24 ms·
> How do you design a progressive consumption tax? Tax only private jets and yachts? There are lots of ways to design a progressive consumption tax, but yes, o
by hn_throwaway_99 1y ago
> How do you design a progressive consumption tax? Tax only private jets and yachts?
There are lots of ways to design a progressive consumption tax, but yes, one way is to tax luxury goods at a higher rate than essentials. This is already done in many states, for example, where groceries (or at least "basic" groceries like bread, milk and produce but not prepared foods) are exempt from sales tax.
Another way is a sales tax rebate, e.g. where everyone can file for a rebate of sales tax of, say, the first $10000 of goods in a year. So poorer people with lower expenditures end up having a much lower effective tax rate.
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoAnother way is to put some sales tax revenue towards funding UBI. This is progressive because people who consume more than average will pay more into it, and people who consume less than average will get more out of it, and busy people don't have to spend their time organizing receipts to claim their sales tax rebate.
- rayiner 1y agoThat’s one of the proposals: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/economy/government-tariff-revenue https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/economy/government-tariff-rev... “Trump has floated a combination of two options: paying down the government’s multi-trillion debt and sending ‘tariff rebate checks’ to Americans.”
- danaris 1y agoDoesn't that require you to somehow track the sales tax you've paid over the course of the year...? That seems like a pretty onerous requirement for poorer people, who are guaranteed to also be more stressed, working longer hours, etc.
- hn_throwaway_99 1y agoIt can would just like the sales tax deduction you can already get for income taxes: you can track them individually, or you can take a lump estimate based on your income (with exemptions for large purchases).