Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Problem with "Corporate Tax Rates" and Lowering Them - You have to raise somewhere else

This came out in the "leaked news" today.
President Donald Trump’s zeal to unveil a tax plan before his 100th day in office is raising questions about just how thorough his “tax reform” plans will be, amid signals that his focus for now is on slashing tax rates.
Trump has directed aides to move quickly on a plan to cut the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, a Trump administration official said on Monday.

And I have to say, that is is a common refrain from corporations. They say the US is noncompetitive because our tax rate is 35% and most of the world's is much lower. I don't want to argue the effective tax rate that companies like GE and Apple get, because that misses the point.

See the Red - we are also one of the few countries that tries to do a Worldwide Taxation.

US Corporations are correct, US Corporate taxes are very high compared to most countries rates.

HOWEVER, most countries tax their people at a much higher rate than the US does. We have decided, as a country, to tax our corporations. Greatly reducing these taxes may be fine. But to have a government that does what we demand of it, that means that those taxes will have to come from people - from higher individual taxes.

You can't exclude that from the discussion. Only we have excluded that idea - which is why it all goes in the shitter when you put you try to do it.