“In making their case, corporate executives decry the U.S.’s 35% corporate tax rate claiming it is the highest in the world and makes their businesses uncompetitive globally. The evidence suggests otherwise. Corporate profits are at a 60-year high, while corporate taxes are near a 60-year low. U.S. stock markets are at record levels, and American CEOs are paid far more than executives who run firms of similar size in other nations. Many U.S. corporations pay a higher tax rate to foreign governments than they do here at home.”
“Eliminating the United States’ corporate income tax produces rapid and dramatic increases in American investment, output and real wages, making the tax cut self-financing to a significant extent. Somewhat smaller gains arise from revenue-neutral corporate tax base broadening, specifically cutting the corporate tax rate to 9 percent and eliminating all corporate tax loopholes.”
One of the most enduring myths in Washington D.C. is that if we cut taxes on corporate profits, job creation will follow.
U.S. corporations have been reporting record profits, even as they pay the lowest levels of federal income taxes in half a century. Large corporations pay, onaverage, just 12.6 percent of their profits in federal income taxes, yet we continue to have nearly 11 million Americans unemployed half of them for more than sixmonths.
When corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes, others must pick up their share of the cost of government.
In the 1950s, corporate income taxes paid nearly a third of the federal government’s bills; in 2012, corporate income taxes accounted for less than a tenth of federal government receipts. As corporate taxes as a share of government tax receipts has shrunk, individual income and payroll taxes have risen steadily. So has the budget deficit.
Applying this historical comparison, the easiest implication to draw is that corporations have excelled at evading paying taxes, by utilizing legions of tax attorneys, CPA accountants, political lobbyists and campaign donation operatives. However, the federal government has continued to function with outrageous tax deficits as a matter of course within modern memory. Consequently, tax policy does not operate as a means to secure revenue to balance out government expenditures.
“Corporations are not people and should not enjoy the protections of constitutional personhood. However, the corporate tax rates needs to reflect the commitment to rebuild America. In the end, the consumer pays the tax.”
This erroneous legal cover facilitates the great race among corporate titans that avoids public responsibilities as they acquire their lesser competitors and consolidate into “Too Big to Fail” operations. The most aggressive managements create the tax loopholes, which tailor regulations, specifically designed and legally framed to apply to their own businesses, while often marginalizing rivals within their own industry or service enterprises.
“The craze to legislate, regulate and codify every facet of human conduct, while exempting corporations from public sanctions for the most egregious conduct, is only possible because the law officiates as a silent partner in the boardroom of a criminal syndicate. Admiralty Law functions as the corporate arbitrator for rigged exchanges, destructive trade treaties and capitalist dictators. Citizens are sacrificial lambs on the altar of “TC” conformity and compliance. As practiced in America, the corporation reigns supreme and the law protects State Capitalism at the expense of ordinary people.”
James Hall – April 9, 2014
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