VAT Coming to U.S.?

errm...

a sales tax is NOT the same as a consumption tax, but whatever....

Any form of sales/consumption tax will ALWAYS hit the lower earning population harder, as many of you have already pointed out. Governments recognise this and introduce exceptions, special schemes, alternative rates for certain products blah blah. Therein lies a whole new avenue for the civil servants, tax professionals, lawyers, etc etc to cream their slice of the pie by arguing at the edges of definition.

VAT in the EU is an "own resources" tax i.e. ALL VAT is collected by member states for the EU as a whole (member states are allowed to retain a %age to cover "costs of collection". I don't know if a similar arrangement could apply in the USA given the different constitutional setup and body of law.

One of the possible similarities between the US and the EU could be the mandating of a tax rate on most items across the whole nation, with states allowed to adjust rates for their own citizens only in certain circumstances.

A final point - a nation can only take so much of its GDP being taken/recirculated in tax before the economy goes into meltdown. Were a form of VAT to be introduced into the USA I would expect to see a corresponding lowering or abolishment of other forms of taxation - the UK for example abolished Purchase Tax on the introduction of VAT in 1972. But then again I know bugger all (a technical term) about taxation generally in the USA so please excuse any naievety

Inc

It's pretty sad indeed that there is apparently no national media outlet employing fact checkers on a consistent basis anymore. They seem to be nearly universally bad at factual and objective reporting nowadays.


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The reason a VAT tax won't pass in the U.S. is because it would have the heaviest impact on spending from everyone in the lower and middle classes. These are the classes that prop up the powerful consumer-credit industry. The consumer-credit industry won't let it happen.

also they want people to spend... Adding a sales tax like that would have people tightening up to the point that the Omish would be looked at as living large lol

credit is why we are in this boat hehehehe

God bless The Onion!

What is sad is the tabloids have more accurate news these days than the major media outlets... Just looks at "The Daily Show". It is on the comedy channel and is supposed to be not taken serious yet people take it more serious than MSNBC, CNN or Fox....

I wish I was being sarcastic....seriously...

The problem is that the comedy writers on "The Daily Show" do better fact-checking than MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.

I don't think the people in charge right now really give a damn about an economic recovery; if they did they wouldn't be ramming through policies and legislation that they are currently. Those things have been tried, and they have failed in the past. With every falling stock, every lost job, every drop in the value of the dollar, they see a greater opportunity to scare the public, manipulate the crisis, and take more power for themselves while leaving us with less money and less freedom. How's that hope and change workin out for ya?

Rush Limbaugh line. Let me teleprompt your next line..."Drive-by media."

i just love watching gold hit close to 960 then magically an influx out of thin air pushes it back down..lol
they have to keep that indicator looking good..the only thing is each time they push gold back down the tougher it gets to do it the next time..

it just feels like they are stalling ..like a negotiator in a hostage situation..
yes we can get you the three buses we promised but we just need a little more time lol

What are you talking about? Wanting to get rid of the 'don't ask don't tell' policy is not the same as wanting to do away with gays in the military.

And all this VAT stuff isn't going to happen. It even says it's not being considered...it's off the table... This is just like when the tax advocate said that the IRS needs to look into taxing virtual worlds. I mean that went into ignoresville really fast.

It's fun to point fingers at the current administration (whoever that is at any given point in time), but I see no evidence that anyone in any political party is doing a damned thing about the economy. Between the party of "Did I say that?" and the "Party of No", we have absolutely nothing useful being accomplished.


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vote third party!

Yes, quite, on both counts.

In the US, some marginalized faction of one party or the other gussies up a VAT variant about every ten years as a way of hiding a regressive tax behind the near repeal of income tax. It never goes anywhere.

(And on gays in the military: if even Fox News is too difficult to comprehend, consider adjusting dosage.)

Lots of countries are facing a taxation armageddon, from what I read and hear.
Billions and billions of government money has been given away in bank bailouts and it's got to be recovered from somewhere.

i didn't read all this thread and i'm not very political so i'm not even sure why i'm responding here.. except earlier someone was suggesting that wealthier people be taxed higher and someone else questioned "why they hated wealthy people" .. like the suggestion of taxing the wealthy insinuated hatred for the wealthy .. or this idea that taxing the wealthy is somehow "punishing" success.

i don't see it that way.

my partner and i have a combined income of over $250,000, which is a lot compared to the average American, but it's nothing compared to CEOs of big companies and Hollywood stars, athletes, etc. But, it's enough to typically fall into the higher bracket when it comes to who's gonna get taxed more.. when it's suggested that the wealthy be subjected to higher taxes.

Neither me or my partner have a problem paying higher taxes if it will help the country as a whole. ..but neither of us are selfish people. Sure we both worked hard for our money (we have our own business) but that doesn't mean we turn our noses in the air and don't want to help out .. or whatever.

i dunno. Like i said, maybe my post doesn't fit in this topic, i only vaguely understand VAT and all. Like i said, i'm not very politically minded. i mostly just wanted to say that i fall into what most people would call the "wealthy" category and i don't get all offended or hurt when it's suggested that i pay higher taxes than some family of four struggling to make it on $40,000.

We have a VAT here in Canada. Luckily we also have health care so we don't have to stay in a job we hate just to pay for routine medical procedures. We can have babies, get surgery and get preventative care no matter how poor we are just by showing our medical cards...no out of pocket at all.

And our milk is cheaper than yours I bet. Then again we don't have folks making 250K a year for doing a bit of paperwork badly and then paying themselves bonuses.

If one of our kids breaks an arm, we don't have to lose the house to pay for their care. Or watch our parents lose everything they worked a lifetime for because one of them gets sick when they get older.

Before you jump all over me, I'm an American. But if you live outside of the states for awhile, the talk of individual freedom that is supposed to come from being ripped off by ponzi schemes doesn't look like the real thing.

Its way past time for a change in the US.

Not by a long shot, but not because of GST/PST. Canada's agricultural trade policy is... uh, "selectively liberalized." Canadian dairy farmers enjoy a back-door subsidy known as "supply management," a matter of some interest to its trading partners in the WTO. Canada is by no means alone in protectionism for certain industries; it's just that dairy products wouldn't be a good choice for comparing with our neighbors to the south.

Anyway, as a recent import from the US, I can say that for all the scaremongering there and all the hand-wringing here, the Canadian health system is much superior to the mess in the States (and mind you, I was in Boston with generous health coverage, not uninsured in some backwater burgh).

due in large part to the high cost of american healthcare there is also a lot of $ reinvested into the industry, research, hospital equipment and so on.
because of that there isnt any other place i would rather have serious surgery performed at than a yank hospital.

This. And that the entire purpose of the media was to be another "check & balance" to keep the public aware of what was going on and to question.

Europeans would go nuts if we instituted VAT similar to theirs. It would erase the advantages of their exports. Many American brands are ultimately owned by Europeans. It's not the little guys that the government is worried about, it's the fat cats on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms who hate this the most.

And yet California has set up a nice film production tax credit to start in July! So I guess it depends on which crooks you like and which you don't.

Welcome to Canada Qie. Not that I'm part of the official welcoming committee or anything.

well not neccessarily....like in the UK, yes they bailed the banks out, but they now have major stakes in those same Banks. Should the Banks become mega profitable and buy back those Govt shares....the Govt could actually come out ahead. The only problem is the "time factor"...and how long that Govt money is going to be effectively tied up.