4 ms·

The CBO includes corporate taxes as a tax on shareholders income. The shareholders don't actually pay this themselves and one can make a strong case that the co

by jshen 16y ago

The CBO includes corporate taxes as a tax on shareholders income. The shareholders don't actually pay this themselves and one can make a strong case that the cost of those taxes aren't entirely borne by shareholders. Warren Buffet's tax rate is lower than his secretary's, and no one in the forbes 400 took him up on his challenge to show him that it's any different for them.

webXL 16y ago
You said "they make a lot of their money as capital gains which are taxed at a rate" and I said their effective tax rate of 32%, which is higher than yours, includes capital gains taxes. You can make a strong case that corporate taxes are a tax on consumers, but those are only 1/6 of individual taxes, and even if all of it was passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, you're spreading it out over the entire economy. I highly doubt it pushes your effective federal rate above 32%! The argument that corporate taxes aren't paid by shareholders is not a justification to raise rates on the super rich, it's a justification to make sure all that tax revenue comes from shareholders. You could lower the corporate rate and increase capital gains, I suppose, but there's no excuse that much of the world has lower corporate tax rates, because it's an inefficient tax - a tax that the poor are partially paying!
- jshen 16y ago
  I think you misunderstood me. When the CBO says their (the top 1%) effective tax rate is 32% they are including the corporate tax in that 32% for people that earn money on capital gains. That seems odd to me since those people didn't actually pay the corporate tax. The corporation did! If you take it out, you get something like the 17% that Buffet pays, which is the true value of the taxes he had to pay. HN isn't meant for this kind of back and forth so i've started a post on my site if you want to continue over there. http://yakkstr.com/posts/2749-How-much-do-the-rich-pay-in-taxes http://yakkstr.com/posts/2749-How-much-do-the-rich-pay-in-ta...

by jshen 16y ago

webXL 16y ago

You said "they make a lot of their money as capital gains which are taxed at a rate" and I said their effective tax rate of 32%, which is higher than yours, includes capital gains taxes. You can make a strong case that corporate taxes are a tax on consumers, but those are only 1/6 of individual taxes, and even if all of it was passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, you're spreading it out over the entire economy. I highly doubt it pushes your effective federal rate above 32%! The argument that corporate taxes aren't paid by shareholders is not a justification to raise rates on the super rich, it's a justification to make sure all that tax revenue comes from shareholders. You could lower the corporate rate and increase capital gains, I suppose, but there's no excuse that much of the world has lower corporate tax rates, because it's an inefficient tax - a tax that the poor are partially paying!

jshen 16y ago
I think you misunderstood me. When the CBO says their (the top 1%) effective tax rate is 32% they are including the corporate tax in that 32% for people that earn money on capital gains. That seems odd to me since those people didn't actually pay the corporate tax. The corporation did! If you take it out, you get something like the 17% that Buffet pays, which is the true value of the taxes he had to pay. HN isn't meant for this kind of back and forth so i've started a post on my site if you want to continue over there. http://yakkstr.com/posts/2749-How-much-do-the-rich-pay-in-taxes http://yakkstr.com/posts/2749-How-much-do-the-rich-pay-in-ta...