It is ancient rule of tax policy that for maximum revenue and compliance taxes should not fall too heavily on any one point in the economy. By that rule taxes should be collected at small rates at many points, so that at no point is it worth it for the taxpayer to evade. When the rate is excessive at a point, evasion occurs.
Another ancient rule is that taxes should be imposed on things that can't evade by moving away or concealing themselves. A corollary of this rule is to avoid imposing taxes on small players in small amounts that it doesn't pay to enforce collection of. That favors taxing things like resource extraction, thus leading many to support a "carbon" tax on fossil fuels at or near the point of production or import, rather than at the point of use. That is also why my proposed purchase tax would not be collected from the ultimate purchasers, as well as because it is at that point a direct tax that is in conflict with the constitutional apportionment clause. One problem here, of course, is that if taxes are imposed on domestic producers and not also on imports, those imports have an unfair advantage over domestic producers. That brings us into conflict with the rule that free trade, that is, no tariffs, is better for global economic performance, unless tariff rates are set equal for all countries. Coordinating that is tough, and while in principle exchange rates should offset tariff imbalances, that requires floating exchange rates, which results in price instability. -- Jon ---------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 512/374-9585 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/KlSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
