Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Sin Tax indexed to Sin Cost
SMT - Simple Millionaire Tax
solar and wind power estate tax loophole
"Sophocles, Inc" Tax Evasion
Tariff-Tariff
Tax Deduction for Inflation
Tax Internet Porn
Tax Page
Tax-payer's priority
...

public:tax

... income tax
... sales tax

Tariff-Tariff

Fight fire with fire

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Lobbyists of all shapes and sizes daily convince governments to levy taxes on imports, in order to protect domestic industry interests (at the expense of the consumers). We are left with a humongous web of largely arbitrary rules which distort the market and are beneficial to few and costly to many.

The Tariff-Tariff is a proportion of all this taxed money, say 10%, to be earmarked for the work of throwing out all this special interest legacy. Use it to pay for independent assessment of how beneficial a given import tax actually is to the whole of the country; if it is found wanting, throw it out.

—	placid_turmoil, Feb 10 2011

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That's sort of what VAT is. It's used (or a proportion of it is used) to fund the EU, an organisation whose prime purpose (allegedly) is to remove barriers to trade within and between its member states.

—	DrBob, Feb 10 2011

VAT is a tax that is levied at each stage where value is added; import tariffs have no relation to added value, they are merely the result of lobbying.

You are correct in saying that the EU is attempting to remove trade barriers (at least internally). The advantage of the Tariff-Tariff is that the budget is automatically proportional to the size of the problem; the more money taxed on imports, the bigger the budget to debunk inept tariffs.

—	placid_turmoil, Feb 10 2011

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