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> You'd have to raise the consumption tax ridiculously high (33% !)

I don't think 33% is ridiculously high. VAT is 25% in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 27% in Hungary; and their economies are doing well.



Interestingly, the Nordics also have super-high income taxes. I wonder what the VAT there would have to be to abolish income taxes. 50%? 60%?


Just checked the Danish national budget. Danish VAT brought in (or was estimated to bring in) 212 billion DKK in 2018. In comparison, tax levied on personal income brought in 562 billion.


That's fair. However, the proposal in the parent comment's link (and other proposals like it) is asking for a 17.5% consumption tax, which would be an absurd gift for the wealthy. Even for not-wealthy people like me, it would be a huge boon, while the middle class would get hosed.


Well, you may not think 33% is ridiculously high, but you just wrote that it is in the second sentence. You say that 33% is 1/3 higher than Sweden, which is proverbial as an example of a highly taxed locale.




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