Most states have a sales tax. You buy something and you must pay a tax. Notice that it is a sales tax…not a buy tax. Those sneaky politicians did that on purpose. Think about it…they force a business to collect the tax that is included in the price of what you are buying. That makes the business liable for collecting the tax from you as part of the sale. They must keep complicated records and install expensive equipment and software to collect and then send the sales tax to the government. The government even requires the business to pay for a permit to collect the sales tax. Some cities get in on the act by imposing a sales tax in the city. That adds to the complexity for the business so they usually employ or contract for tax “specialists” who make sure all the rules and regulations of the tax code are followed. These specialists also form a lobby to further complicate the tax codes to embed their services into the process even deeper.
Why they call it a sales tax is very simple. If it was a buy tax…a smart business would just send the information to the government on every sale and tell them to collect the buy tax themselves thus avoiding the cost and time involved.
Got to give credit to the legal advisers the politicians used in creating the sales tax scheme.
States also figured they would tax hunting and fishing by requiring you to buy a license. Here is where their scheme failed. The businesses were not required (yet) by law to sell those licenses. The only alternative was to provide an incentive for the business to sell the licenses by giving them part of the license fee…which they do. If the sales tax was a buy tax, they’d have to share the proceeds with any business that would collect the buy tax.
The internet has thrown a monkey wrench into their tax scheme. The states are slowly but surely getting online sales to include the tax. Amazon was the first to fall as states cited the presence of any physical entity in the state that belonged to Amazon. Amazon quickly folded BUT about the same time they received a subsidy from the US Post office for delivery of their packages to their customers…but that’s another whole mess. You could search that and wonder.
Politicians have an insatiable appetite for taxes:
Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Interest expense Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road usage taxes Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax Telephone federal excise tax Telephone federal universal service fee tax Telephone surcharge taxes Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax Telephone state and local tax Telephone usage charge tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax
(Yes…I used the comic sans font)
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom could stay home to raise the kids. And; they tell me they’re “giving” a 1% increase in social security…which is money they took…taxed it…and then hoped we’d die before getting it back. That 1% won’t cover the cost of a case of Two Buck Chuck. BTW: my state Minnesota (at 10.24%) is in the top five of highest taxing states. Delaware (where a lot of politicians live) is the lowest…hmmmm.
The most egregious of taxes, of course, is the income tax. The IRS Tax Code table of contents…the table of contents…has more pages than the Bible. We pay that tax April 15 each year. Elections of politicians are held in November…as far removed from April 15 as possible…another hmmmm.
Wonder what would happen if all elections were held April 16?