Income tax, as far as I know, came as a replacement for basic “per-person federal tax”. It has the nice effect of not extracting money from anyone not making money, and also makes it harder to circumvent basic lump end-of-year taxation.
Taxing capital gains better wouldn’t tax people not making money, either, however it has the advantage of not taxing people who are already giving up the most valuable thing in service: time.
Income tax, as far as I know, came as a replacement for basic “per-person federal tax”. It has the nice effect of not extracting money from anyone not making money, and also makes it harder to circumvent basic lump end-of-year taxation.
“Basic Lump” is my rap persona.
Taxing capital gains better wouldn’t tax people not making money, either, however it has the advantage of not taxing people who are already giving up the most valuable thing in service: time.