Via Dan Johnson Weinberger

The GRT is a really dumb idea according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

They testified at the hearings 

And they have an Issue Brief 

One on the Blagojevich plan 

This is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad tax.
From the ITEP report and echoing what I wrote the other day:

GRTs are not sensitive to a business’s ability to pay.  Businesses that fail to turn a profit would still face a GRT; businesses that are engaged in high-volume, low-profit-margin activities would be adversely affected as well.  Conversely, businesses with very high profit margins could pay lower taxes under a GRT than under a corporate income tax.

But just as important:

GRTs lead to severe pyramiding problems.  Since a GRT applies not just to retail sales, but to all stages of the production process, it may be levied on itself multiple times. For instance, the GRT paid on the raw materials going into a particular product will later be subject to GRT when the finished product is sold to a wholesaler.  One examination of Washington’s gross receipts tax found that it pyramids 2.5 times on average.

And this is especially problematic when you think about the economies in depressed communities and neighborhoods.  It won’t matter much to Walmarts, but the local shop owners who are often the provider of basic  goods in many poor neighborhoods almost always go through distributors and other middlemen to get their products meaning the impact of the tax is felt by those ultimate purchasers in the community and neighborhoods and  large out of state retailers are benefited by the GRT at the expense of small, local businesses.