The Tax Resources Blog

Archive for May, 2004

Highest Income Tax World

Question: Why do right wingers complain about the Corporate Tax rate when most corporations pay no taxes?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080812/ap_on_bi_ge/corporations_income_tax

I know we have the second highest Corporate Tax rate in the industrialized world, but isn’t the tax rate irrelevant if nobody pays it?
gcb- I wonder if you read the article:

“More than 38,000 foreign corporations had No Tax Liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said.”
Edit: Bryan- I agree.

Answer: I found this story disturbing, but at the same time completely lacking in facts to make an adequate determination of why they didn’t pay. My answer is this. I do not support corporate welfare and I never have. Remove the tax incentives. Revamp and simplify the Tax Code to remove the loop-holes. You know there is a problem when most experts in tax law say that they cannot even properly understand the Tax Code. Additionally, I do not ever see Democrats proposing Tax Code reform. The standard Democratic answer is tax them more. So I refer back to your statement which cuts both ways. “I know we have the second highest Corporate Tax rate in the industrialized world, but isn’t the tax rate irrelevant if nobody pays it?”

Why we pay income tax