Isn't it ironic that

[kandrathe]

A) Would that not mean a black market economy? and B) this tax exists already in VAT or whatever it is called in the different countries, of course together with the income tax so not so high that everybody buys 90% of their things on a black market C) this means also that a government will try to let you spend as much as possible?
Would this also count for second hand things? And if so would that mean that the government could make a few times the value of a car made by somebody? And if not would that not make the difference in price between new and second hand things so big that people buy a lot less new things (which is negative for consumerism) How would this work between different countries? If I come from a country with income tax, i would never in my life buy something from a country with pure sales tax.

I like the idea....I am however not sure how to make this work.

A) There are people who also work for cash, or trade of goods for services such that they don't pay income taxes. If you don't pay your income taxes, you go to jail. The same would apply to evading sales taxes. It is a crime, and most people don't want to be criminals.
B) The governments interest in increasing spending would only be to increase the amount of revenue collected. They don't encourage increases in earnings now to increase taxes, they just fiddle with rates. If they really wanted to increase earnings, they would make 4 years of college education free for all citizens.
C) Second hand things sold by businesses today are taxed, but sales by private individuals are not. If you are a corporation selling anything you collect a sales tax.
D) Between countries would be no different than it is for citizens. One argument would be for having no tax on partial manufactured goods transfers between corporations. If Ford Motor wants to buy transmissions from company X, then the tax should be paid on the end product, and not on the intermediate part, unless that part is being sold to a consumer.
E) The bottom line is that consumerism is bad. It is bad for the environment, and it is a false prop for an economy based upon debt.

For Tris,
F) The progressive thing one might do is to allow poor people to fill out a form to get all or a portion of the tax they paid back (keep your receipts).

The US Gross Domestic Product is $14,294.5 billion. The US budget is $2,730 billion, which is 19% of the GDP. If every time you went to the store, and saw that 1/5th of your money was going into sales tax you might take a more active role in letting Congress know how you feel about their budget. The current system of siphoning off half your paycheck before you see it hides the pain, and then in April you feel elated when the government gives back the part you paid in excess.