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There is a broad consensus among liberal and conservative economists that a corporate tax rate above zero is a dumb idea. It is irksome that some large corpora

by jlebar 12y ago

There is a broad consensus among liberal and conservative economists that a corporate tax rate above zero is a dumb idea. It is irksome that some large corporations pay basically zero and others don't, but the ideal solution isn't to make 'em all pay. See e.g. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/19/157047211/six-policies-economists-love-and-politicians-hate http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/19/157047211/six-poli...

tptacek 12y ago
Careful. Liberal economists support reducing or eliminating the corporate income tax if you offset it with drastically higher personal income tax on wealthy people along with an elimination of the capital gains tax rate, and you prevent corporations from becoming vehicles for making pre-tax political contributions. In other words: liberal economists don't support eliminating the corporate income tax in the real world.
- jlebar 12y ago
  > Liberal economists support reducing or eliminating the corporate income tax if you offset it with drastically higher personal income tax on wealthy people along with an elimination of the capital gains tax rate, and you prevent corporations from becoming vehicles for making pre-tax political contributions. Yes, absolutely. But as liberals, let's be indignant about the impossibility of what you describe, rather than the impossibility of getting Apple to pay the same tax rate as an individual.
gone35 12y ago
There is a broad consensus among liberal and conservative economists that a corporate tax rate above zero is a dumb idea. Not quite. To add to tptacek's earlier comment: Planet Money's feature was strongly criticized afterwards for mischaracterizing the panelists's opinions, and overselling them as full-fledged policy positions [1,2]. Besides, the members were not representative enough to reliably infer a "broad consensus" from their agreements alone. [1] http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-disagreement-behind-planet-moneys-economic-platform http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-disagreeme... [2] http://www.samefacts.com/2012/08/drug-policy/planet-money-and-planet-earth/ http://www.samefacts.com/2012/08/drug-policy/planet-money-an...

by jlebar 12y ago

tptacek 12y ago

Careful. Liberal economists support reducing or eliminating the corporate income tax if you offset it with drastically higher personal income tax on wealthy people along with an elimination of the capital gains tax rate, and you prevent corporations from becoming vehicles for making pre-tax political contributions. In other words: liberal economists don't support eliminating the corporate income tax in the real world.

jlebar 12y ago
> Liberal economists support reducing or eliminating the corporate income tax if you offset it with drastically higher personal income tax on wealthy people along with an elimination of the capital gains tax rate, and you prevent corporations from becoming vehicles for making pre-tax political contributions. Yes, absolutely. But as liberals, let's be indignant about the impossibility of what you describe, rather than the impossibility of getting Apple to pay the same tax rate as an individual.

gone35 12y ago

There is a broad consensus among liberal and conservative economists that a corporate tax rate above zero is a dumb idea. Not quite. To add to tptacek's earlier comment: Planet Money's feature was strongly criticized afterwards for mischaracterizing the panelists's opinions, and overselling them as full-fledged policy positions [1,2]. Besides, the members were not representative enough to reliably infer a "broad consensus" from their agreements alone. [1] http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-disagreement-behind-planet-moneys-economic-platform http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-disagreeme... [2] http://www.samefacts.com/2012/08/drug-policy/planet-money-and-planet-earth/ http://www.samefacts.com/2012/08/drug-policy/planet-money-an...