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> Agreed, it's very silly. No one attacks people in the upper middle class for using mortgage deductions, tax advantaged investment vehicles (ie 401Ks), educati

by mcny 8y ago

> Agreed, it's very silly. No one attacks people in the upper middle class for using mortgage deductions, tax advantaged investment vehicles (ie 401Ks), education accounts, tax loss harvesting etc to minimize tax burden; however, whenever a wealthy person tries to minimize their tax burden, they are immediately jumped on. It can't be ok for one group of people to take advantage of tax incentives and not others. I don't like tax credits and deductions at all. I think all of these things are an additional burden on the lazy and the stupid (like me). Using taxes to encourage the public to do something or not do something doesn't even make sense for the political party that keeps harping about making taxes simpler. Personally, I think all businesses should pay taxes on total revenue. I don't give two ships if you had a revenue of $2B and expenses of $5B. You owe taxes on that $2B. If your business model is low margin, that's your problem. No credits. No deductions. No deferrals. The current policy isn't based on fairness or logic. It is simply based on who can get their way and by how much.

ummonk 8y ago
Do you think all businesses should be vertically integrated?
- mcny 8y ago
  I have a (horrible) solution for that as well. Make the board criminally liable for the actions of employees, contractors, or other agents where such actions are a condition to the employment or contract. Tax rates will probably need to go down and this is obviously just a thought experiment because no change is possible as we are too comfortable being hypocrites.
  - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
    There is a much simpler solution for the vertical integration problem. If you buy something from another company which has already paid tax on it, you don't have to pay tax on it a second time. The resulting tax is called VAT.
greglindahl 8y ago
Taxing businesses on total revenue would prohibit entire classes of businesses, for example stock brokerages, bond market makers, ebay, and amazon's 3rd party marketplace. And did you know that grocery stores are low margin? Hell, if you average them over the economic cycle, airlines and car production are low margin.
leetcrew 8y ago
i'm curious, what do you think would actually happen if we taxed corporate revenue instead of profits? the effect of a particular tax can be pretty hard to figure out. just because the tax is levied against a certain company or individual doesn't necessarily mean they actually bear the burden of that tax; depending on the situation, they may be able to pass off the burden to someone else entirely. in general though, you can think of taxes as discouraging a particular activity/transaction. if you directly slap a tax on revenue, you are basically putting the brakes on all economic activity. low margin businesses are probably hit harder than higher margin businesses, but keep in mind that the profitability of the average business varies a lot by industry, so you run the risk of putting entire sectors underwater. unless they are able to pass the tax on to their customers, a grocery store is going to be hit a lot harder by this tax than a semiconductor company, and people are going to be less likely to invest in them. taxing corporate profit is somewhat perverse in the same way, since it serves to discourage efficient allocation of capital, but it does have the nice side effect that it increases the incentivize for companies to spend more tax free dollars on things like employee benefits and wages. in my opinion, we should probably not tax corporations at all. ultimately all corporate revenue turns into either income for employees or capital gains for investors, so just tax these (progressively) and hike the rates. while we're at it, let's also eliminate as many personal tax credits and deductions as possible.
- dev_dull 8y ago
  > in my opinion, we should probably not tax corporations at all. ultimately all corporate revenue turns into either income for employees or capital gains for investors, so just tax these (progressively) and hike the rates. This sounds reasonable to me As long as the money doesn’t disappear to another country.

by mcny 8y ago

ummonk 8y ago

Do you think all businesses should be vertically integrated?

mcny 8y ago
I have a (horrible) solution for that as well. Make the board criminally liable for the actions of employees, contractors, or other agents where such actions are a condition to the employment or contract. Tax rates will probably need to go down and this is obviously just a thought experiment because no change is possible as we are too comfortable being hypocrites.
- AnthonyMouse 8y ago
  There is a much simpler solution for the vertical integration problem. If you buy something from another company which has already paid tax on it, you don't have to pay tax on it a second time. The resulting tax is called VAT.

greglindahl 8y ago

Taxing businesses on total revenue would prohibit entire classes of businesses, for example stock brokerages, bond market makers, ebay, and amazon's 3rd party marketplace. And did you know that grocery stores are low margin? Hell, if you average them over the economic cycle, airlines and car production are low margin.

leetcrew 8y ago

i'm curious, what do you think would actually happen if we taxed corporate revenue instead of profits? the effect of a particular tax can be pretty hard to figure out. just because the tax is levied against a certain company or individual doesn't necessarily mean they actually bear the burden of that tax; depending on the situation, they may be able to pass off the burden to someone else entirely. in general though, you can think of taxes as discouraging a particular activity/transaction. if you directly slap a tax on revenue, you are basically putting the brakes on all economic activity. low margin businesses are probably hit harder than higher margin businesses, but keep in mind that the profitability of the average business varies a lot by industry, so you run the risk of putting entire sectors underwater. unless they are able to pass the tax on to their customers, a grocery store is going to be hit a lot harder by this tax than a semiconductor company, and people are going to be less likely to invest in them. taxing corporate profit is somewhat perverse in the same way, since it serves to discourage efficient allocation of capital, but it does have the nice side effect that it increases the incentivize for companies to spend more tax free dollars on things like employee benefits and wages. in my opinion, we should probably not tax corporations at all. ultimately all corporate revenue turns into either income for employees or capital gains for investors, so just tax these (progressively) and hike the rates. while we're at it, let's also eliminate as many personal tax credits and deductions as possible.

dev_dull 8y ago
> in my opinion, we should probably not tax corporations at all. ultimately all corporate revenue turns into either income for employees or capital gains for investors, so just tax these (progressively) and hike the rates. This sounds reasonable to me As long as the money doesn’t disappear to another country.