Comments on: Taxes: Are You Ready for VAT?

By: Miranda

Miranda — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:15:13 +0000

Interesting point, Ray.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:31:50 +0000

Most industries in this country already have this, it’s called excise tax. Make’s it easy for the ignorant public blame corporations for high prices. I worked in an industry that had a 11% excise tax. Combine that with sales tax and you are at 20%. What a crappy business partner the government is.

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:41:38 +0000

Miranda, how could you? Take away the pork that gets the clowns, oops, I mean Congresspersons, reelected? That’s not nice. Without earmarks Uncle Ted wouldn’t have had a 40 year career and there wouldn’t be amazing tourist attractions such as the Bridge to Nowhere.

And if we didn’t support all those other countries all the poor little mice wouldn’t have anyone to roar at…

By: miranda

miranda — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:21:25 +0000

LOL. There are a TON of pork barrel projects out there that the federal government should not be funding. And I think we shouldn’t be paying to support other countries’ militaries (which we do). I also don’t think we should be paying subsidies to companies that are quite profitable on their own.

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:23:44 +0000

Out of curiosity, what DON’T you think the government shouldn’t be paying for?

By: miranda

miranda — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:51:59 +0000

Nice, huh? We expect a great deal, but we hate to think of how to pay for it. While there are some things that the government shouldn’t be paying for, there are definitely some items (police, garbage collection, education, infrastructure, etc.) that the government should be helping with.

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Thank you, Miranda. It’s nice to see someone equate revenue (taxes) with outlay (services and infrastructure).

I live in Washington State with no state income tax, but we do have a sales tax. My area is also just across the river from Oregon, with no sales tax.

I get very tired of hearing people brag about how they bought X in Oregon to avoid the sales tax and then go on to complain bitterly about the cost of college/condition of roads/not enough law enforcement/etc.

It’s as if they can’t make the connection!

By: miranda

miranda — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:50:58 +0000

It is true that taxes are a necessity. We’ve reached a point where we expect certain things from our government, and we have to pay for them. While VAT may drive some production out of the country, chances are that it could be applied to incoming products, so that the advantage of going elsewhere is limited.

By: John

John — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:47:41 +0000

Value added tax is still that, though a “Tax”. This isn’t something that I really enjoy, unfortunately we have to deal with. VAT is just going to drive production out of the US even further than it is already. This is because it is going to cost even more to produce and sell a good here than it once did.

By: miranda

miranda — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:19:57 +0000

Thanks Rahul and Miki. As with all things, there are mixed feelings about this. But I do like the VAT better than a lot of other tax schemes out there. Since consumption is such a huge part of our economy now, maybe that’s what we should be taxing — instead of income. Of course, if we do go with VAT, I’d like to see food excluded.