Obama open to lower corporate tax rates

[Beet]

Another nail in the coffin of the "Obama a socialist" meme:

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-open-to-lower-corporate-taxes-2010-10-04

Also announced is a pilot program that pairs companies with community colleges.

[Frink]

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That coffins been nailed shut for a while now.. no?

[© tweed]

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That coffins been nailed shut for a while now.. no?

anticommunism as the national religion

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Both seem like great ideas. The Community College one especially.


The best thing to do with the Corporate tax rate is scrub it of most special treatment (exemptions, deductions etc etc)

Then create a rate of 25%. Then you can put in a 15% rate for new start-ups for the first three years or two years the company exists, and maybe some special treatment for alternative energy companies and such. That will save billions in compliance costs and reduce the tax gap as well as reduce the sheltering of money to avoid taxes. You would probably get more revenue by doing this within just a year or two barring a severe contraction occuring right after passage.  

The problem is the special interests would just love that.

[Mint]

Well, it would help somewhat but even Obama admits we have so many loop holes that a lot of businesses don't pay the corporate tax anyway. We'd need to significantly simplify the tax code to really have the desired effect.

[opebo]

Very sad.  The exact opposite policies to what is needed, and in the same vein as what has caused the depression.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Oh, very good news. 'Cause all those CBO reports on the effectiveness of different types of economic stimulus were really favorable to corporate tax cuts, right?

Right?



...Ah

[Gustaf]

America should do what Sweded did in the early 90s - cut corporate taxes by half without losing any revenue. That would include closing loop-holes obviously.

[Earth]

It's not surprising at all. He's a corporate politician.

America should raise corporate taxes immensely, and close the loopholes. I'd much rather see that than any lowering of taxes.

[Gustaf]

Corporate taxes are paid by consumers through higher prices to a large extent. The only reason to have corporate taxes at all is really to create uniformity of taxation between different ways of earning money.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

America should do what Sweded did in the early 90s - cut corporate taxes by half without losing any revenue. That would include closing loop-holes obviously.

How much did Sweden cut it in the 1990's?

[Gustaf]

America should do what Sweded did in the early 90s - cut corporate taxes by half without losing any revenue. That would include closing loop-holes obviously.

How much did Sweden cut it in the 1990's?

I don't remember the exact percentages but it was something like from 52% to 28%. Of course, the old system had plenty of loopholes so no smart corporations paid that much in reality. It was part of a bipartisan effort called the tax reform of the century in Sweden and has been extremely successful.

[Gustaf]

EDIT: 57% apparently, after having checked it. So exactly in half. We've cut it further now to about 26%.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So even my idea of 25% isn't that radical. The real number will be determined by the amount saved by closing loopholes, of course.

The real fact is that with all the loopholes, many escape paying taxes, the complexity and the overal rate encourages use of tax shelters. So lowering the overal rate and scrubbing it of loopholes would be an enormous boon for revenue and for the economy.

[opebo]

If increasing corporate tax rates really are 'paid by consumers', then they are a good thing because they are inflationary.  A good combination would be 1) massive money printing, to be 2) passed directly to poors as income subsidies, then 3) spent and taxed partially back as high corporate tax rates.

[Gustaf]

If increasing corporate tax rates really are 'paid by consumers', then they are a good thing because they are inflationary.  A good combination would be 1) massive money printing, to be 2) passed directly to poors as income subsidies, then 3) spent and taxed partially back as high corporate tax rates.

You think increasing taxes on consumption increases consumption?