3 ms·

Pretty trivial to declare your car at $26,000. The extra tax is minimal, and if someone buys it, the $1000 bonus will cushion your annoyance. If we think that

Pretty trivial to declare your car at $26,000. The extra tax is minimal, and if someone buys it, the $1000 bonus will cushion your annoyance. If we think that "everyone" will have to "overdeclare" in such fashion, then obviously the government is collecting more revenue than it intended and will lower the tax rates to compensate, so in the end, you'll pay the same dollar amount in tax on your $26,000 car as you would have on your $25,000 car. So, such a system would work fine. Particularly for property taxes, which are currently the subject of much scamming (apartment buildings in NYC being valued at a few percent of their actual market value, for example).

nybble41 5y ago
> If we think that "everyone" will have to "overdeclare" in such fashion, then obviously the government is collecting more revenue than it intended and will lower the tax rates to compensate, … If everyone over-declares by the same amount, sure. But not everyone will. It depends on how much attachment one has to a specific item, how much risk there is that someone will attempt to take it, and how painful or inconvenient it would be to lose it. And you're ignoring the point about being vulnerable to motivated individuals willing to pay above-market rates purely to cause trouble.