With most state and local governments caught between a budget crunch and possible receivership (bankruptcy), it would appear that many of them devising some fairly outlandish proposals to boost tax revenues. Depending on your point of view, these sin tax proposals range from making reasonably good sense to the asinine.

Having watched the debates at length for several months now, here is a short list of goods/services that have a fairly good chance of falling under the taxman’s purview in the near future.

1. Soda Tax
2. Marijuana Tax
3. Junk/Fast Food Tax
4. Bottled Water Tax
5. Cosmetic/Plastic Surgery Tax

As the list suggests, it would appear that the government (federal, state, or local) is determined to tax anything that might give us, or result in, a little pleasure.

What else could the government tax?

Just for fun, I thought would be a clever exercise to identify any other items that the government could tax that might be “bad” for us.

1. Car/Auto tax. I’ve lived in states that had a car tax of several $100 per month, but how could we raise in tax revenues if every car had a personal property tax attached to it?
2. Household cleaners that double as poison. If you’re a green living advocate, you know very well that baking soda with water is one of the best cleaners available. So why not tax the very stuff that says “cleaner” on it, but yet the fumes are toxic and can’t be poured down the drain.
3. Gas guzzlers. If you drive a SUV or truck that gets less than 15 mpg for no legitimate reason other than it’s because you like the option of driving 8+ people around on Saturday nights, should you pay a sin tax for polluting the atmosphere or using more gasoline that an average sized car?
4. Porn tax. Since we’re obviously taxing some sinful industries, how about going after one of the most obvious? Setting up a big fat tax on companies like Playboy and Hustler could be a start, but surely their has to be place a small sin tax on any domain name with a sex related title.
5. Hypochondriac tax. If you’re a perpetually sick patient who winds up in the ER or physician’s office more than twelve times a year for nothing but a head cold, should you pay an additional tax for overusing local medical resources? If you use more, shouldn’t you pay more?

Again, I’m not rallying support for or against any of these, but just throwing ideas on to the table that might make a little more sense, might generate more revenue, or lessen the impact on socioeconomic groups that can’t afford to take the hit.

If you have more ideas, please leave them in the comments section below.

Photo by lucyfrench123

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