Very interesting.
Would you eliminate corporate taxes (which are paid by the customer/consumer anyway)?
By retail do you mean VAT, or just “end of the supply chain?”
Would you tax services too? Subscription software?
Yes, all taxes are paid by individuals anyway as you noted. Hence eliminating all federal income taxes and replacing them with a “retail” sales tax will have little effect on the aggregate tax collected.
Retail is in quotes bc it’s very important. Everything is taxed...but only once... that being at the time of retail consumption. That includes services like dentist, lawyer, software licensing, etc. but as you noted, the dentist, lawyer, and software company are already paying taxes that they include in their prices. So prices don’t change much in a competitive environment.
Exports can have their taxes rebated (border adjusted) and imports are required to pay the tax upon reaching our border.
The rate would be about 30% as an add-on (how sales taxes are usually viewed) which is about 23% as an included portion of total cost (how income taxes are usually viewed).