View Single Post
Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-03-14, 16:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
They don't, I can assure you. Consumption taxes make very little revenue, because most items that people buy are in the $5-20 range, even at 12% consumption tax (what I pay in BC) that would be 6cents - $2.40. Sure it all adds up, but only on big ticket items, in the $100+ range, (ohh $12!), on a $1200 item then it starts to roll in, $144. It does raise a far amount of money, but its still not enough, especially during hard economic times (like now) where consumption falls into the whole. Revenue Canada still collects most of the Canadian Governments revenue.
But you're still assuming the consumption tax has to be 12% (or less). It could be 20% or 23% or 30% - that seems like a lot, but perhaps not when viewed as a replacement for income tax.

Canada's consumption tax is in addition to their income tax, so it makes sense for it to be a lower rate - it doesn't have to raise as much money.

I'm still seeing people "not understanding" consumption tax in this thread. The government would not have to continue to track your income, and you certainly wouldn't have to mail in all your receipts for everything you ever purchased at the end of the year.

IOW, I'm still not seeing a convincing argument against it. But there has to be a reason we're not already using a consumption tax...right?

I avoided mentioning FairTax by name in my original post, because it's not like that's the first consumption tax that's been proposed (although it is, perhaps, the one that's gained the most traction). All the minutia of a sales tax vs. a value added tax is beyond the scope of this thread - I'm just wondering what's intrinsically wrong with a consumption tax, instead of an income tax.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote