The problem here Selden, is that an income tax has not worked as well as one would hope, either.
Many criminals move a lot of money around without ever paying income taxes.
However, if there were federal sales taxes on luxury items, the criminals would be less able to escape supporting the government agencies that try to stop them, and the support they give would be drained out of them a bit at a time. The state and local agencies have violated this unimaginably by taxing groceries. A tax on the food we need to survive is the most regressive tax there can be. I guess the problem is that many people consider all sales tax to be regressive and all income tax to be progresive. I make less than this, and I will always pay my taxes without much complaint, but I think it could be done better.