Apparently the Danish government has abandoned plans for a sugar tax while also scrapping the fat tax that was implemented in 2011. The French are planning a tax on palm oil ('Nutella tax' ). Here we have an excise tax specifically on candies, sodas and ice cream.
Palm oil and its countless derivatives go into a LOT of products once you start paying attention to it.
Do you think fatty and/or sugary products should be taxed more heavily than other foodstuffs? Why/Why not?
If you are going to do something like that, and I'm not sure I'd support it at all, it'd have to be well-designed and intelligent, not "tax all sugar" or "tax all palm oil". But I suppose that in much the same way that VAT is higher on some less vital products than on others in many countries, you could distinguish between various categories of food for the VAT or other sales tax. The government "punishing" fast food that way certainly seems no more arbitrary or interfering to me than their decision that books get the low VAT rate but CDs and DVDs do not, which is the case in Belgium at least.
In any case, information campaigns and the like are probably better, though of course those cost money instead of raising it...
Sin taxes on fat and sugar. What do you think?
13/11/2012 09:19:33 AM
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Sure. Revenue's got to come from somewhere. But only after we end corn subsidies and the like. *NM*
13/11/2012 01:52:01 PM
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I think they are stupid ideas.
13/11/2012 02:11:14 PM
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Re: I think they are stupid ideas.
13/11/2012 03:28:59 PM
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Yeah you're right
13/11/2012 03:52:09 PM
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Yes, that is exactly what I meant
13/11/2012 03:59:00 PM
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I would recommend you read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
14/11/2012 06:04:42 AM
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Palm oil? They want to tax shampoo?
13/11/2012 11:03:44 PM
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No, the tax is only for foodstuffs in which palm oil is an ingredient. I should've clarified that *NM*
14/11/2012 11:53:30 AM
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A palm oil tax is potentially a much more complex issue than you suggest
13/11/2012 11:12:24 PM
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Re: A palm oil tax is potentially a much more complex issue than you suggest
14/11/2012 05:25:15 PM
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