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0 pointsbearjaws8y ago0 comments

It raises very little money due to how many loop holes are deliberately left in our tax code.

Adding a tax to the middle class without a corresponding raise in income will result in economic downturn, especially since we are increasing interest rates on an already debt-burdened middle class.

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rayiner8y ago· 2 in thread

It's not a "loop hole" if its a purposeful design. Countries make the deliberate decision to tax individuals instead of corporations because its easier (and related decisions like taxing capital gains at lower rates). Even countries like Sweden focus taxation on the middle class, with lower corporate taxes and a much less progressive tax structure than the U.S., because it's easier. It's a deliberate fiscal policy.

bearjawsOP8y ago

Oh so its "purposeful" that corporations in the US move their money through 3 different nations to avoid paying taxes?

All 3 nations got together and decided that was the best way to go about it?

That makes sense.

Also the effective corporate tax rate in Sweden is almost double that of the rate Google paid. Claiming that Western European countries pay less in taxes is naive, as their corporations have far fewer loop holes to lower their tax rate.

Maybe if American corporations actually paid the rate they are supposed to we would have a high tax rate, but very few large corporations do.

rayiner8y ago

Now you're changing the subject. Is your point that loop holes exist (which I don't dispute), or that loop holes are the reason why corporate taxes don't raise much money (which is wrong)? Those are two different points.

Google's 11% tax rate probably is the result of loop holes. But most companies don't deal in bits and IP that can be moved around to take advantage of international arbitrage. Walmart pays 29% taxes.

The result is that even accounting for Googles, our effective tax rate is high compared to European countries: https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the... (see the second chart). 18.6% versus 11.2% for France.

"Republican tax policy" will bring that down somewhat. But corporate income taxes only bring in 9% of revenue. Even if you doubled them they'd be only 18% of revenue. But your effective tax rate would be more than triple that of France.

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