From what I’ve read about VAT vs income taxes in terms of politics to make a gross generalization European income taxes are about as simple as US sales taxes fo

From what I’ve read about VAT vs income taxes in terms of politics to make a gross generalization European income taxes are about as simple as US sales taxes for consumers and European VAT is about as complicated as US income taxes. The political levers of power and legislative tooling makes one easier to touch than the another. I’m generally a fan of the spirit of the law over the letter of the law and given the means to hide sources of wealth it seems easier to enforce compliance upon consumption rather than anything else (of course being mindful of the largely regressive nature of consumption taxes). Compliance that punishes smaller businesses disproportionately to multinationals seems awkward, and it’s also unfortunately true that increasing taxes on corporations (like any cost of business) tends to be passed onto buyers of goods and services rather than the intent to structurally promote divestment from consumer-hostile practices.