Re: Gibson raided
Be careful what you wish for... My speculation is that the $600 1099 requirement they tried to slip into the healthcare bill was setting the stage for VAT tax. While you are correct a simple consumption tax "only" could reduce tax reporting and perhaps simplify, I worry about "we'll just add a small consumption tax" on top of the current taxes.
In my lifetime I only recall one tax ever going away... It was a temporary 3% tax on long distance phone calls to fund the Mexican-American war in 1898, and only retired in 2006.
FWIW, in Greece where the VAT tax is the dominant federal tax, there is a vibrant underground economy to avoid this tax.. the result is they raise the VAT rate, and drive more of the economy under ground.
There are many simple answers, but they often contain got'chas. We have the luxury of looking elsewhere for things that don't work as predicted.
-------
I have semi-seriously considered a federal sales tax to reduce the clutter and confusion of all the different state and local sales taxes. This would reduce the current advantage of out of state mail order and direct sales over bricks and mortar merchants. But I don't trust the feds to collect a sales tax without misplacing more than a little of it.
Giving the federal government more money is like watering weeds and expecting a pretty yard.
JR
