National Sin Tax Bill

[MasterJedi]

National Sin Tax Bill

A 2% sales tax is to be charged on the following items and any products derived from them:

Alcohol, Tobacco, Pornography

There shall be exceptions for any recognized and legitimate uses of alcohol or products derived from alcohol.
___________________________________________________________

Sponsor: Sen. Peter Bell

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Two questions:

1) Given that we've legalized marijuana in Atlasia, why should we have a generic "sin" tax that doesn't tax it?

2) How do we define "pornography" for purposes of this bill?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A random nutter in the gallery says...

"That's because I forgot that Marijuana was legal here now..."

[jokerman]

I suggest one of the Senators propose an amendment that would add marijuana.  It would be rather simple just to slip it into the bill.

[Emsworth]

The "sin tax" seems to be a reasonable means of raising revenue. I would support this bill, but I would like to see the term "legitimate uses" clarified. I presume that using alcohol as a fuel or in medicine would be "legitimate." Perhaps "legitimate" could be replaced with "non-beverage."

[© tweed]

The "sin tax" seems to be a reasonable means of raising revenue. I would support this bill, but I would like to see the term "legitimate uses" clarified. I presume that using alcohol as a fuel or in medicine would be "legitimate." Perhaps "legitimate" could be replaced with "non-beverage."

I thought you never met a tax hike you didn't hate.

Or maybe the move in your PC score and the above post indicates you're crawling back towards sanity.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oh God, what a horrible bill. Please vote down this crap.

[Emsworth]

I thought you never met a tax hike you didn't hate.

Commitment to principle is one thing, but one does need to be realistic. It has become clear that the Senate will not be cutting spending too far, so a tax increase is utterly indispensable to maintain fiscal responsibility. A "sin tax" is far preferable to an increase in, for instance, the income tax.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No, this bill would be great if it dropped everything except tobacco, but as of now it's horrible. An income tax increase would be far superior.

[Emsworth]

I think that the 2% figure is rather low. In my opinion, it should be increased to about 10%, perhaps more. A tax of merely 2% would hardly affect revenues.

I do agree that the pornography tax should be dropped, for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, I think that it would be virtually impossible to collect the tax, especially given the ubiquity of obscene websites on the Internet.

[Bono]

Sin taxes are the worst ind of taxes, since their purpose is not raising revenue, but merely social engeneering. For that reason, I oppose this.

[ilikeverin]

Sin taxes are the worst ind of taxes, since their purpose is not raising revenue, but merely social engeneering. For that reason, I oppose this.

NEWS FLASH

SENATOR BONO ENJOYS PLEASURING HIMSELF TO HARD PORN WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY SMOKING A CIGARETTE AND JOINT AND DRINKING VODKA

[Ebowed]

SENATOR BONO ENJOYS PLEASURING HIMSELF TO HARD PORN WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY SMOKING A CIGARETTE AND JOINT AND DRINKING VODKA

He's a freedom fighter, then.

[Democratic Hawk]

In line, with other sentiments expressed, re-this bill, I urge that marijuana be incorporated into this legislation

Dave 'Hawk'

[Bono]

There should be a negative tax on porn.

[Democratic Hawk]

There should be a negative tax on porn.

Do you mean by negative tax, a punitive tax that would deter people from buying it?

Dave

[John Dibble]

There should be a negative tax on porn.

Wouldn't that be a subsidy? You support subsidies now?


Anyways, disregarding my personal distaste for sin taxes, I think at the very least porn needs to be removed. There are legitimate and logical reasons for taxing alcohol and tobacco, but not so with porn.

High consumption rates of alcohol and tobacco can lead to health problems down the line. Further, our nation does have a degree of government healthcare funding in the form of Medicare and Medicaid. Thusly, people who consume these things in large quantities are likely to increase the cost of these programs through their increased usage of it. It is reasonable to assert that people who put their bodies at risk by consuming such products are obligated to pay more into the system that they will be more likely to use than those who choose to maintain a more healthy lifestyle.

However, use of pornagraphy has no proven health risks - as far as we know, it doesn't cost the system, and thus the taxpayers, to allow people to use it without an extra tax. To increase the taxation on it would only serve to force the arbitrary and subjective preferences of certain politicians onto the populace - this does not seem to be a legitimate function of government, especially not the federal government.

So, while I still don't really support extra taxes on the items on this bill, I would hope that our Senators will listen to reason and remove items that are merely personal preference with no real logic behind them from this bill.

[Bono]

There should be a negative tax on porn.

Do you mean by negative tax, a punitive tax that would deter people from buying it?

Dave

No, I mean a subsidy to encourage people to buy it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You go Bono!

This bill SUCKS.

[Colin]

I am fully in favour of this bill, so screw you BRTD.

This will help to put somewhat of a dent in the deficit and will raise government revenues without being overtly harmful to Atlasian citizens and to the economy.

I would like to add an amendment to this bill:

The bill shall now read:

National Sin Tax Bill

A 2% sales tax is to be charged on the following items and any products derived from them:

Alcohol, Tobacco, Pornography, Marijuana

There shall be exceptions for any recognized and legitimate uses of alcohol or products derived from alcohol.

[Gabu]

However, use of pornagraphy has no proven health risks - as far as we know, it doesn't cost the system, and thus the taxpayers, to allow people to use it without an extra tax.

And, in fact, it appears to substantially reduce the rate of prostate cancer when taken daily.

[Ebowed]

Why not tax marijuana and tobacco at different rates?  Taxing them the same as if to treat them equally seems poorly thought out and overly simplistic.

Not that I'm happy about this bill, as the new amendment still includes pornography.  A special tax on pornography will lead to making it even easier to get hardcore porn for free, which is obviously not harmonious with the original intent of this bill.

Additionally, there is no exemption or lessened rate for medical marijuana.

[John Dibble]

I am fully in favour of this bill, so screw you BRTD.

This will help to put somewhat of a dent in the deficit and will raise government revenues without being overtly harmful to Atlasian citizens and to the economy.

I would like to add an amendment to this bill:

The bill shall now read:

National Sin Tax Bill

A 2% sales tax is to be charged on the following items and any products derived from them:

Alcohol, Tobacco, Pornography, Marijuana

There shall be exceptions for any recognized and legitimate uses of alcohol or products derived from alcohol.

Colin, I ask you, what reason do you have for taxing pornagraphy? As far as I can tell you don't have a logical one, just your own arbitrary personal preferences.

[Jake]

I think it's more that it could make us a good deal of money.

[CheeseWhiz]

I thought you never met a tax hike you didn't hate.

Commitment to principle is one thing, but one does need to be realistic. It has become clear that the Senate will not be cutting spending too far, so a tax increase is utterly indispensable to maintain fiscal responsibility. A "sin tax" is far preferable to an increase in, for instance, the income tax.

Unfortunately, I think you’re right about the Senate, Emsworth   I support this bill, since it is obvious we will have to get some more revenue temporarily, and this is better than raising the national Income Tax.  However, I will keep trying to cut what we can, and hopefully we will be able to repeal this legislation.

However, I not really sure about my support for this bill, so anyone can try and convince me to oppose this bill before we get to the final vote.