Re:G7: Rich nations back deal to tax multinationals
by throwawayboise on Saturday June 05, 2021 @01:34PM
(#27407000)
Yes, conventional sales taxes apply to the final retail sale. But in your example, a home builder buying lumber does pay sales taxes, since there is no sales tax on the sale of the finished home (at least not in my state).
For example, if a home builder is buying lumber directly from a wholesaler, they aren’t paying a sales tax. Whereas the revenue tax does catch a portion of that income.
Maybe you mean we should broaden the concept of sales tax, and apply it to all transactions? That would be closer to equivalent to a revenue based tax structure, and would probably end up looking very similar to the VAT tax structure in Europe.
I’m fine with a VAT tax, if we want to structure things that way. Honestly it’s a lot more paperwork to manage that way instead of revenue, but either works for me.
Assuming arguendo that a sales and revenue tax were equivalent, a revenue tax would be the much simpler way to manage tax collection. Why would you ever prefer a structure that creates a tax event for every transaction, to an equivalent one that creates a single tax event per business entity?