DM> Why don't governments tax expenditures instead of incomes?  Seriously.
 WE> This is the most elegant description of sales tax I've ever seen.
 DM> Not exactly.  I mean,  taxing of expenditures to replace
 DM> what an income tax provides today.  Those "with" money, "spend" money
 DM> ... thus, they pay more; those with "less" money, spend "less" ...
 DM> thus, they pay less.  
Just the same as sales taxes.
 DM> If there are no loopholes for anyone to avoid
 DM> paying when you buy, would it not be a workable system?  
Here's a thought experiment.  Propose a law that has no exceptions.
There would
 DM> have to be something similar for those who spend outside the country,
 DM> as well, and some method of excluding the non citizen ... but, as a
 DM> general idea?  I know the idea is not unique. 
It would require a lot of book work just like income tax, even more.  Every 
sales slip would become a legal tax document that would have to be kept by 
the vendor who would have to demand a sales ID number.  Are investments 
considered expenditures?  Deposits into a saving account?  A purchase of a 
government bond?  Purchase of stock?  Just where do you draw the line?  If 
one country had a sales tax and the next an expenditure tax, travel in the 
first country by citizens of the second would be doubly taxed while the 
opposite would have no tax levied at all.  Would expenditure tax apply to 
individuals only or are corporations included?  This would have the same 
problem as accumulative sales taxes have.  So it would have to be limited to 
retail purchases only.
... The double standard:  are not two better than one?
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