4 ms·

I don't get it. You go into the grocery and pay sales tax on food for the week, but you import random trash from China, pay nothing and this is "great for helpi

I don't get it. You go into the grocery and pay sales tax on food for the week, but you import random trash from China, pay nothing and this is "great for helping small businesses"? No matter what you think about wholesale tariffs, surely this particular arrangement must strike you as odd and impossible to compete with for local producers? In the EU we pay full taxes on every import, it's really not that complicated once you explain to the Chinese guys to not mark it as "gift" like its 2005.

AnotherGoodName 2y ago
You pay the same taxes on imports too. In fact in the USA some states will hunt you down to ensure you pay tax on interstate purchases let alone imports. Eg. https://www.quora.com/Do-I-need-to-pay-California-sales-tax-on-online-purchases-from-overseas https://www.quora.com/Do-I-need-to-pay-California-sales-tax-... Now tariffs are different because they are applied in addition to the above and only affect imports specifically.
- petre 2y ago
  Not really. EU sales tax is typically 19…21% while the highest sales tax in tge US is in CA and it's 7.25%. Buy hey, now you,'ve got trarrifs, congrats on your election.
scottbez1 2y ago
You're mixing concepts. In the EU you'll generally pay VAT on all imports, but there are still often de minimis rules for import tariffs. This is not unlike the US - I have to always pay sales tax on imports regardless of value (unless it's being resold or incorporated into a product and I have an appropriate resale certificate, because sales tax is generally only required on final sale in the US), but import tariffs have a de minimus threshold. I'm not saying the primary objective of a de minimus policy is to help small businesses, but in practice it can make a huge difference to correct for economies of scale to promote competition. I can't afford a team of lawyers and lobbyists to creatively classify my products to avoid tariffs like the big companies do; regulatory burden disproportionately hurts smaller players, so it's typically considered good policy to promote competition to phase in regulations based on size/volume/revenue etc.

AnotherGoodName 2y ago

You pay the same taxes on imports too. In fact in the USA some states will hunt you down to ensure you pay tax on interstate purchases let alone imports. Eg. https://www.quora.com/Do-I-need-to-pay-California-sales-tax-on-online-purchases-from-overseas https://www.quora.com/Do-I-need-to-pay-California-sales-tax-... Now tariffs are different because they are applied in addition to the above and only affect imports specifically.

petre 2y ago
Not really. EU sales tax is typically 19…21% while the highest sales tax in tge US is in CA and it's 7.25%. Buy hey, now you,'ve got trarrifs, congrats on your election.

scottbez1 2y ago

You're mixing concepts. In the EU you'll generally pay VAT on all imports, but there are still often de minimis rules for import tariffs. This is not unlike the US - I have to always pay sales tax on imports regardless of value (unless it's being resold or incorporated into a product and I have an appropriate resale certificate, because sales tax is generally only required on final sale in the US), but import tariffs have a de minimus threshold. I'm not saying the primary objective of a de minimus policy is to help small businesses, but in practice it can make a huge difference to correct for economies of scale to promote competition. I can't afford a team of lawyers and lobbyists to creatively classify my products to avoid tariffs like the big companies do; regulatory burden disproportionately hurts smaller players, so it's typically considered good policy to promote competition to phase in regulations based on size/volume/revenue etc.