[IAmEveryone]

That's totally unworkable. That banana you buy in the supermarket is imported and sold with a gross margin in the low single-digits. Taxes the revenue at income tax levels would effectively raise prices by the tax rate, i. e. 30% or so.

If the supermarket doesn't buy the banana directly from the plantation, that tax would accrue at every step of the chain. You'd effectively be prohibiting trade and people would switch to monthly drives to local farms and an entirely potato-based diet.

[mcv]

Many products already have a VAT tax of 20%, and that doesn't seem to stop them. True, bananas would probably get more expensive, but again, countries could mitigate this through trade deals with countries they believe have a fair tax system.

But it's true, local products would have a significant fiscal advantage over products from other countries, especially products with complicated supply chains across many different countries, some of which countries are tax havens that the target country doesn't consider having a fair tax system.

The change would probably be a shock to many companies, but it'd also make it impossible for companies to shift their profits to tax havens.

[aembleton]

Only if every step of the chain is in your country. This tax would only affect the sale of goods in your own country, not those that you then go on and export.

Yes, it would increase the price of bananas in the UK as we currently don't tax food. But, it might make an apple relatively cheaper. That would then help to keep money in the UK as it could be grown here; employing people in the UK who then pay tax here.