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It could be done anonymously if you calculate purchases implicitly as income minus savings. This would de-anonymize savings of course, but they’re not really th

by NickM 5y ago

It could be done anonymously if you calculate purchases implicitly as income minus savings. This would de-anonymize savings of course, but they’re not really that anonymous right now anyway since most methods of savings have to report interest/dividends/etc.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
And then you're back to where you started, surely? You still need the information about income.
- NickM 5y ago
  Right, but the problem cited earlier up in the thread is that sales tax would prevent anonymous purchases; if you accept that income is not anonymous (which it already isn't), then you can still have a system with both sales tax and anonymous purchases.
pjc50 5y ago
Income: unknown due to financial privacy Savings: unknown (held in cryptocurrency, private) Tax: divide by zero error Besides, doesn't the US already have sales taxes? Or are they state-only? I'm starting to favor a tax on real estate and/or land value, since that's physically impossible to hide.
- handrous 5y ago
  > Besides, doesn't the US already have sales taxes? Or are they state-only? State. City. County. Sub-divisions of same that are special sales tax districts and have extra sales tax applied. Not every instance of those entities applies a sales tax, but any could and many do. Basically everything except federal. The sales tax where I am, in a "red" state, is about 11% (we actually have a really high effective all-inclusive tax rate in this state, for how entirely shitty government services and infrastructure are) > I'm starting to favor a tax on real estate and/or land value, since that's physically impossible to hide. The challenge with that is the system for assigning value—everything else about it is easy. We already have something close to what you'd need in the US because real estate property taxes are common. That system's not perfect but it may still be good-enough, despite its flaws. It seems to work kinda OK. That might change if that became a more important revenue source, and for more levels of government, though.

by NickM 5y ago

wizzwizz4 5y ago

And then you're back to where you started, surely? You still need the information about income.

NickM 5y ago
Right, but the problem cited earlier up in the thread is that sales tax would prevent anonymous purchases; if you accept that income is not anonymous (which it already isn't), then you can still have a system with both sales tax and anonymous purchases.

pjc50 5y ago

Income: unknown due to financial privacy Savings: unknown (held in cryptocurrency, private) Tax: divide by zero error Besides, doesn't the US already have sales taxes? Or are they state-only? I'm starting to favor a tax on real estate and/or land value, since that's physically impossible to hide.

handrous 5y ago
> Besides, doesn't the US already have sales taxes? Or are they state-only? State. City. County. Sub-divisions of same that are special sales tax districts and have extra sales tax applied. Not every instance of those entities applies a sales tax, but any could and many do. Basically everything except federal. The sales tax where I am, in a "red" state, is about 11% (we actually have a really high effective all-inclusive tax rate in this state, for how entirely shitty government services and infrastructure are) > I'm starting to favor a tax on real estate and/or land value, since that's physically impossible to hide. The challenge with that is the system for assigning value—everything else about it is easy. We already have something close to what you'd need in the US because real estate property taxes are common. That system's not perfect but it may still be good-enough, despite its flaws. It seems to work kinda OK. That might change if that became a more important revenue source, and for more levels of government, though.