leopardmessiah wrote:
Say you know that on the first of January you are going to lose 10% of your savings- wouldn't you rather just spend them?
you'd still be worth the same amount, unless you count nothing but liquid assets in this tax,which we've established is rather hard to do when so much money is tied up in assets, why not just convert all of your cash into property or antiques etc, but...
leopardmessiah wrote:
depending on what you tax- i.e.: if you tax property- then they will have to "blow" their money on one use items- holidays, parties, etc. Would this have a fairly dramatic effect on the economy.
ok, so in an attempt to avoid this crude income/net worth tax you're instead hitting VAT/sales taxes and all the money you're otherwise pumping into the local/national service economy with a big upsurge. Consumer spending is what drives a modern economy, not dents it
leopardmessiah wrote:
Also the reduced amount people deposit in banks or invest in shares, since those get taxed too.
the tax rates mentioned above are far higher than the money or share trading taxes, far higher.
leopardmessiah wrote:
Anyway, I'm know squat about economics but these sound like bad effects to me; am I way off the mark here or what?
yes you do, yes you are.
spending money for goods/services (and getting paid for providing said goods/services) is what capitalism is basicly supposed to be about, it's be rather odd if a ultra-socialist tax caused the system to turn into an artificially ultra-capitalist one in an attempt to avoid it. well, it'd be less weird and more a result of what, without many, many clauses and loopholes will be an unrealistic and unworkable tax, as has been mentioned before.