6 ms·

Meanwhile the fat cats pay little, or no taxes... GE paid 7% in 2010, partly due to the poor economy. How many of us wish we could get away with only paying 7

by D9u 13y ago

Meanwhile the fat cats pay little, or no taxes... GE paid 7% in 2010, partly due to the poor economy. How many of us wish we could get away with only paying 7% tax? http://money.msn.com/taxes/latest.aspx?post=26d490bd-7317-4f93-8b43-e1da1151ea5f http://money.msn.com/taxes/latest.aspx?post=26d490bd-7317-4f...

skibob1027 13y ago
If you want to tax corporate activity, the best (most consistent) way would be to eliminate corporate income taxes and tax capital gains as regular income. It would serve multiple causes: (1) Instead of spending inordinate resources in tax avoidance schemes, companies would have the freedom to focus on investing human and financial capital in serving customers by providing better, cheaper products and services. Remember, the cost of those tax avoidance schemes are embedded in the prices you pay for goods and services. (2) Taxes would only be due when gains are realized, thus allowing compounded growth to further spur the economy; (3) It would raise the effective tax rate of individuals who receive a large portion of their income from capital gains (something that seems to really bother those who worry about such things; (4) It's a more consistent approach to taxation. Today we are taxing the owners of a company's stock both within the corporation's income structure and then again when income and growth is distributed to shareholders as dividends and capital gains, respectively.
maxerickson 13y ago
Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Corporations are generally far better equipped to spend money avoiding taxes, so it probably makes more sense to try to keep loopholes to a minimum and evaluate whether the effective rates are appropriate for the parties they apply to. The article you link discusses the very wealthy having taxation dominated by the lower taxes on investment income. I think such taxes could be higher without having significant impact on investment (lots of rhetoric suggests that even tiny changes would cause investment to collapse, that's silly), but there is plenty of room to discuss whether government spending is a better use of the wealth than private investment (and such taxes do more or less have the effect of directly moving private investment dollars to government spending).
- gregd 13y ago
  Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Yes. Corporations themselves want to apply the Constitution to the corporation as if they're a "person", therefore, it makes sense to compare the corporate tax rate to the personal tax rate.
  - pathy 13y ago
    No it doesn't. Corporate tax legislation is not the same as personal tax legislation, therefore a comparison is irrelevant. Even if corporations would be treated as people, as long as the legislation is different it does not make sense to compare the two. You may argue that tax rates are too high or low for both or that there are too many loopholes but that is a different discussion. I don't think anyone actually wants to see the same tax legislation for businesses and for people - it makes no sense what so ever.
    - alexanderh 13y ago
      You're right. It doesnt make sense. But the problem is: we've already crossed that bridge. Corporations are treated like people in enough regards, that it only makes sense to make these comparisons now. But yes.. its retarded. It doesnt make sense. But it's how things are now. And until something changes with corporate personhood, they should be held to the same standards as people. This way people will wake up to how stupid it is.
    - konstruktor 13y ago
      This is the status quo but doesn't address parent's argument. If corporations want the same rights as natural persons in one area of the law, it would be cherry picking to want to keep a privileged position in another, e.g. tax law. A good argument against parent would need to attack the premise that cherry picking privileges is bad.
      - pathy 13y ago
        Your argument is a fair point, cherry picking privileges is quite ridiculous. That said, it makes absolutely zero sense to compare corporation taxes and personal taxes. The dynamics are just totally different. I can see nothing good in equating personal and corporation taxes. My personal opinion is that both personal and corporate tax legislation is more or less flawed and that the(effective) tax rates probably need to be adjust but that doesn't mean that I want them to have the same legislation.

by D9u 13y ago

skibob1027 13y ago

If you want to tax corporate activity, the best (most consistent) way would be to eliminate corporate income taxes and tax capital gains as regular income. It would serve multiple causes: (1) Instead of spending inordinate resources in tax avoidance schemes, companies would have the freedom to focus on investing human and financial capital in serving customers by providing better, cheaper products and services. Remember, the cost of those tax avoidance schemes are embedded in the prices you pay for goods and services. (2) Taxes would only be due when gains are realized, thus allowing compounded growth to further spur the economy; (3) It would raise the effective tax rate of individuals who receive a large portion of their income from capital gains (something that seems to really bother those who worry about such things; (4) It's a more consistent approach to taxation. Today we are taxing the owners of a company's stock both within the corporation's income structure and then again when income and growth is distributed to shareholders as dividends and capital gains, respectively.

maxerickson 13y ago

Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Corporations are generally far better equipped to spend money avoiding taxes, so it probably makes more sense to try to keep loopholes to a minimum and evaluate whether the effective rates are appropriate for the parties they apply to. The article you link discusses the very wealthy having taxation dominated by the lower taxes on investment income. I think such taxes could be higher without having significant impact on investment (lots of rhetoric suggests that even tiny changes would cause investment to collapse, that's silly), but there is plenty of room to discuss whether government spending is a better use of the wealth than private investment (and such taxes do more or less have the effect of directly moving private investment dollars to government spending).

gregd 13y ago
Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Yes. Corporations themselves want to apply the Constitution to the corporation as if they're a "person", therefore, it makes sense to compare the corporate tax rate to the personal tax rate.
- pathy 13y ago
  No it doesn't. Corporate tax legislation is not the same as personal tax legislation, therefore a comparison is irrelevant. Even if corporations would be treated as people, as long as the legislation is different it does not make sense to compare the two. You may argue that tax rates are too high or low for both or that there are too many loopholes but that is a different discussion. I don't think anyone actually wants to see the same tax legislation for businesses and for people - it makes no sense what so ever.
  - alexanderh 13y ago
    You're right. It doesnt make sense. But the problem is: we've already crossed that bridge. Corporations are treated like people in enough regards, that it only makes sense to make these comparisons now. But yes.. its retarded. It doesnt make sense. But it's how things are now. And until something changes with corporate personhood, they should be held to the same standards as people. This way people will wake up to how stupid it is.
  - konstruktor 13y ago
    This is the status quo but doesn't address parent's argument. If corporations want the same rights as natural persons in one area of the law, it would be cherry picking to want to keep a privileged position in another, e.g. tax law. A good argument against parent would need to attack the premise that cherry picking privileges is bad.
    - pathy 13y ago
      Your argument is a fair point, cherry picking privileges is quite ridiculous. That said, it makes absolutely zero sense to compare corporation taxes and personal taxes. The dynamics are just totally different. I can see nothing good in equating personal and corporation taxes. My personal opinion is that both personal and corporate tax legislation is more or less flawed and that the(effective) tax rates probably need to be adjust but that doesn't mean that I want them to have the same legislation.