Repeal job-killing corporate tax

[4dsc]

This is really sad that the previously liberal Des Moines Register editorial board has gone over to the dark side..

Contrary to what you might think, it isn't the wage levels of American workers that make U.S. manufacturers uncompetitive in the world.

It's the nation's corporate income tax, among other things.

Part of restoring America's competitiveness should be to repeal the tax.

Don't merely trim it. Don't put more loopholes in it. Get rid of it.

Radical? Maybe, but if America is going to keep its manufacturing base, timid measures won't do.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050926/OPINION03/509260304/1035/OPINION

[punpirate]

1. Well, it's not even a good idea in theory...

... and in practice, most of the largest aren't paying any taxes, anyway.

Corporations are probably the largest users of all types of infrastructure--why shouldn't they pay their share for it?

[phantom power]

2. Funny. I'd get rid of all the loopholes. And increase it.

[ClintonTyree]

3. WHAT corporate income tax?

In 1965, U.S. corporate income taxes were 4.0% of our GDP, compared to 2.4% of GDP in the other OECD countries.
But by 2002 U.S. corporate income taxes had dropped to 1.6% of GDP, while corporate income taxes in the other OECD countries had risen to 3.0% of GDP.
In 2003, U.S. corporate taxes fell to only 1.5% of our GDP.

http://www.ctj.org/html/oecd05.htm

Corporate America has long been dodging their fare share of income tax. To say otherwise is ludicrous.

[SlipperySlope]

4. Are they still liberal?

Is it just this one thing, or other things?

[DBoon]

5. as long as corporations are given the rights of individuals

they should be taxed as individuals.

Maybe it's time to get rid of the fiction of corporate personhood? And maybe stop applying the first ten amendments of the constitution to these fictitious "persons"?

[BlueJac]

6. Yes I hear you .....the Oil Companies are really hurt from the high taxes

and their insane profit margins

[TahitiNut]

7. Wages and salaries are DEDUCTIBLE!

(Fucking insane!!) :grr: :grr: When corporate tax income rates are reduced, corporations reduce labor costs!

[elehhhhna]

8. Nationalize Health care and Business's problems will be solved

somewhat.

[dcfirefighter]

9. The job killer is the payroll tax

repeal that, and pay for MC/SS from somewhere else
7% and change each to the worker, and to the company.
Makes employing Americans 15% cheaper - think that'll make a difference? I do. Even if the demand for labor is relatively inelastic, it should mean at least 5% more jobs, or 7.5 million - slightly more than currently on the unemployment rolls.

I suggest paying for SS out of Federal rentals: FCC licenses, mining rights, pollution taxes, fishing rights, etc.

I suggest paying for MC by switching to a swiss-style universal healthcare program, and paying the costs out of general revenue.

As for the corporate tax, I think that (ideally) there shouldn't be any per se, however corporations would have to pay property taxes (though there should be no tax on buildings or machines), pollution taxes, as well as paying for their corporate liability charter. Of course in the absense of these other taxes, they should just keep paying their corporate tax.

A property tax against land values is economically neutral, perhaps beneficial, by encouraging the conservation of land. The concentration of wealth in the US is staggeringly skewed, with the top 1% of individuals and corporations owning a disproportionate share. A simple tax of a fixed percent of land value would be incredibly progressive.

[mcscajun]

10. Go ahead...repeal the corporate tax. I'll have No Problem with it.

So long as in the very same bill, they push the individual income tax on the highest incomes back to the levels they were at prior to 1964.

The top tax rate before 1964 was 91%. Between 1964-1967 the top tax rate stood at 70%; 1967-1971 were "transition" years, where the top rate fluctuated between 75-70%; 1972-1981 were the "exclusion" years, when a 50% "income exclusion" from the top rate of 70% reduced its impact. 1982-1986 brought a top rate of 50% with a 60% "exclusion"; 1987 brought the famed 38.5% maxiumum, followed the next year (1988) by the drop to 28% (with a 33% impact on "realized gains"). Under Clinton, the top rates had started to creep back up again; 31% in 1992 and 39.6 percent in 1993.

I think we have plenty of room for further increases.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html
http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/TaxTimeline.htm

[applegrove]

11. A national health care plan based on shared risk through generations

would do the same. And provide preventive health care instead of the more expensive emergency operations & chronic illnesses that private health care & those with no insurance cause.

[iconoclastNYC]

12. Sure...repeal the minium wage, repeal environmental laws.

Keep repealing laws until the USA is as business friendly as China!

If we don't we'll lose all our jobs.

Barf!