Tax discussion thread (U.S. focused)

[Final-Fan]

Kasz216 said:

Such problems already have manifested.

Such as Property tax. Which is a wealth tax.

You support Estate taxes. Isn't that a wealth tax?

Even sales taxes, sin taxes and luxuary taxes are quasi-wealth taxes.

The property tax is a wealth tax, yes.  Sales taxes (including "sin" and "luxury" taxes) are not actually wealth taxes because you can't be taxed just for HAVING cigarettes, you are taxed when you BUY them.  [edit2:  I think I see what you mean:  the sales tax is a wealth tax because it taxes you turning your money into goods or services.  Still, sales taxes are no more "quasi-wealth" taxes than income taxes are, just in an opposite way.  So I guess your point is that EVERY tax is really a wealth tax?]

Also, [edit2: please note] that property taxes and sales taxes are not relevant to the specific topic of progressive vs. flat income tax.  [edit2:  Sorry for forgetting what your post was in response to.]  If you want to talk about that also then fine, but let's keep the discussions distinct.  (I would be interested in how you believe the property tax is an ideological consequence of the progressive income tax.  Especially since property taxes predate the income tax by FAR.) 

[edit2:  I don't think that you actually answered my question of why you would rhetorically ask "what's next" in reference to the consequences of a century-old taxation scheme, but I also think that it really ought to be dropped unless there's something really remarkable that you fear will yet come to pass as a result of it.]

And I thought that I had made VERY clear, REPEATEDLY, my reasoning for why I don't support a wealth-based tax system and why the estate tax does not present the same problems.  Including in the very post you're responding to!

[edit:  I may, however, have mischaracterized the estate tax as a direct wealth tax when it's apparently instead an indirect one based on taxing the transfer of wealth upon the person's death (to its heirs).  The distinction may be a fine one, but there you go.  Source]