In WA sales tax only applies to retail sales. Which means a revenue tax and a retail sales tax are not equivalent. For example, if a home builder is buying lum

In WA sales tax only applies to retail sales. Which means a revenue tax and a retail sales tax are not equivalent. For example, if a home builder is buying lumber directly from a wholesaler, they aren’t paying a sales tax. Whereas the revenue tax does catch a portion of that income. Maybe you mean we should broaden the concept of sales tax, and apply it to all transactions? That would be closer to equivalent to a revenue based tax structure, and would probably end up looking very similar to the VAT tax structure in Europe. I’m fine with a VAT tax, if we want to structure things that way. Honestly it’s a lot more paperwork to manage that way instead of revenue, but either works for me. Assuming arguendo that a sales and revenue tax were equivalent, a revenue tax would be the much simpler way to manage tax collection. Why would you ever prefer a structure that creates a tax event for every transaction, to an equivalent one that creates a single tax event per business entity?