That's indeed a fair assessment. Because of the reduction in sales, there will undoubtedly be a reduction in sales tax collected, the extent of which is difficult to estimate, because it's a niche market. Obviously, not every one of us buys a vessel or an aircraft. I certainly don't, and I'm not in the market for an expensive car, but it's certain that there would be a reduction in sales tax receipts.
The extent to which this will happen is an estimate, and because it's a niche market, it's not straightforward to estimate what we call an “elasticity”, the extent to which sales will respond to an increase in prices from the luxury sales tax.
That said, we have looked at international experience and we have used a peer-reviewed elasticity that we think is very defensible.