In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in 2021, two of the Moores’ lawyers also declared unambiguously that the lawsuit “stands to slam shut the door on a federal wealth tax like the one Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to enact.” They made a direct pitch to “the courts” to hear the Moores’ case “now” to make it easier to block a wealth tax in the future.
I could see a couple arguments. If the government argues it’s an income tax under the 16th amendment you could probably argue somewhat convincingly that it is not yet income.
As a direct tax under Article I Section 8 it would probably be doomed as it would need to be subject to the rule of apportionment – each state is required to be taxed equal to its percentage of the national population.
In order to survive you would either need to successfully argue that it is income or that it is an indirect tax (think excise taxes, customs duties, etc).
Would a national sales tax on purchases over 5 or 10 million pass muster do you think? Or is sales tax something that only state and local governments can impose?
Sales taxes should be fine.