proportional to your lifestyle. If someone chooses to buy a gas guzzler v8, they should pay taxes on the gallons they burn

A consumption tax (a tax on sales) is proportional to your lifestyle. If someone chooses to buy a gas guzzler v8, they should pay taxes on the gallons they burn to pay for roads and emissions. Consumption tax is also easier to be set to a geographic location, and harder to shift to different tax jurisdiction. Harder to play games in comparison to an income tax. But nobody wants it. Very unpopular in a vote because, people rather have someone else pay such as rich people and corporations.

snsr 7y ago
Consumption taxes are regressive, serving to further exacerbate income inequality.
- appleiigs 7y ago
  It's not regressive. It's flat.
khyryk 7y ago
Rich people rarely buy stuff in proportion to their greater income (earning 100x more but not buying cars worth 100x more, etc). This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets, would probably respond by consuming less, which is likely to hurt businesses with lower demand for just about any product.
- appleiigs 7y ago
  > This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets, Certain items can be excempt from sales tax, such as groceries. > Likely to hurt businesses Since when is the HN crowd worried about hurting businesses. Most people here want higher taxes for corporations.
jmcqk6 7y ago
Consumption taxes are also regressive in that in the lower your income, the harder those taxes become to pay. I would prefer a tax scheme in which you're ability to pay the tax is proportional to the taxes you owe.
- appleiigs 7y ago
  It's not regressive. It's a flat tax, everyone pays the flat rate. Feels like spin when you say regressive.
  - zerocrates 7y ago
    The reason people call a flat consumption tax regressive is that poorer people, even though they're often buying cheaper things, generally spend a much larger proportion of their income on "consumption."

snsr 7y ago

Consumption taxes are regressive, serving to further exacerbate income inequality.

appleiigs 7y ago
It's not regressive. It's flat.

khyryk 7y ago

Rich people rarely buy stuff in proportion to their greater income (earning 100x more but not buying cars worth 100x more, etc). This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets, would probably respond by consuming less, which is likely to hurt businesses with lower demand for just about any product.

appleiigs 7y ago
> This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets, Certain items can be excempt from sales tax, such as groceries. > Likely to hurt businesses Since when is the HN crowd worried about hurting businesses. Most people here want higher taxes for corporations.

jmcqk6 7y ago

Consumption taxes are also regressive in that in the lower your income, the harder those taxes become to pay. I would prefer a tax scheme in which you're ability to pay the tax is proportional to the taxes you owe.

appleiigs 7y ago
It's not regressive. It's a flat tax, everyone pays the flat rate. Feels like spin when you say regressive.
- zerocrates 7y ago
  The reason people call a flat consumption tax regressive is that poorer people, even though they're often buying cheaper things, generally spend a much larger proportion of their income on "consumption."