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Apr 10Liked by Mary Pat Campbell

"This tax is very dependent on these transactions occurring and all the ones likely to occur in the next few years got cleared before April 1, 2023, they may have to be happy with the trickle of revenue they got."

You don't appear old enough to remember, but the US instituted a luxury goods tax. From wikipedia:

"In November 1991, The United States Congress enacted a luxury tax and was signed by President George H. W. Bush. The goal of the tax was to generate additional revenues to reduce the federal budget deficit. This tax was levied on material goods such as watches, expensive furs, boats, yachts, private jet planes, jewelry and expensive cars. Congress enacted a 10 percent luxury surcharge tax on boats over $100,000, cars over $30,000, aircraft over $250,000, and furs and jewelry over $10,000. The federal government estimated that it would raise $9 billion in excess revenues over the following five-year period. However, only two years after its imposition, in August 1993, at the behest of the luxury yacht industry, President Bill Clinton and Congress eliminated the 'luxury tax' citing a loss in jobs. The luxury automobile tax remained in effect until 2002."

Stupid then, stupid now.

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Oooh, thanks for the tax history!

That was indeed before my professional time (I graduated high school in 1992), but I "remember" lots of things (like the 1986 tax reform) because other people brought it to my attention. I'll remember this example.

I have an uncle who has a modest sailboat (it is pretty small - he got it as a teen or young man in his 20s), and I can imagine this "luxury" tax reduced the boat biz where he used to live in Connecticut. It probably cut down on the lucrative boat-building industry for quite some time.

If one wants to make bank on this stuff, just do a regular sales tax and let it all flow through - don't do a big step-up at certain pain points.

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Congrats on keeping your Federal Income Tax at a reasonable level!

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Why yes, I support 4 other people (directly) on my salary, thanks for noticing! ;)

Eventually..... the rate will go up. Not just a matter of my personal circumstances and other ravages of time, but the various governments I have subjected myself to needing more and more revenue.

They gotta go where the money is. Of course, they may reach via payroll taxes instead of the federal income tax... and then, I may need to change my metric....

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