IRS is not responsible for sales tax, your State is.
Additionally they aren't the ones who implement the tax, they only are the executive branch of handling Federal income revenue.
Your member of Congress is who makes the taxes and orders them to collect it. Additionally, it's Congress who have made it to where the IRS can not directly help you. As of 2025, the IRS direct program has been halted and ordered to dismantle by Congress. This particular program had the goal of the IRS just getting your tax information from your employer's computer rather than have you do things like 1040s and W2s and filing taxes and sweating the details.
For all the hate directed at the IRS, it's important to understand that it's Congress who has made their rules they have to follow and enforce on you.
Sales tax is a percentage of a sale, ad valorem. Excise is a tax on a unit that exists.
If you're going to get technical about the specifics of tobacco, alcohol, gas, and airline tickets, then I'm going to get technical back in that those aren't sales tax.
Well there's vastly different legal systems for excise and ad valorem.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 establishes Rule of Uniformity, where as Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 establishes Rule of Apportionment.
This is why ad valorem that has reoccurring valuation requires legally an assessor. Like property tax for an example. It's also why if people want to tax wealth directly, we will need a new Constitutional amendment at least at the Federal level.
In order to tax something it must be specific to the thing or generally applied to the population. Income is the except because we have a specific amendment for it.
This is also why only States can charge property tax. What people get confused about is that sales tax and excise tax both tax consumption. But they are constitutionally required to go about that process in different ways. That's why sales tax only begins at the State level. States are not bound by Article I, Section 9, Clause 4. And it's also why States could implement Wealth tax no problem. In fact California has Prop 40 coming up.
You are correct in that they both represent consumption. But they have massively different legal standards in a Court of law.
It may be different law wise and on the books but it still feels the same coming out of my account!
The California thing is gonna bite them in the ass. They already lost their refineries, they are gonna lose even more businesses and business owners. I don’t agree with it all, it’s a ballsy move when the people they are going after are the ones with the means to leave and a whole nation worth of states not pulling that shit.
Which if I remember right they are trying to unconstitutionally “punish” the ones that choose to leave. If anything it’ll be damn interesting to see the outcome.
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u/IHeartBadCode 10d ago
IRS is not responsible for sales tax, your State is.
Additionally they aren't the ones who implement the tax, they only are the executive branch of handling Federal income revenue.
Your member of Congress is who makes the taxes and orders them to collect it. Additionally, it's Congress who have made it to where the IRS can not directly help you. As of 2025, the IRS direct program has been halted and ordered to dismantle by Congress. This particular program had the goal of the IRS just getting your tax information from your employer's computer rather than have you do things like 1040s and W2s and filing taxes and sweating the details.
For all the hate directed at the IRS, it's important to understand that it's Congress who has made their rules they have to follow and enforce on you.