Yes, it is high. The corporate tax should be abolished.
15 thoughts on “The US Corporate Tax Rate”
ALL income and wealth taxes should be abolished. They simply don’t make any sense, and compliance is both costly and a source of non-economic behavior in the market (e.g., tax shelters and wasteful life insurance policies). Local consumption and land value taxes are the only taxes that make a lick of sense.
You just say that because you want gay, disabled, retired or elderly black children to starve or breath toxic air or drink toxic water!!!!!!!!
“elderly black children”….LOL
You can’t win the perception war on crap like this without preparing the way.
Change the requirements for receipts.
Instead of:
$1.00 Soda
$1.00 Subtotal
$0.10 Sales Tax
$1.10 Total due.
Require corporate taxes to be prorated and presented on invoices and receipts:
$0.27 Soda
$0.20 Corporate FICA
$0.43 Corporate Income Tax
$0.10 Corporate Gas Tax
$1.00 Subtotal
$0.10 Sales Tax
$1.10 Total due
Perhaps not all broken up, but just one lump.
I would love to see that kind of transparency in prices, Al. It would cost some money to show that kind of information but it’d be a real eye-opener, which is why the politicians and bureaucrats would freak. Most of the time when prices increase, people complain about “greedy corporations” when as likely the government makes more off of the sale of each item in taxes than the corporation makes in profit.
Maybe if corporations published such cost breakdowns on their websites (even better would be their packaging but that’d be pretty expensive), people would learn who the truly greedy people are.
Cost of raw materials:
Cost of labor:
Cost of plant and equipment:
Cost of regulatory compliance:
Cost of taxes:
…
Wholesale price:
Al & Larry, I wonder how much trouble it would be to put together a database of what the taxes (and store mark-up) are on an item, then tie it to a smartphone app so you could just take a picture of the bar code and get the breakdown as you shop.
A Government Accountability Office study released in 2008 found that 55 percent of United States companies paid no federal income taxes during at least one year in a seven-year period it studied.
Could it be that many of those businesses had no reportable profit during a 7 year period?
Also, the corruption of the tax code (both business and personal) is because people find it very profitable to bribe (lobby, campaign contributions, bribe, same difference) members of Congress to put in special provisions for their benefit.
“No federal income taxes” is quite often a way of saying “Operated at a freaking loss”. Plus, the corporate income tax is the least of the problems – it’s reasonably straightforward. The number of companies managing to avoid their portion of FICA, the gas taxes, sales taxes, unemployment “insurance”, worker’s compensation “insurance”, and unfunded mandates is much closer to zero. Here in Washington State, there’s something called the “B&O tax”. It’s a tax on all capital equipment. “Yes, you paid property tax on that building, but it’s a capital investment – so pay another tax. Yes, I know you sell cars, but any car on your lot at midnight New Year’s Eve gets you another tax!”
Shell spent nearly $5 billion dollars on a permit to drill on property for which they’ve already purchased the lease and mineral rights. They were told “No, because you haven’t properly accounted for the emissions of an icebreaker you have listed under ‘potential emergency gear.’ And… they’re now contemplating stripping the lease because Shell hasn’t managed to do anything with the property. “It’s a subsidy”, you see, to allow evil corporations to lease the mineral rights.
The cost of complying with regulations is often a “opportunity cost” instead of a strict, calculable dollar amount, but as much as is practicable should be slapped on the bill.
Larry J. said…“people find it very profitable to bribe (lobby, campaign contributions, bribe, same difference) members of Congress to put in special provisions for their benefit.”
Not just with respect to taxes either. I think 90%+ of the disfunction of government can be explained by campaign finance. That’s why I have long said that donations from any entity other than a living, breathing constituent should be outlawed. I’ve gotten attacked on that point right here on this site as if I were attacking some fundamental right of corporations to lobby for sweetheart tax and regulatory schemes, but I still stand by the position.
People (humans; home sapiens) have a right to speak, assemble and petition government; the employees of Pepsi, Boeing and Microsoft included. Even the Koch brothers and Heinz heiresses. But corporations aren’t people. Corporations should pay out their profits to shareholders and leave the politiking to the citizenry.
Brock, if the government wasn’t so interferring so much with business, then business wouldn’t have such a great deal of interest in the government. When regulations and taxes can make or break companies, they have every right to petition (lobby) their government under the 1st Amendment.
Congress wrote the campaign finance legislation to benefit incumbents. It’s a “legal” form of bribery. What can we do about it? When federal bureaucracies are enacting tens of thousands of new regulations each year, you’re bound to get some pushback (or payoff).
Brock, you can’t craft legislation tight enough, or enforce it well enough to manage that. You end up trying to micromanage a whirlwind. Should NBC (owned by GE) be allowed to cover topics concerning energy? They’re actively shilling wind power (which ends up supporting GE’s turbine department). Should Boeing be allowed to contest the NLRB’s decision requiring Washington State construction? Should they be allowed to try to convince people of their position? TV? Radio? … Internal Memos? Discussions with employees?
Eliminate the fundamental reason for the bulk of the lobbying instead – streamline and lock down the tax code, shove more of the choices down to lower levels (states). Fighting at 50x states is quite a bit tougher for the company – and quite a bit easier for grassroots opposition. Shoving things from the state level to the county level is yet another useful step.
Note that the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, WWF, and many, many other NGOs are fundamentally corporate lobbiests also.
Virtually all if not literally all labor unions, charities, and NGOs are incorporated, also, but somehow they’re exempt from the constraints placed on those corporations whose primary concern is running a business.
Well, Larry — businesses actually produce something of value, so there’s something to tax. Labor unions just launder money…
One genuine issue that some (not all) corporations try very hard to ignore, and also try to get the rest of us to ignore, is external costs – which may be difficult to quantify in money terms.
An example is stripmining. Often, entire good-sized hills with old-growth forest on them have been converted to blasted, poisoned, lifeless wastelands reminiscent of Tolkein’s description of Mordor. When the resource has run out, unless forced to, the mining corporation will generally not restore the landscape to anything like the state it was in before. So the corporation gains money, and everyone else loses natural beauty.
ALL income and wealth taxes should be abolished. They simply don’t make any sense, and compliance is both costly and a source of non-economic behavior in the market (e.g., tax shelters and wasteful life insurance policies). Local consumption and land value taxes are the only taxes that make a lick of sense.
You just say that because you want gay, disabled, retired or elderly black children to starve or breath toxic air or drink toxic water!!!!!!!!
“elderly black children”….LOL
You can’t win the perception war on crap like this without preparing the way.
Change the requirements for receipts.
Instead of:
$1.00 Soda
$1.00 Subtotal
$0.10 Sales Tax
$1.10 Total due.
Require corporate taxes to be prorated and presented on invoices and receipts:
$0.27 Soda
$0.20 Corporate FICA
$0.43 Corporate Income Tax
$0.10 Corporate Gas Tax
$1.00 Subtotal
$0.10 Sales Tax
$1.10 Total due
Perhaps not all broken up, but just one lump.
I would love to see that kind of transparency in prices, Al. It would cost some money to show that kind of information but it’d be a real eye-opener, which is why the politicians and bureaucrats would freak. Most of the time when prices increase, people complain about “greedy corporations” when as likely the government makes more off of the sale of each item in taxes than the corporation makes in profit.
Maybe if corporations published such cost breakdowns on their websites (even better would be their packaging but that’d be pretty expensive), people would learn who the truly greedy people are.
Cost of raw materials:
Cost of labor:
Cost of plant and equipment:
Cost of regulatory compliance:
Cost of taxes:
…
Wholesale price:
Al & Larry, I wonder how much trouble it would be to put together a database of what the taxes (and store mark-up) are on an item, then tie it to a smartphone app so you could just take a picture of the bar code and get the breakdown as you shop.
Except that they don’t pay it!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/economy/03rates.html?hp
From the linked article:
A Government Accountability Office study released in 2008 found that 55 percent of United States companies paid no federal income taxes during at least one year in a seven-year period it studied.
Could it be that many of those businesses had no reportable profit during a 7 year period?
Also, the corruption of the tax code (both business and personal) is because people find it very profitable to bribe (lobby, campaign contributions, bribe, same difference) members of Congress to put in special provisions for their benefit.
“No federal income taxes” is quite often a way of saying “Operated at a freaking loss”. Plus, the corporate income tax is the least of the problems – it’s reasonably straightforward. The number of companies managing to avoid their portion of FICA, the gas taxes, sales taxes, unemployment “insurance”, worker’s compensation “insurance”, and unfunded mandates is much closer to zero. Here in Washington State, there’s something called the “B&O tax”. It’s a tax on all capital equipment. “Yes, you paid property tax on that building, but it’s a capital investment – so pay another tax. Yes, I know you sell cars, but any car on your lot at midnight New Year’s Eve gets you another tax!”
Shell spent nearly $5 billion dollars on a permit to drill on property for which they’ve already purchased the lease and mineral rights. They were told “No, because you haven’t properly accounted for the emissions of an icebreaker you have listed under ‘potential emergency gear.’ And… they’re now contemplating stripping the lease because Shell hasn’t managed to do anything with the property. “It’s a subsidy”, you see, to allow evil corporations to lease the mineral rights.
The cost of complying with regulations is often a “opportunity cost” instead of a strict, calculable dollar amount, but as much as is practicable should be slapped on the bill.
Larry J. said… “people find it very profitable to bribe (lobby, campaign contributions, bribe, same difference) members of Congress to put in special provisions for their benefit.”
Not just with respect to taxes either. I think 90%+ of the disfunction of government can be explained by campaign finance. That’s why I have long said that donations from any entity other than a living, breathing constituent should be outlawed. I’ve gotten attacked on that point right here on this site as if I were attacking some fundamental right of corporations to lobby for sweetheart tax and regulatory schemes, but I still stand by the position.
People (humans; home sapiens) have a right to speak, assemble and petition government; the employees of Pepsi, Boeing and Microsoft included. Even the Koch brothers and Heinz heiresses. But corporations aren’t people. Corporations should pay out their profits to shareholders and leave the politiking to the citizenry.
Brock, if the government wasn’t so interferring so much with business, then business wouldn’t have such a great deal of interest in the government. When regulations and taxes can make or break companies, they have every right to petition (lobby) their government under the 1st Amendment.
Congress wrote the campaign finance legislation to benefit incumbents. It’s a “legal” form of bribery. What can we do about it? When federal bureaucracies are enacting tens of thousands of new regulations each year, you’re bound to get some pushback (or payoff).
Brock, you can’t craft legislation tight enough, or enforce it well enough to manage that. You end up trying to micromanage a whirlwind. Should NBC (owned by GE) be allowed to cover topics concerning energy? They’re actively shilling wind power (which ends up supporting GE’s turbine department). Should Boeing be allowed to contest the NLRB’s decision requiring Washington State construction? Should they be allowed to try to convince people of their position? TV? Radio? … Internal Memos? Discussions with employees?
Eliminate the fundamental reason for the bulk of the lobbying instead – streamline and lock down the tax code, shove more of the choices down to lower levels (states). Fighting at 50x states is quite a bit tougher for the company – and quite a bit easier for grassroots opposition. Shoving things from the state level to the county level is yet another useful step.
Note that the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, WWF, and many, many other NGOs are fundamentally corporate lobbiests also.
Virtually all if not literally all labor unions, charities, and NGOs are incorporated, also, but somehow they’re exempt from the constraints placed on those corporations whose primary concern is running a business.
Well, Larry — businesses actually produce something of value, so there’s something to tax. Labor unions just launder money…
One genuine issue that some (not all) corporations try very hard to ignore, and also try to get the rest of us to ignore, is external costs – which may be difficult to quantify in money terms.
An example is stripmining. Often, entire good-sized hills with old-growth forest on them have been converted to blasted, poisoned, lifeless wastelands reminiscent of Tolkein’s description of Mordor. When the resource has run out, unless forced to, the mining corporation will generally not restore the landscape to anything like the state it was in before. So the corporation gains money, and everyone else loses natural beauty.
This is just an example; there are many others.