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I would love to understand why you think it is punitive for the ultra rich.
value added taxes are paid on the profit made on the good, and are paid by the seller (because the buyer doesn't know what the profit is). value added taxes are basically corporate income taxes
If by 'ultra rich people' you mean the owners of capital, then no, not really. Those businesses hurt by tariffs will almost always raise prices until they are at least breaking even, otherwise they couldn't survive.
Yes, such business might lose some sales, so their 'ultra rich' owners might end up slightly less 'ultra rich', but don't forget that there will also be other businesses that will very much benefit from the tariffs (because market prices will go up when any part of the market is hit with tariffs), so their owners will become more wealthy.
So to sum up, with tariffs:
* some businesses may be hurt
* some businesses may be helped
* government gets more tax revenue
* consumers get higher prices
The 'ultra rich' don't care if food, clothing, cars, etc cost 5 or 10 or 20 percent more because they already have way more disposable income than they need. And even if they do take a hit, going from an annual income of $1M to $500k is not nearly as bad as going from $50k to $40k.
Apart from hurting some businesses and helping others, tariffs are no different than a regressive tax increase.
No. A flat tax is proportional [1].
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-are-dif...
> While a flat tax imposes the same tax percentage on all individuals regardless of income, many see it as a regressive tax.
> A regressive tax imposes a larger tax burden on those with lower incomes than those with higher incomes because a larger portion of a lower-income individual's total funds goes to the tax. While higher-income taxpayers pay the same percentage, their greater incomes make the financial burden easier to bear.