What is luxury tax and why is there luxury tax?

Question

I think it's unfair.

the more i read about the answers the more i think of how cheep the government really is.

Answer 1

A luxury tax is anther tool used by the government to part you and I from our money. By calling it a luxury tax, it was supposed to fool the masses into believeing it was just a tax on the wealthy, when in fact it included at one time many items necessary for the middle class and destitute people of this country.
This tax was also applied to the purchase of items such as automobile tires, many type of clothing such as a leather jacket, leather gloves, various types of shoes, in fact items from almost all categories, even some foods. This tax was common during the second world war and beyond, and of course included all watches, and all types and classes of jewelry.

Answer 2

The old Federal Luxury Tax is dead and has been dead for some time.

It was a classic example of The Law of Unintended Consequences. The idea was to levy a tax on those who could afford conspicuous consumption. Unfortunately the way that the law was written, it was child's play for the wealthy to do an end run around the tax by purchasing expensive goods overseas. The import duties on most of them were lower than the tax was, and lots of things such as jewelry were simply smuggled in on the hands and necks of the new owners, hiding in plain sight if you will.

The result was that the dealers, distributors and retailers of such goods were hit hard by the loss of sales and many of them were driven to bankruptcy. It might seem hard to commiserate with a yacht dealer who catered to the ultra-rich going bust, but many of their lower-paid staff were tossed onto the unemployment lines when the business went down the toilet.

Answer 3

Luxury tax on fishing tackle, tackle boxes, etc. Also on bow and arrows and guns. That is APPALLING. The average common man (my husband) cant go buy some fishing hooks to go fishing after a six day 10hr work week without having to pay a luxury tax to do it! I would about live the same if not better I quit my job and parasites off of the government like most people do and we all know people who do. I know a couple who gets 4 thousand dollars + back on taxes who don't even work! I get $250 dollars back and pay thousands in taxes throughout the year. The same type of people do drugs get disability (depending on the family's preferences on mooching off of the government) get food stamps and work under the table or commit fraud. The people on disability go around cutting wood or selling scrap metal! I have to eat ramen noodles while their carts are full of crab legs and filet mignon provide by food stamps. ITS TRUE but no one else experiences this but us middle class..no one else understands. I cant afford to eat healthy and organic and they can. Sometimes I keep the native trout and I filet them so we can eat healthy and farm raised free. AND THATS A LUXURY??? Sometimes I cant catch anything at all because the illegal immigrants come in a big van, throw a huge net out (sometimes overnight) and take all of the fish. that's not even fair because they get food stamps. I witness people in the community fighting over who's child they will claim for taxes and who will charge them less in hundreds of dollars if they let them claim their child!!! No one on disability I know should even be on disability. My husband works in a factory, Sometimes his legs hurt, sometimes his back hurts. My husband comes home covered black. He believes in treating people fair and honest, believes in honest hard work, wants to believe in our future and our government? loves nature, the parks and being outdoors. But it seems that the economy is take, take, taking from him and ones like him and give give giving to the lazy, irresponsible, drug addicts and user and abusers. No one goes outdoors anymore. Thats a luxury!!!?? to go outdoors and catch a fish?????? We are at the ages of 27 now and both work hard and are being careful in our planning of children.

Answer 4

It is unfair but because of class envy they do tax luxuries.
Yacht taxes put many people out of work that were building yachts.
By taxing somethings more than others they think they can get more tax money because the people who don't buy that item will vote to tax it. Look at cigarette, alcohol, fishing tackle, luxury autos, yachts all taxed really high because most people don't use each. They also want to do social engineering like taxing gas guzzler cars more.

Answer 5

so the government can take more money from the hard working people of North America what else can the government do to make peoples lives miserable

Answer 6

Uncle Sam's got his hand in your pocket,Ted Kennedy needs a pay raise.