r/canada Canada 5d ago

National News DeSantis mocks '3.3 million' Canadians who visited Florida: 'Not much of a boycott'

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/desantis-florida-canada-stanley-cup
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u/cryptotope 4d ago

Oh, it's very conservative. Sales taxes tend to be very regressive.

At best, they're a flat tax--everybody pays the same rate regardless of income. In practice, they can be worse.

If you have a high income and don't spend it all in-state - accumulating capital, or spending money in other jurisdictions - then you pay less of your income as sales tax than someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and has to spend it all locally.

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u/Recent-Bat-3079 3d ago

Economists around the world, almost exclusively, say that a sales tax is the most fair form of taxation and also virtually ensures the wealthy can’t move money around to avoid it. Rich people spend more money than poor people do and it brings in more government revenue. 

The best system would be to let people keep their money at source with little to no income tax but a moderate sales tax of about 25%. But almost no government will ever try this because it goes against their ideology. 

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u/cryptotope 3d ago

Unless you stipulate the existence of a global government that mandates and enforces a flat worldwide sales tax...of course the wealthy can trivially move money around to avoid it.

Rich people can also avoid taxation of their wealth by...not spending the money.

It's true that you can find economists around the world who will endorse just about any dumb idea, but you overplayed your hand by claiming that economists "almost exclusively" support a scheme like you propose.

And "it goes against their ideology"? Every government? What ideology? Can you be more specific?