11-24-2004, 01:40 AM
|
#74 (permalink)
|
|
....is off his meds...you were warned.
Location: The Wild Wild West
|
By the way, I was wrong about housing:
Quote:
|
Thus, the NST should be imposed on gross payments for the use, consumption, or enjoyment in the United States of any taxable property or service. Taxable property and services include any tangible property (including rents and leaseholds on tangible property) and services. Securities, contract rights, copyrights, patents, and the like are not taxable. Housing, financial intermediation services, government goods and services that are sold to the public--such as bus rides, postage stamps, and publications of the Government Printing Office--gaming services, and the unrelated business activities of not-for-profit organizations are also included in the tax base. Property (or services) produced or rendered outside of the United States (imports) would be taxed at the point of sale. Thus, virtually any consumer good (ranging from food to video games to cars) would be taxed. Apartment and house rents and home purchases also would be subject to tax. Goods purchased abroad by consumers would be taxed upon entry into the United States. [28] Services to individuals and households (including, for example, services provided by barbers, plumbers, therapists, accountants, lawyers, doctors, and the like) would also be taxed.
|
Here is more on the regressive concept, from the same site:
Quote:
|
A common assumption about the NST is that it is naturally regressive, since lower income individuals spend a greater percentage of their income in any given year on consumption of necessities. Because a sales tax is an altogether different paradigm of taxation, any judgment on the equity of the tax must be accompanied by a different analysis of regressivity.
|
Quote:
|
In any case, an NST plan can be made progressive through a rebate mechanism that would shelter low-income people from paying the tax. One manner in which the NST could be made less regressive would be to exempt certain necessities--such as food and clothing--from the tax. That approach would exempt, however, the most expensive food (lobster and caviar) and the most expensive clothing ($1,000 designer suits). It is a very inefficient means of providing tax relief to lower and middle income Americans and would necessitate a much higher overall rate. [41] A more neutral and less distortive approach is to simply provide each family a level of consumption free of tax by providing a rebate of the tax on expenditures up to the poverty level. That is the device we recommend and the approach chosen by Representatives Schaefer and Tauzin in H.R. 3039.
|
Quote:
|
The family consumption allowance approach has several effects. First, it makes the sales tax applicable only to consumption beyond the necessities of life. Second, it makes the tax in effect progressive, not only because it is based on consumption, a better index of true ability to pay, but because--if one wants to continue to view progressivity through an income tax lens--it entirely exempts lower income workers. Third, unlike most state taxes, it does not undertake the complex and politicized task of determining what to tax and what to exempt, thereby minimizing administrative and compliance questions and economic distortions.
|
Source |
|
|