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> abolishing the income tax and going to a direct, national sales tax Sales taxes are regressive. It's the rich and upper classes that stand to gain the most b
by adventured 4y ago
> abolishing the income tax and going to a direct, national sales tax
Sales taxes are regressive. It's the rich and upper classes that stand to gain the most by the abolition of income taxes. They don't consume enough to drive up huge sales tax bills. In terms of positive generation, mostly they accumulate income and asset gains. Overwhelmingly they don't spend their wealth on buying Ferraris and mansions. In the US the top 10% pay 71% of all income taxes (while taking home 30% of the income). Their consumption is not high enough to offset if you switch to a sales tax system. It would do something beyond brutalizing the bottom 3/4 of people; it would destitute the majority of workers in the country if you attempted it and were serious about trying to bring in enough revenue to offset the loss of the income tax.
The US has a very progressive income taxation system, far more so than most of Europe (including all of Scandinavia). The US middle class and below pay exceptionally low income taxes, the burden is overwhelmingly carried by the higher income brackets already.
- RappingBoomer 4y agoyeah, america is definitely more progressive than scandanavia...just look at our oh so progressive tax system.. tee hee...
- avgcorrection 4y agoAlso more egalitarian...
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI wouldn't be surprised if the US had more progressive taxes, at least at the federal level. 50% of people pay zero federal income taxes.
- yamtaddle 4y ago> The US has a very progressive income taxation system, far more so than most of Europe (including all of Scandinavia). The US middle class and below pay exceptionally low income taxes, the burden is overwhelmingly carried by the higher income brackets already. We have progressive wage income taxes (much less so if you include highly-regressive FICA contributions at ~7.5% for W2 and ~15% for 1099 employees—but still) but overall the US income tax scheme is quite regressive, thanks to how capital gains taxes work, which leads to things like Warren Buffet observing that he enjoys a lower tax rate than his secretary does.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> The US has a very progressive income taxation system It has strongly progressive main rates for income tax, but it has extremely regressive exclusions from income taxation and from the main rates, and it has a whole separate regressive system of taxation on labor income not characterized as an income tax in its payroll taxes. It also, viewing state and federal systems combined, has a very large portion of total taxes in other, non-income, taxes which tend to be regressive.