National Sales Tax to Replace Income Tax

[Lawrence of Arabia]

all of these voodoo tax cuts are just designed to switch the tax burden from the rich to the poor.

[GePap]

I would be all for a use tax- as long as buying stocks and bonds and all financial transactions were taxed as well- you want to buy stock to make yourself some money? Fine, go ahead- just know there is a 40% fed tax on the sales level of the stock. Ditto for any other financial transation. Tax those at a high rate, and I am all for a use tax as opposed to a sales tax. if they aren´t going to be taxed, then I say HELL NO

[Dauphin]

40% tax on sale of shares. You'd have to make 40% growth just to recoup.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Or move your money offshore, or do it through paper bag business organizations, trusts, or whatever would happen to be tax exempt. The rich never lose at these kind of games.

[Jamski]

This just encourages cross-border sumggling and takes trade away from home businesses. We have 17.5% here, and every neighbourhood has someone selling "cheap stuff from Poland"

-Jam

[Berzerker]

There is another reason for such a change, it would help level out competition. Unless tariffs on imports match the combined cost of corporate/business taxes and regulation, foreign businesses have an advantage. Of course, we'd have to calculate the cost of doing business in those other countries to get the total effect, but the current tax structure favors foreign competition.
A sales tax would at least put all products in the market on the same playing field.

[:) Smiley]

Sales tax

What really is annoying about sales tax in the USA is that it's not added onto the sticker price of stuff you see in the store, so you're always fumbling around with pennies after buying stuff. While I was in Taiwan, everything was priced with tax included, and there wasn't too much of the stupid use of 9's and 8's either.

[MRT144]

i see people consuming less if there was this sales tax. it seems to me that the psychological impact of 30-50% sales tax on something would cause a huge dip in consumption of non essential goods for a short period

[MRT144]

also this affects the poor harder than the rich. if the tax is high on things like food and other things, the disposable income of the poor (who already dont pay income taxes) will become even less and make the people poorer.

[:) Smiley]

There's also the problem of the transition:

The month of the changeover, stuff will cost higher prices, but people will have only their earlier taxed income to spend.

[MRT144]

yeah. if they did it over a period of 30 years, each year decreasing the income tax and increasing the sales tax it might work

[Imran Siddiqui]

Unless tariffs on imports match the combined cost of corporate/business taxes and regulation, foreign businesses have an advantage

Um... you neglect to count the taxes and regulations on foriegn businesses. They may have a disadvantage.

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Jamski
This just encourages cross-border sumggling and takes trade away from home businesses. We have 17.5% here, and every neighbourhood has someone selling "cheap stuff from Poland"

-Jam

Canada have this high sales tax so I doubt we'll be seeing 'cheap stuff from Canada' and there are already 'cheap stuff from Mexico'

[Agathon]

Well, at least Bush is honest, he's now made it absolutely and undeniably clear that he wants to wage a class war against the poor.

Consumption taxes like this affect the poor, who have to spend most of their money, more than the wealthy. The middle class are going to get screwed too.

[Sava]

why does bush tiptoe around this issue? he should just flat out say he wants to bring back feudalism... let wealthy landowners run things while everyone slaves on the land

but seriously, if you think this is a good idea, chances are you're a moron...