Quote:
Originally Posted by kutulu
One last thing: Could someone post some substantial proof on the breakdown of these hidden taxes? Perpaps a real item with acutal costs. I've asked numerous people on many message boards and it's always ignored. Back that shit up.
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I have searched myself and cannot find a definitive answer to your question. I had hoped that someone with an economics backround could answer this question for us. The following website tries to estimate the hidden taxes on 14 items but they do not go far enough since they do not include all the taxes paid at every step of the distribution channel that eventually get passed on to the consumer.
Tax Bites
As an example let's evaluate the taxes included in a loaf of bread:
-The store where you buy it.
-Trucking from warehouse to store.
-The warehouse.
-Trucking from bakery to warehouse.
-The bakery.
-Trucking from farmer and ingredient suppliers.
-Ingredient manufacturer.
-Farmer.
-Trucking from seed supplier to farmer.
-Seed supplier
I probably missed a few. Each one of these entities has dozens of taxes that they must include in their prices as they move up the distribution channel until we finally buy the loaf at the store and pay for all of the taxes which are now included in the price. Then we are hit with a sales tax on top of that.
Each entity must be evaluated separately but an example of what each one pays may include:
federal income taxes, state income taxes, state and local property taxes, federal payroll taxes, sales taxes, capital gains taxes, unemployment compensation taxes, workmen’s compensation taxes, retailers’ excise taxes, business license taxes and fees, utility taxes, gasoline/diesel taxes and state wheat farmer checkoff taxes. I'm sure there are more that I missed.
I am roughly estimating that the hidden taxes on most goods and services may be 50% but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a lot more when you consider that each entity also marks up the goods and services which include their taxes before passing the cost up the distribution channel. Also we should probably include packagers and advertisers and their taxes as well.