[scotty79]

I don't like this idea of collecting this tax yearly. I'd skip the power formula and have this tax to be just fixed percentage on every purchase to be able to collect it immediately and automatically by using the banking system itself.

My capital gains tax is immediately collected as my bank sees any capital gains. I physically can't dodge it.

Similarily I could have tax on every purchase I pay for with any kind of bank transfer immediately collected.

[lotsofpulp]

A flat sales tax rate is regressive. I don’t see a reason to give rich people that benefit. Roughly speaking, the effects of consumption are not linear. A private jet, yacht, and large and heavy vehicles are going to consume much more public goods (including the environment) than cheaper goods.

[scotty79]

You can skew the tax by giving more tax credit to the poor.

Also those are not only taxes on consumption but every purchase. Yacht might be too cheap in comparison of resources used but rich don't just buy yahts, they buy entire companies.

[lotsofpulp]

The power law formula already skews the tax rate. There’s no need to further skew it with tax credits or other complications. If you want to adjust tax rates, simply modify the curve of the power law formula so that a given level of spending is taxed a lower or higher rate.

[scotty79]

Only of you have something to feed into the power formula and you don't unless you collect data more personal than what people are used to having collected.

Some people even object to paying with cards today because they don't want their transactions to be tied together to their identity.

So alternatives to power formula that achieve similar effect in different ways might be worth considering.