More good news about biofuel 1845

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:09:18 +0100, Pooh Bear

Obviously, you don't understand that taxes do far more than raise revenue, by design. Ever hear of a "sin tax"? While true that taxes do not need to be the same for all instances of a clbutt, it's not too smart to think that different levels of taxation are merely some demonstration of a rolling of the dice to determine an actual tax rate.

Is lower taxation a subsidy or not? In some ways, yes, and in some ways no. Income taxes have different levels, and the lowest (earned income credit) is indeed a subsidy, in the clbuttic sense. If taxation is merely about revenue generation, as some think, then a lower tax rate for certain instances within a clbutt (certain fuel types, for example) can be seen as a subsidy, since the government is is allowing those who buy that less-taxed fuel to keep money they otherwise wouldn't have been able to - in effect a transfer of revenue.

But taxation is not just about revenue. This is obvious. Take sales taxes. If these were merely about revenue, then *all* purchases should be taxed. They aren't. Take income tax. If it were merely about revenue, the *amount* of income would not determine the taxation level. Since the above is true (we are dealing with reality), taxation can't be about merely revenue generation. Obviously, then, there are reasons for why taxation levels and applications are the way they are. Having the ability to read and reason, I can determine that many taxes are indeed done to discourage certain behaviour; an example would be taxes on cigarettes. I can also determine that some items of a clbutt are taxed at lower rates to encourage certain behaviour; one example would be lower fuel taxes on diesel fuel used for farming. Another would be lower taxes on ethonal used as part of a motor fuel.

Taxation isn't anywhere as simple as some would see it.

-- Bill Funk replace "g" with "a" funktionality.blogspot.com