Neil Williams wrote:
On Jan 24, 4:53 pm, John Levine wrote:

I expect the Europeans question the sanity of a country with thousands
of different sales tax rates that vary by what you buy, where you buy
it, and even who you are, and that require that the clerk compute the tax
at the time of the sale.

It seems to me to be pointless to tax anything requiring a subsidy, as
that just creates a money-go-round, as it were. Thus, the German VAT
on domestic rail services seems stupid to me - all that does is create
administration where you could instead simply reduce the subsidy.

It doesn't seem like a bad idea to make a unit of government subject to
tax collection duties, same as a businessman, so it understands how
very painful it is to deal with the revenuers.

I think government-owned land should be subject to real estate assessment
and taxation and that the taxes paid, even if to itself, would show up
on someone's budget. This might force more efficient use of land and
buildings.