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Should the Federal Govt. implement a Value Added Tax (VAT)?

Should the Federal Govt. implement a Value Added Tax (VAT)?

  • Total voters
    20
radcen said:
I'm generally against the idea, but if it were to REPLACE most of the taxes we have now I'd consider it.

If it were just added to the already long list we have, then I'd be absolutely against it.
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Absolutely not.

The purpose and design of the VAT is to prevent taxpayers from understanding how much they are getting screwed.

This already happens, to a lesser level, with taxes on corporations, which end up being passed along to unwitting consumers, and if it were up to me, that would not be allowed either.

I think all taxes should be openly and honestly collected directly from those who end up bearing the burden, and not imposed in such a manner as to hide them in the prices that the end consumer pays for goods and services.
 
joG said:
Just do the sales tax at the consumer level. I do know that a vat is optimal in allocation terms. But you need a whole bureaucracy to implement it and it is prone to fraud.
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Fixed it for you.

As I stated, the only purpose in implement a tax as a VAT is to fraudulently hide it from those who end up bearing the burden thereof. There is absolutely no place in any open and free society for any such dishonest form of taxation.
 

The sales tax does that quite well as would a greatly simplified income tax.
 

Yup. Now, doesn't that put more pressure on the private sector to shorten the supply chain?

In the given example from A to B to C, there would be 2 VAT charges assessed for the end user to pay for.

If B and C were eliminated from the supply chain, a more vertically integrated A would result, and only a single VAT charge would be assessed. (Have I got this right?)

So there would be greater market pressure for highly vertically integrated businesses, and then the question becomes, is that vertical integration more efficient or less efficient at delivering goods and services?

Wouldn't this have a negative impact on the number of start up small businesses? You know, the businesses that employ the vast majority of the workforce?
 

VAT is applied at the end point of sale.
Companies are reimbursed for VAT paid to manufacture a product. A small percentage is retained by the company a-b thru the chain to pay for costs of maintaining this–the compnay that sells at the end point the VAT is applied and collected by Govt.
 
Ebay has a VAT. A couple of years ago I auctioned a student model pedal steel guitar. The winning bid was about $150 over what it should have been. Ebay said: "we want half", which they deducted immediately.

Hell will freeze over before I sell on there again.
 
radcen said:
I'm generally against the idea, but if it were to REPLACE most of the taxes we have now I'd consider it.

If it were just added to the already long list we have, then I'd be absolutely against it.
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What that guy said.
 

At least you had a choice whether to use it. We dont have such luxuries with the tax system. Dont like it, they garnish your wages.
 

Higher income people don't spend the same level of their take-home pay on goods. This means that lower incomes would be taxed a greater % of their income and results in a regressive tax.

For example, I spend a significantly greater % of my income on gas than someone making half a mil a year. See link.

Raise California gas tax? What Brown's $52 billion plan could cost you - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Higher income people also are able to keep more of their $$ in savings. That will never be taxed if we just go with a VAT. I'd prefer us to remove every single tax that exists and replace it with a flat % income tax, no consumption tax, no property tax, no nothing but a flat % on income with no refunds or loopholes.

That's the fairest and least corrupt way to tax.
 

Removing all deductions as we know will not happen. Far to many special interests
In Canada we have the VAT, called GST up here, lower income receive a rebate based upon income levels.
It applies to most goods, groceries to services to purchasing a newly built house

https://www.bdo.ca/en-ca/insights/i...flip-out-understanding-gst-hst-housing-r-(1)/
 

From what I understand the GST applies on the finished products.
Pls check the link below.
Cohen & Company - Understanding Canada?s GST/HST Tax System
 
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