4 ms·
What's the rationale for income tax? It makes no more sense to tax income than spending. I agree it's unpleasant to be "double taxed" but until the policy maker
by patmcc 3y ago
What's the rationale for income tax? It makes no more sense to tax income than spending. I agree it's unpleasant to be "double taxed" but until the policy makers start listening to the economists it'll continue.
- crazygringo 3y agoThat it's progressive. It's easy to tax a higher percentage if you make more in a year. You can't really do a progressive sales tax or VAT, logistically.
- patmcc 3y agoEh, you can, just not easily at point of sale. You can give credits/rebates (either to all in the form of a UBI, or targeted by income) to offset the amount people will pay in VAT, or you can have different rates for e.g. "essentials" vs luxuries. See https://www.oecd.org/tax/reassessing-the-regressivity-of-the-vat-b76ced82-en.htm https://www.oecd.org/tax/reassessing-the-regressivity-of-the... - lots of countries that have implemented VATs are able to make them somewhat progressive. Wish we'd just bite the bullet and move towards a land value tax though.