can any one tell me what the total income tax revenue is, and the total of our countries internal commerce?

Question

what im getting at is this......would it generate more revenue to do away with the income tax system and have a national sales tax.

id think the gvmt should tax forign investments as well.

it seems to me that more revenue would be generated for the gvmt, and folks would be encouraged to invest in our country, and we could greatly reduce our biggest buracracy

Answer 1

Always nice to see someone "thinking outside the box" i.e. radically.

Alas the answer is no. We HAVE a national sales tax in the UK, in fact in each EU country. It's more complex and it's called VAT, and most things are taxed at 17 1/2%. It raises a lot of revenue, sure........ but so does income tax, you'd have to raise the sales tax to something like 30-35% to replace income tax.

The main objection to doing just that is "equity". Income tax is only on people with incomes, and low incomes are excluded, so the better off you are the more % tax you pay. People living on welfare benefits don't pay it, and neither do those living on other people's incomes e.g. children.

The problem with taxing foreign investment is that it would discourage it. Your country, like every other, benefits from foreign investment, it makes business more efficient and keeps it up to scratch with the world market. (Also, the US is the world's biggest net OUTWARD investor, it would be very bad for many US companies if other countries followed suit and started to tax investment FROM the US.) Like protectionism, a tax on foreign investment is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

ANY tax generates bureaucracy. Imagine you did have a 30% sales tax. It would be a huge incentive to do business "under the counter", "off the books". As it is here, many a plumber, electrician, etc will charge less for cash payments in order to avoid VAT, and even my garage mechanic has me write a cheque to his suppliers rather than to himself for some such tax-avoidance reason. Govts need bureaucracy to collect tax so as to minimise fraud, & validly calculate fair payments. Also to prevent corruption of the kind St. Matthew engaged in before he met Jesus.