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Article: The American retail sales tax: considerations on their structure, operations, and potential as a foundation for a federal sales tax.(Symposium on a National Retail Sales Tax)
- Article from:
- National Tax Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 National Tax Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Americans are familiar with
the retail sales tax. Therefore, it is not
surprising that Congress would consider
such a tax as a way to tax consumption
expenditure, should it choose to shift
from the present federal structure that
emphasizes income taxation. While the
sales taxes are impressive revenue
producers for state and local government,
the taxes are poorly designed as
consumption taxes: they tax too few
household services, they exempt too
many household purchases of goods,
and they tax too many business inputs,
especially capital asset purchases. State
and local sales tax rates are relatively
low, so compliance appears not to be a
major problem, and economic ...