My Essay

ACF306   Taxation Report
Criticisms About Equity in Obese Tax

Introduction
I suggested imposing an obese tax on people that are overweight. The standards of obesity are the clothing sizes of 16-22 for women and XL for men; morbidly obese clothing sizes are 22+ for women and XXL+ for men. Clearly, these standards do not meet the requirements of equity as clothing sizes are not very accurate in defining obesity; the definition of obesity will be varied with the size and height of the individuals. The accurate way of measuring obesity is through the Body Mass Index (BMI) which is not very applicable and practical as it is time-consuming and costly to measure everyone’s BMI. One’s BMI might be varied from time to time and it is not economically efficient to measure it regularly. Therefore, I have chosen the most convenient way to impose obese tax through clothing size which has met the requirement of simplicity. These standards are fairer and more relevant than imposing a fat tax on junk food since not everyone that eats junk food is obese. Despite tax reform having many objectives, the main focus of obese tax is behavioural control rather than wealth redistribution. Whether these standards were appropriate in terms of measurement is beyond the scope of this report. Instead, my interest is in the role that obese tax can play in influencing people’s lifestyle.
The Regressive Nature of Sin Taxes
According to Time magazine, ‘In the early 1500s, Pope Leo X underwrote his lavish lifestyle in part by taxing licensed prostitutes. In the Federalist papers, American patriot, Alexander Hamilton, proposed an excise tax on alcohol to boost revenues and curb consumption.’ The obese tax that I introduced was one type of sin tax as it serves as a protection to the members of community from harming their health by abusing substances such as alcohol and tobacco and indulging in immoral activities such as gambling and prostitution. Even though the obese tax is progressive (tax... [continues]

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