Obama administration is looking to implement a Value Added Tax (VAT tax)

[emazur]

Obama administration is looking to implement a Value Added Tax (VAT tax)
YouTube - Watch out! Obama administration is looking to implement a Value Added Tax (VAT tax)

 

[emazur]

Did some more digging around - things aren't looking good:
"Volcker:Carbon Tax, VAT Should Be On Table If Cost Cuts Insufficient" (9/29)
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090929-714701.html
"Why the U.S. needs a Value Added Tax" (9/8)
http://blogs.reuters.com/commentaries/2009/09/08/why-the-us-needs-a-value-added-tax/
Podesta Says Deficits Make Value-Added Tax ‘More Plausible’ (9/26)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aLQWnhwv3BD8
"Group Tied to Obama Urges Tax Increase" (9/30)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125426937758851077.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
"Obama Allies Float a VAT...Again" (9/28)
http://atr.org/obama-allies-float-vat-again-a3935
"The VAT Debate: Should Politicians in Washington Get a Huge New Source of Tax Revenue as a Reward for Overspending?" (10/1)
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009...-of-tax-revenue-as-a-reward-for-overspending/

 

[John E]

Wait, VAT on top of the taxes we already pay? Hell no!

 

[Dr.3D]

Value Added Tax?
What kind of value are they planning to add so as to tax something for that added value?

 

[emazur]

Value Added Tax?
What kind of value are they planning to add so as to tax something for that added value?

Orwellian Doublespeak: sacrifice = tax = service = value
“It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”
- Ayn Rand

And I just found another one from 5/09:
"Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602909.html

Still, Orszag has hired a prominent VAT advocate to advise him on health care: Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and author of the 2008 book "Health Care, Guaranteed."

This VAT has been on the back burner for months, and it seems now they are ready to bring it to a boil. I predict a HUGE backlash from the American taxpayer - this would be the straw that broke the camel's back. Bailing out the fucking banks, passing a failed stimulus, continued unemployment, and attempting to add on more spending by passing healthcare is bad enough, but adding on a VAT tax would trigger widespread outrage. Even a "small" VAT tax would destine to grow bigger (go search the news articles on how various EU countries are or are considering raising their VAT)

 

[emazur]

weekend bump

 

[s35wf]

i would support a VAT/Nat'l sales tax ONLY if it Replaced/Ended the Federal Income Tax!

 

[furface]

s35wf, I agree that I would support it if it replaced the income tax. Ron Paul has actually said he'd be in favor of a national sales tax over the income tax, but his fear is that DC would do it without getting rid of the income tax. I'm for getting rid of the IRS and replacing it with nothing. However, between income and sales tax, sales tax is fairer, especially if it targeted non-renewable resource consumption.

Indecently, Rand Paul is against a carbon tax, basically because there are lots of coal mining workers in Kentucky.

 

[Dsylexic]

VAT would ideally replace all sales tax and bunch of excise taxes .i dont think it is on top of other taxes if it follows the model of other countries that have implemented it.

it makes tax collection much easier for the administration .that is the main motivation.
i dont think it will in anyway be a replacement of the unjust income tax.

 

[Chase]

The problem with the VAT tax is that it hides in the prices of the things you pay for. Just as how IRS withholding distracts people from how much they're really paying in income taxes, VAT just drives the prices at the shelf up, which they can then blame on capitalism all while having yet another way to rob us blind.

 

[hugolp]

You guys are almost europeans.

 

[emazur]

s35wf, I agree that I would support it if it replaced the income tax. Ron Paul has actually said he'd be in favor of a national sales tax over the income tax, but his fear is that DC would do it without getting rid of the income tax.

I've read the second Fairtax book and they say that part of the bill would require the 16th amendment to be repealed within 5 years of passing the bill or else the Fairtax would be nullified (I don't remember if they said that during those 5 years that govt. would be able to collect both the income tax and Fairtax - it would suck ass if they did)

 

[dannno]

Value Added Tax?
What kind of value are they planning to add so as to tax something for that added value?

Somebody mines some silver and sells it to a processor. VAT tax for the mining.

The processor purifies the silver and makes it into a usable, industrial form, sells it to an electronics manufacturer. Now you have to calculate how much more the silver is worth per unit now that it is purified and tax it. VAT tax on the processing.

Somebody takes the silver and puts it onto a computer chip, sells the computer chip to a computer manufacturing company. Now you have to figure out how much more the silver is worth and all the other components on the chip relative to what they were before they were on the chip. VAT tax on the computer chip.

The computer seller sells the the chip in a computer.. Now they have to figure out how much more the silver is worth in the computer chip now that it is in a computer, and I think there might be a VAT tax on that to the consumer, plus sales tax..

Maybe somebody can correct this, cause I'm not 100% sure if I have this example down square yet... what I said I believe is theoretical, whereas in reality the computer chip maker would calculate what their materials were, how much they are selling the materials for, less their costs for labor, and then they tax the remaining.. I believe that is how it works from an accounting standpoint..

Either way, this is an attack on the electronics industry and any other industry that requires a lot of processing.

 

[emazur]

The problem with the VAT tax is that it hides in the prices of the things you pay for. Just as how IRS withholding distracts people from how much they're really paying in income taxes, VAT just drives the prices at the shelf up, which they can then blame on capitalism all while having yet another way to rob us blind.

Yes, but if we had the Fairtax instead of the standard VAT tax, supposedly this wouldn't be an issue.
The author of my book on the Fairtax says that prices are already inflated as a result of various income taxes:
"the cost of government should be transparent to all Americans, with no "hidden" taxes. According to a Harvard study, the current tax component in our price system averages 22 percent. That means that the least well of among us lose 2 percent of their purchasing power from the embedded costs of income taxes, corporate taxes, payroll taxes, and compliance costs. the FairTax eliminates the hidden tax component from our price system and replaces it the a visible consumption tax. Nothing is hidden. The tax you pay are right there on your receipt. Americans deserve no less"
I haven't read this Harvard study but here is the link to it:
http://linderfairtax.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=18

 

[anaconda]

The people we simply stand up and say "no" at some point. What a bunch of self-serving jackasses in Washington D.C...

 

[SevenEyedJeff]

s35wf, I agree that I would support it if it replaced the income tax.

And if it replaced the payroll tax too.

 

[DrCap]

Does anyone here seriously think that Washington will create a new tax which will be less burdensome than our current tax structure? The whole reason they would do this is to leech more out of they private system than the bloodsuckers already take.