[AnthonyMouse]

> It's been over a decade since I studied the literature on this, but the dead weight loss caused by a tax at the point of transaction is larger; a case can reasonably be made that transactions that would otherwise occur did not due to tax.

> Income tax removed before you receive your paycheck into your bank account has been demonstrated in psychological studies to be less onorous, and cause less behavior change (you don't ask for a lower paycheck because you don't like tax).

Another way of putting this is that sales taxes encourage saving and income taxes encourage borrowing. Lo and behold, the average American is up to their eyeballs in debt and a large fraction of income is going to interest payments instead of actual spending. It is hard to see why this should be considered a good thing.