Income tax is used because it’s super simple to collect, compared to e.g. a wealth tax or a capital gains tax which is more complex.
The real reason is that the people who are wealthy and make their money off of capital gains wanted to use the idea of income tax being easier to avoid being taxed themselves.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s a bit of both, surely, but it really is much more difficult to move employees, real estate and sales outside of the country than it is to move capital outside of the country.