Liberals and Conservatives Agree: Abolish the Corporate Income Tax

We should eliminate, at the very least, the corporate income tax and bring jobs back to America. Economists on both the left and right are in rare agreement on this issue, and I think it is time to move forward with it. If we want to be revenue neutral, we can replace it with a small NRST, higher personal income taxes, or a combination of the two. The projected gains from eliminating the corporate income tax are truly astonishing. According to one economist, capital stock would increase by 23%, output would increase by 8%, and real wages would go up by 12%. The full report on which it is based is highly technical and lengthy, but you can read a summary at the NYT, or any other major news source.

Everyone of us can agree that having real growth and better jobs is good for the country.

Let's really push for this and make it happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/opinion/abolish-the-corporate-income-tax.html

 

It is not a tax issue. It is a labor cost issue.

 

Growth will never be good for everyone in the equation. Either a company has real growth with wages, jobs and income while the top executives make less, or the opposite, like what we have now. Anyone telling you everyone will be happy is lying to you.

 

wut no this is not a good idea

 

Of course labor costs are a real problem, but eliminating their tax burden completely goes a long way in making up for that. 27.5% of federal revenue comes from corporate and employer payroll taxes. There is no way that eliminating that burden doesn't have a positive impact on job growth.

Is it better to grow, stay even, or shrink?

I'll go with growth.

Why not? While researching this issue, it quickly became clear that virtually all of the economists agree with doing this. The fact that there is so much agreement on this issue seems to suggest that the findings of these studies are fairly impartial. Why is it a bad idea to eliminate tax burdens on production if corporations gain huge incentives to invest here?

 

Obviously, but the question is how? Empowering employers, or employees?

 

If companies that have left came back, and more companies started pouring in for the tax benefits, millions of jobs would be created, many of them high-paying ones. Without doing anything else, it would be beneficial. Remember, they would be competing for workers, which would cause wage increases.

 

I think you may be on to something here, BUT, we need to increase income taxes substantially then and close all loopholes, eliminate half of existing deductions, etc. Got to make up the revenue somewhere.

 

If taxes on the top 1% were increased to 45% (that's for personal income), and we established a national retail sales tax, we could bring in about $500 billion a year. The wage increases would more than make up for the sales tax. I think it is legislation that could gain bipartisan support, though it would face fierce resistance from professional organizations like the ABA and AMA. The other $300 billion could come from defense and cuts to other wasteful programs. The government lay-offs would be no big deal because there would be plenty of BETTER jobs available for them to take.

 

Well, I'd increase that personal income tax for the 1% to around 65% so we could lower the sales tax. In the 50's top income taxes were nearing 90, so that is still a good compromise. Sales tax hurts the consumer, who we need to be empowered as much as possible. I agree cutting defense, but what other programs are you referring to?

 

I agree to disagree. I believe the corporate tax should fund unemployment compensation that clears our poverty guidelines; that can be obtained by Labor, for simply being unemployed in any at-will employment State.

 

If we are going to have a civilized modern society (which must include a government), there will be taxes. The key in my view is what those taxes are used for and the burden of such revenue be carried in some equally proportional (fair) manner by all living and doing business here in this land.

Short version:

Regular working Americans, should not be paying the way for the wealthy.

 

You couldn't find a more regressive tax solution.

So you want corporate profits (which are already record or near record) to be greater and you want the middle class and poor to cover that tax revenue loss...

Brilliant

So who by the way are these liberals you speak of in the OP.

Just curious.

You didn't bother to name any that I saw.

 

Taxes should be general taxes and not direct taxes whenever possible.

 

Yes! God knows the wealthy need more money and God knows that the trickle down economics has benefited us all so well that we should certainly continue it.... at least until we 99.9% starve to death.....

 

I'm not sure if that makes things absolutely better... but for now I will stick with the reality that the people who generally spend their lives working, should NOT be bearing more of the tax burden than those who are the most wealthy.

Whether direct or indirect... taxation should be 'fair'; that should be a 'perpetual' goal.

 

This is an example of how economists do not understand the tax code, both home and abroad nor corporate behavior.

Let me give you an example, if a company does a corporate inversion where the US company merges with a foreign based company and moves the HQ's address overseas, it would slash tax revenues overall, most notably in countries where nonresident corporations pay a higher, more stringent income tax, than that of the United States or the home country of the foreign based company prior to the merger and inversion.

 

Are you advocating a 45% tax rate or a rate of 45% to cut in above a certain income level. Otherwise know as a top marginal rate.

 

Didn't read thread. A nice thought, but unlikely. Moreover, the real damage being done to US business, small and large, is through unnecessary regulatory bloat by a gov-edu-union-contractor-grantee-MSM Complex that speaks with forked tongue where small business is concerned, lauding it as the backbone of our economy one instant, then creating more and more byzantine "legislation via administrative fiat" (plainly unconstitutional) out of the other. The upshot is that small businesses can't grow to compete with the large, entrenched cronies.

The Complex delights in spreading lies about the commercial sector of the US, concentrates on the tiny fraction of bad actors while never ever mentioning the massive good works small and large businesses do in communities across the country. The Complex wants you to picture "US business" as some cigar smoking hedge fund manager, and those comprise a near infinitesimal percentage of the 30 million someodd businesses in this country, almost all owned and run by ethical people trying to do well and create the same kind of world for their families that we all want.

 

I've never heard a liberal politician suggest abolishing the corporate income tax. I do agree that it would help, but I haven't heard liberals suggesting it. I think a better idea would be to reduce the corporate income tax, but at the same time close a lot of the deductions that they can take. The problem now is that corporate income tax is so high that it causes the corporations to lobby for more deductions, and it also makes them want to move overseas.

 

The tax rates were at 90%, but almost nobody really paid that--only the stupid rich people (who are rare). There were many more deductions available back then--for example, all loan interest could be deducted, not just mortgage interest.

 

I have no problem cutting corporate income taxes to ZERO and make up the lost revenue by raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year

that would be $344 billion

 

Well, we can lower the income tax to 65 and eliminate ALL deductions. That's why our tax code is overly complicated and ridiculous.

 

Translation: We (Democrats of today) intend to make everyone equally miserable.

 

Ummm, no. Someone not being able to pay rent is NOT as equally as miserable as a CEO who can't afford the latest private jet. BIG difference.