Thanks AND thanks from two respected sources.
Weren’t taxes supposed to be for raw materials at one time?
Then how do you tax a used, used, used, used car?
SMH
There have been to may retail stores for a long time..
.How many women clothing stores do you need??
Internet takes a lot but not that much
The malls lost business to all the strip malls.. there closer to the user than the mall
In the 1980s you had to go to a mall..
It's an interesting paradox for a sales tax. My understanding is that a sales tax is only supposed to be paid by the retail customer, and is not imposed at the wholesale level for products and raw materials that will be subject to sales tax later when the product is eventually sold.
Cars are a whole different story. The state would have no leverage to collect any sales tax on a used item that is sold in a private transaction. But in the case of a car the item has a title and is subject to a state registration fee, so the state has a mechanism to force the new owner to pay the tax.
Taxes and their method of imposition varies by locality and what was once true in history frequently changes, usually to the worse. Some states tax almost everything but most will exempt food & medical but it is a real checkerboard.
One could write a real history of civilization based upon contemporary taxation. In many eras the overlords would tax as heavily as possible till their underlings either fled or revolted. Other eras had a maximum tax but that usually only lasted a short time. Here in the USofA, the National Government got its money from custom duties and excise taxes with an exception during the US Civil War up to WW1 era. However that was also a time when the US Government was small and most of its employees (80%) work in the Postal System.
Things have changed and like the rest of history it keeps getting more expensive!