[EternalVigilance]

Forbes: Ted Cruz’s Business Flat Tax is a VAT

http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2016/01/15/ted-cruzs-business-flat-tax-is-a-vat/#5f49e114580f

Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s Strange Embrace of the VAT

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426469/ted-cruz-rand-paul-vat

The Tax Foundation: Ted Cruz’s “Business Flat Tax” is what most tax policy experts would call a “tax-inclusive subtraction-method value-added tax” (VAT) or a “business transfer tax” (BTT).

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/ted-cruz-s-business-flat-tax-primer

[mtrott]

From the Tax Foundation article on Cruz’ plan you linked to:

“It would not be similar to existing sales taxes, or the VATs in Europe, because it would not be levied on a transaction-by-transaction basis.” Emphasis on the word, “not”.

I’ll be the first to admit I am not clear on all the various permutations of tax plans, but it does seem clear that the Trumpeters tend to dogmatically characterize the Cruz plan as being “just like” the European VAT taxes.