VAT tax hurts small businesses
Blasingame 15 [Jim Blasingame is an American small business expert, radio talk show host, author, syndicated columnist, keynote speaker, and president of Small Business Network, Inc., a media company serving small business; “A Consumption Tax Is Bad For America And Worse For America's Small Businesses”; 4/13/15; Forbes; https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimblasingame/2015/04/13/a-consumption-tax-is-bad-for-america-and-worse-for-americas-small-businesses/?sh=56c343d12597]//dollinger
A consumption tax would also hurt small businesses disproportionately. Big businesses have systems in place to deal with new government compliance, like tax collection, and they always pass along expense increases to customers. Small businesses will be harmed because:
We aren't always able to pass along cost increases, even a mandated VAT.
New tax compliance and remittance will be prohibitively expensive.
The sticker price of a national sales tax will take time for consumers to adjust to, which will hurt small businesses more.