by Dan Mitchell | Aug 17, 2023 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
I have written dozens of columns explaining why a value-added tax would be very bad for the United States, mostly because it would encourage and enable a much bigger burden of government spending. That argument is...
by Dan Mitchell | May 13, 2022 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
As part of my (reality-based) opposition to a value-added tax, I testified to the Ways & Means Committee back in 2011. My primary argument against the VAT is that it would enable a bigger burden of government spending. I frequently share this chart, for...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2021 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
My views on the value-added tax are very straightforward. Washington taxes too much today and wastes too much money today.Giving D.C. politicians even more tax revenue will encourage more fiscal profligacy.It is profoundly...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 23, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
Public finance experts sometime differ in how to describe a value-added tax. Is it a hidden form of a national sales tax, imposed at each stage of the production process? Is it a hidden withholding tax on income, imposed at each stage of the production process? Both...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 20, 2020 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
Back in 2012, I warned that the value-added tax (a hidden version of a national sales tax) was enabling bad fiscal policy in Japan, in large part because politicians wouldn’t make much-needed entitlement reforms if they had the option of raising the VAT. Later that...