So, Mr. & Mrs. Hard Working US Citizen, how does this make you feel when you hear that BIG BUSINESS, like Exxon, Google, and Microsoft escape (or virtually escape) paying their fair share in US corporate tax by incorporating in the Cayman Islands or Ireland? Don’t you feel it is high time for these dead loads to pull their weight? Or, are taxes truly the burden of the little people?
I think businesses should pay no taxes.
I think people should pay taxes on the income (including all capital gains) they get from those businesses.
I also think there should be no death taxes.
I also think all inherited wealth should be taxed as income.
Yes. Corporations don’t care about nation states. All they want to do is suck money from the workers while maximizing the return to their shareholders and executives. Its called capitalism.
Personally, I think it is fantastic.
Microsoft is incorporated in the State of Washington.
Exxon Mobil is incorporated in the State of New Jersey, and headquartered in the State of Texas.
Google is incorporated in the State of California.
I would suggest that if you think this is a significant problem you might want to come up with some real examples.
Don’t your last 2 statements contradict?
They do.
I would also ask why he/she is in favor of taxing the income twice.
If I earn money as income, I pay taxes on it. I may or may not decide to spend it, and save it for my children. If I decide to do the latter, why should the government get a swipe at it again? They’ve already taxed it.
That’s the same, by the way, with corporate dividends.
In your example they are taxing your children, not you. More importantly, money gets taxed twice all the time (eg. Income tax and sales tax).
Shame on you! Don’t you realize that the upper echelons of corporate governance in America is largely populated by patriotic Republicans? They would rush to pay more taxes, do their part to support our heroes, and all that good stuff. But the liberals won’t let them.
I find myself in violent agreement. I think we should also eliminate sales and property taxes.
I know it gets taxed twice all of the time.
That’s bad. That’s a bad thing. The fact that it happens already is not justification for continuing to do it.
And I don’t understand your “not taxing you, taxing your children” line. Income was earned. It was taxed. I made a voluntary decision not to consume, and instead decided to transfer the after-tax wealth to someone else.
So why does the government have the right to step in and take another swipe at that pile of wealth? Simply because I chose not to consume, and instead chose to save and invest?
Are you implying that if I make a good salary, pay income taxes on it, and then hire a gardener to take care of my yard, that the government should not collect tax on what I pay him?
No, at least in my opinion. This in my mind is different as dividends are payouts on an investment. But I do think that we should eliminate corporate taxes and just tax individuals on the income they derive in dividends or salary from said the corporations. This would also potentially make an end run around the whole corporations are people with all the associated rights bullshit.
Because the government didn’t tax you when you had the money. They taxed your children when they received the money.
Suppose you collect your salary and pay income tax. You make a lot of money so you hire a butler. Are you saying that his income shouldn’t be taxed because you already paid the tax on that money when you received it as income?
P1. Not really. The income tax is baked into the supply/demand equation of employing someone. If the gardener’s service is worth $10 to you, and you’re willing to pay $10 for it, and it’s worth $9 to him to do it, and the gubmint decides to take 10% in the middle, then the transaction will occur. If the gubmint decides to take 50% of his income, but you aren’t willing to pay more than $10, and he isn’t willing to take $5, then the transaction will not occur.
But I think your question gets into a broader philosophical question about where the government has a right to step in and say “Hey, I get a piece of that”.
There are income taxes. There are payroll taxes. There are sales (consumption) taxes. There are taxes on wealth and property.
I personally find the inheritance tax extremely distasteful. You may disagree.
I am choosing to go without in the present, and avoid consumption with my after-tax dollars, to give my children a leg up in the world as much as I possibly can. Primarily, by helping them save for their education, and perhaps to start their own families.
For the government to step in and say “Nope, I get some of that” when they’ve already taxed it, is infuriating to me. So now I spend some more of my money setting up trusts and other vehicles to shield them from that as best as possible.
P2. I pretty much agree with this.
I have a hard time with the whole inheritance tax thing. On the one hand I see your point: if on my death I transfer my wealth to my kids (whether that wealth is in the form of a box of baseball cards, a mid-sized house in the city, or in 10,000 shares of AT&T), I don’t see why the government should treat the assets differently. When viewed from this perspective, inheritance taxes are clearly wrong to my mind. But there are just so many problems with how capital gains are treated today that inheritance taxes are almost necessary. The whole thing where the basis is reset when stocks are willed is just wrong and the paltry 15% capital gains rate is almost criminal. That I, who works hard 40-60 hours a week pays a larger share of my income in taxes than my uncle who lives on the dividends of the investments his parents made strikes me as unfair. And while I understand that there is “double taxation because the companies are also paying taxes”, many corporations in America pay very low taxes or even no taxes at all because of the convoluted tax structures we have in this country.
I would be willing to give up taxing inheritance tax as income if we would just clean up the whole capital gains thing.
Corporations do NOT pay taxes anyway. The burden is split between consumers, employees, and shareholders. A corporate tax is nothing more than a tax on yourself.
It kinda makes people, the human being kind, the slaves of corporations, the real people according to the USSC in Citizens United. Government is already run for the benefit of the economy in large part, and that economy benefits large businesses and the very wealthy first and foremost. Why they are not required to pay taxes is because they have all the power. It’s facism pure and simple.
I just don’t understand the whole inheritance tax controversy. It’s income. Why should I pay taxes on the money I receive because I work a job and somebody else should receive their money untaxed because they inherited it? And I’d ask the same question about people who receive their money from investments.
Of course, I do understand what’s going on. Look at the people who inherit money and the people who collect stock dividends and the people who collect wages. Which group has the least political influence? The people who work are supporting the people who are wealthy.
Okay, there’s probably never been a time in history when the wealthy didn’t have a disproportinate share of political power. But they use to have to at least struggle for it. I’m amazed that we’ve now got a system where the people who aren’t wealthy are arguing we should be giving money to the wealthy. We’ve become serfs who are demanded the nobles take more from us.
Nope. Once you die, you shouldn’t have any additional taxes on money you’ve already paid taxes on. No death taxes. If you leave a billion dollar estate, fine – no taxes on that estate.
If you leave it to charity, foundation, whatever, no taxes.
If you list 100,000 people who each get 10,000 from that estate, fine. Each of them adds the $10K to their income and pays the appropriate tax. If they have no other income, then they might not owe any taxes at all on it. The person receiving the money pays any taxes as income regardless of how that money came to them.
If you hire someone and pay that person $1B, they would have to pay taxes on that as income. If you pay that money to a friend for no work, or to a child just for being your child, I’d just treat it all the same. It is income for that person.
Tax money only when it moves from person to person. I don’t think anyone should get a break just because they were born into a rich family.
Likewise for businesses. Don’t tax them at all. Just tax the money when it comes out of the business into someone’s pocket. If it just stays in the business doing good for the economy or just sitting under the business’ mattress, fine. Just leave it there. It only gets taxed once someone receives that money.