3 ms·
Isn't VAT a regressive tax, since poor usually have to spend a lot larger percentage of their income than the wealthy? I thought that was generally considered l
by ajmurmann 7y ago
Isn't VAT a regressive tax, since poor usually have to spend a lot larger percentage of their income than the wealthy? I thought that was generally considered less fair than a progressive tax?
- sgc 7y agoYes.
- numpad0 7y agoAgreed but fair is nuanced
- BurningFrog 7y agoWell... The good thing with a VAT is that it's very simple and hard to evade. Income taxes that are progressive on paper can become anything but with enough accountants massaging your accounts. But with a VAT, everyone just pays it. And those accountants can do productive work that benefits society.
- maxlybbert 7y agoI think the original comment should have been “sounds like a FairTax ( http://fairtax.org/ http://fairtax.org/ ) system.” The FairTax is a libertarian proposal for a national VAT or sales tax, but — to reduce the regressive effects of a sales tax — to send everybody a “pre-bate” (money equal to the tax a person would expect to pay for food, rent, etc.). I don’t know if the California bill is actually based on the FairTax proposal, but it does have both components, even if it uses different names.
- joshuamorton 7y agoYes, I was specifically talking about the FairTax scheme, which is a libertarian and oft-considered regressive tax scheme. Hence my bafflement at it being pushed by a seemingly liberal-for-california state legislator.