Democrats Slip VAT Tax Framework Into Health Bill
Democrats love taxes and the greatest stealth tax of them all is the Value Added Tax: the VAT. According to Newsmax, it’s buried deep in the Senate version of ObamaCare.
From Value Added Tax Hidden in Health Reform:
The Senate bill’s “fee” on medical devices operates much like a VAT, and could end up being the model for future adoption of an unprecedented VAT on all goods and services in the United States.
Deep into the 2,074-page bill, on page 2,020, is “SEC. 9009,” the “Imposition of Annual Fee on Medical Device Manufacturers and Importers.” It orders that “Each covered entity engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing medical devices shall pay to the [Treasury] Secretary not later than the annual payment date of each calendar year beginning after 2009 a fee in an amount determined under subsection (b).”
The amount of tax would be based on “gross receipts from medical device sales.” Treasury bureaucrats would have the formidable power of “identification of medical devices” and the new tax would be retroactive, applying to “any medical device sales after December 31, 2008.”
The VAT is an insidious tax, extracting wealth from private companies and individuals each step of the production and marketing process of a product. It’s one of the primary reasons why Europe is essentially non-competitive in most industries.
The European VATs suck money from private enterprises into the gaping maw of inefficient governments–and does it in such a way that is hidden to the consumer.
That the Democrats would attempt to use the health care bill to set up the framework for such an odious tax is instructive. Hopefully, voters will remember the lesson come Election Day 2010.
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