Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, I know, all the splitting up on price-elasticity of demand and so on. But the issue with sales taxes is that it is applied on the final sale, which generate distortions when the products are being imported, or have a long supply chain spread across a country, as it is a tax on the consumer, the value is only capture at the consumer location, not along the supply chain (that's what I meant as a terrible idea).
I'm not sure if you oppose sale tax only or also VAT. Both are regressive but VAT, while more complex, is based on taxing the added value so it is collected along the supply chain. In the supply chain everybody is charging VAT on their sales invoice and deduce VAT on their purchase invoice. BTW, you must pay to the tax authority the VAT your charged you client even if he/she didn't pay you. https://tax.thomsonreuters…
But between VAT and sales tax, I strongly oppose a pure sales tax, although I would be ok with VAT charging a final tax which is allocated to the consumer location (vs. the location of the business).
Pure VAT: taxed where value is generated.
Pure Sales: taxed where the consumer is based.
Mixed VAT-Sales: mostly taxed where the value is generated, plus where the consumer is based.
The mixed VAT-Sales model would generate a better allocation of tax funds across the entire supply chain, all the way to the consumer.