Re:When the Rich Said No to Getting Richer
by MichaelBurge on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @09:16AM
(#15174766)
The big problem there is that it encourages companies to grow as big as they possibly can, because "internal" transactions aren't taxed.
So Amazon would own the entire supply chain: Manufacturing widgets, selling widgets, storing widgets, shipping widgets, handling returns, etc. They already sort of do this, but if you add a 20% tax at each hop they would eliminate the remaining hops as fast as they possibly can or buy the hops.
And you could never start a small business, because everyone who'd want to buy from you would save a ton of money doing it themselves. By not taxing business transactions, it's zero additional cost to have someone else do something for you, so it makes it possible to grow a small business.
In particular, grocery stores with a 2% margin would be hit hard.
So Amazon would own the entire supply chain: Manufacturing widgets, selling widgets, storing widgets, shipping widgets, handling returns, etc. They already sort of do this, but if you add a 20% tax at each hop they would eliminate the remaining hops as fast as they possibly can or buy the hops.
And you could never start a small business, because everyone who'd want to buy from you would save a ton of money doing it themselves. By not taxing business transactions, it's zero additional cost to have someone else do something for you, so it makes it possible to grow a small business.
In particular, grocery stores with a 2% margin would be hit hard.