Re: Taxes in the digicash world

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:45 PM 7/30/96, Lucky Green wrote:
>At 6:17 7/30/96, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
>[...]
>>Another alternative that I see is property taxes and poll taxes,or
>>taxes on some commodities such as oil. But incomes seem to be hard to
>>track.
>
>What you also will see is an increase in sales tax. You still got to buy
>groceries locally.

In the spirit of looking for points to quibble about:

* food is mostly exempt from sales taxes, in most states in the U.S. Expect
a major protest if a loaf of bread incurs a sales tax--I don't expect it
anytime soon.

* booze has a high tax rate, in excise taxes which can account for as much
as 40% of the final price, plus sales tax. If the tax rises much higher,
expect increased black market sales.

* electronic and computer goods are often untaxed because many order them
via mail-order. There have been proposals to tax out-of-state purchases,
but the logistics and legal issues are murky (who gets the tax? and why
should Idaho, for example, get the tax revenue for an item ordered from
Georgia?).

Of course, I'm not an expert in answering Igor's original question about
where the taxes will come from. I'm more interested in reducing them, not
raising them.

--Tim May

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