Ventura: Eliminate Income Tax and Replace it with 15% National Sales Tax

[Simfan34]

So...I currently live in Texas, which has an 8% state sales tax. Add on a 15% national sales tax and...23% sales tax on anything I would buy.

That is...pretty hefty. Wouldn't this incentivize me to begin importing things from overseas to avoid sales taxes and cut domestic businesses and Uncle Sam out of the loop? At that point, wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy things off of Amazon Canada and pay the shipping fees?

Surely this would also entail a 15% universal import duty?

[Panda Express]

Who says that rich people don't spend all of their money? The idea is that they will buy lots of stuff, such as their 50 sports cars and 3 yachts, and therefore pay more in taxes. It would be preferable to have the sales tax be bracketed in terms of inherent value/necessity, but how would one go about determining that?

yeah all those rich people living paycheck to paycheck

[Simfan34]

Who says that rich people don't spend all of their money? The idea is that they will buy lots of stuff, such as their 50 sports cars and 3 yachts, and therefore pay more in taxes. It would be preferable to have the sales tax be bracketed in terms of inherent value/necessity, but how would one go about determining that?

yeah all those rich people living paycheck to paycheck

What he said was harebrained (and similar to the defense of trick-down economics I gave when I was in the sixth grade, only sillier, given this context), but believe it or not, that is actually not unheard of:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html

Of course, this is neither here nor there, but just making an aside.