[CPLX]

We (almost) invariably tax money when it changes hands. Like if you own something and then I own it, there's a tax. If I give something of value to someone else, the government takes a cut.

There's a ton of nuance there, sometimes intended to avoid certain negative consequences that feel like double taxation or that provide peverse incentives. But that's the general premise.

If you pay taxes on your income and then use it to buy something from me, I have to pay taxes on it too. That's my income now.

If my father paid taxes on something he earned that's his tax bill. When I get it, I have to pay too. That's my income now.

This is very clear and consistent. Outside of all the people with an interest in pretending otherwise.

Also worth noting that there's no state interest whatsoever in preserving generational wealth. Just none. The fact that kids have to earn their own money instead of a family coasting for generations is a good thing for the most part.

There are some plausible arguments for preserving continuity in certain cases, like community based family owned businesses, farms, that kind of thing. But everybody already agrees with that which is why those kinds of things have been generally exempt from estate taxes for generations. The people telling you otherwise are trying to trick you into caring about their agenda, which is how to not pay taxes on their substantial wealth.

[logifail]

> We (almost) invariably tax money when it changes hands. Like if you own something and then I own it, there's a tax [..] But that's the general premise.

I appreciate HN is USA-centric, but over on this side of the pond it's nowhere near as simple as that.

> If you pay taxes on your income and then use it to buy something from me, I have to pay taxes on it too. That's my income now.

Except that companies - even one person companies(!) - generally pay taxes on their profits, not their total income or revenue.

[tsimionescu]

All companies almost everywhere absolutely pay taxes on revenue, in the form of sales tax / value-added tax.

[logifail]

"VAT is...

- an indirect tax on the vast majority of goods and services

- borne by the final consumer, not by businesses

- charged as a percentage of the sales price and collected fractionally at every stage of production and distribution

- neutral, as the tax borne by the final consumer is the same regardless of the length of the supply chain"

https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/taxation/vat_en

[tsimionescu]

VAT (and sales taxes) are absolutely paid by the company, not by the consumer. I as a consumer don't need to keep track of my purchases and pay VAT on them at the end of the month or year. Companies instead keep track of their sales and need to pay the associated VAT to the state every month.

And the final consumer of a good can also be a business, in which case VAT is still paid for that good. For example, if you buy a company car for use by your employees, you can't get back the VAT on that purchase (only if you buy a car to sell it on to someone else can you get the VAT back).

And, of course, given that consumers make purchase decisions based on the nominal price of a good, which includes the VAT, the market price of a good will depend on VAT as well. If an increase in VAT risks to push the price so high that demand decreases, companies can choose to reduce the price before tax so that the final price is low enough not to affect demand.

So, again, VAT is essentially a tax on all sales revenue a company makes. It's true that it doesn't apply to other sources of revenue.

[logifail]

> VAT (and sales taxes) are absolutely paid by the company, not by the consumer [...] companies instead keep track of their sales and need to pay the associated VAT to the state every month

Businesses collect it on sales to their consumers (output VAT) and offset any VAT they've paid to their suppliers (input VAT) and the balance is paid to the state.

As that taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu article states: "VAT is borne by the final consumer, not by businesses."

(Source: I've been personally registered for VAT, I've worked for companies who were registered for VAT, I've had customers who were registered for VAT).

[CPLX]

> I appreciate HN is USA-centric

We're commenting on a specific article written about the US tax system. The term "US" is in the title of the post I am commenting on.