why not make corporations actually pay taxes, too... you know, when they make billions of dollars of profit?
Corporations are owned by shareholders therefore the owners are taxed on multiple times on their money. Some of the greatest reasons for the Clinton budget surplus and the current deficits have to do with significant declines and stagnation in the financial markets over the last 12 years or so. If stock prices are higher, one must pay capital gains on those amounts. That is appreciation in a stock price which is reflective mainly of income growth (taxes paid) by the company. We should lower the taxes on companies, which will provide excess cash for re-investment, dividends or stock appreciation all of which are more effective job creators and multiplying effect of capital than taxes which go through the beauracracies of government. Im not completely against a 'millionaire tax' of this sort depending on the levels if there is also cuts in spending to go along with it. I do believe however at this juncture we shouldn't be lowering the already faltering demand by raising taxes or reducing spending but instead should be focused on government sponsored increases in demand (through spending and tax cuts) to jump start us out of this recession which will inevitable create huge private sector gains and less unemployment benefits which will catapult our intake more effectively and efficiently than raising taxes on anyone.
Funny you should ask because I came to ask how do higher personal taxes decrease hiring? Businesses that are filing under the individual income tax code will incorporate or take what measures prudent to minimize their tax burdens. I don't buy that it will significantly damage the jobs market.
Quite a few. Enough. That is one of the main reasons why, when you factor in tuitions exploding, destroyed unions, off shoring etc. that we have had such a decline in the middle class and the upper 1-2 percent have sucked up nearly all the productivity gains in the economy during the last 30 years. There are various talking points ane or defense mechanisms employed to make the lower classes feel ok about this. E.G. 1) All parties and or all politicians are equally corrupt. or 2) the one you may be referencing that the rich never pay taxes anyway with their loopholes. Despite their loopholes they paid more when their tax rates were much higher.
Haven't you heard. If you tax them then they get mad and don't create jobs, also. If we just eliminated taxes we would all be so wealthy after it trickled down from the billionaires. Ask any libertarian or Fox viewer.
In all seriousness, can you please post some substantiation to this contention? I hear this all the time so there must be something that backs up this conservative wisdom other than the fact that it gets repeated all the time. On the surface it just sounds idiotic considering Bush policies since 2000 and the current state of the economy. Reality is the problem is much more complex than these simplistic ideas on tax policy. Energy prices, globalization, the state of education, the housing bubble, deregulation, the coordinated conservative attack on government, and many other factors all play as important a role in job creation as tax policy.
Meanwhile... Rich get richer, middle class vanish, poor get poorer. It ain't tricklin' down sweetie pies! It never has! But it's cool .... at least you're not on the very very bottom, right?
By providing money for infrastructure jobs, money to states that saves the jobs of police, teachers, firefighters, etc.
Such a complete pile of BS. Dividends benefit far too few people. Look we all know the score. There is almost a perfect correlation between dropping tax rates and rising wealth inequality. The rich are not going to invest where there is no demand and demand can only be created when the consumers have the means to buy. The solution is common sense. Raise taxes on those that have taken all of the benefit of lower taxes over the last30 years, use the funds for a MASSIVE WPA type venture and get the architects, engineers, and most importantly construction workers back to work.
You're confusing facts with theories. We've tried lowering corporate taxes before. With the excess cash we got "merger mania" decreased competition, huge job losses (I should know my dad lost his job at Gulf Oil), corruption and inefficiency just to make a buck for a chosen few through leveraged buyouts, greenmailing, etc.. This is the problem with the conservative line of thinking. Your beliefs are not facts they are theory. Sadly enough we have implemented this supplyside/voodoo economic BS several times now and surprise surprise we got the same result.
I don't think the whole idea that corporate tax reduces investment is controversial at all, whether the economist is conservative or liberal. Which explains why corporate tax rates have been decreasing over the last several decades worldwide. The US actually has one of the higher corporate tax rates (though there are probably more deductions and credits)
