Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The corporate tax "shell game"
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/23/news/economy/corporate_tax_rate_reduction/index.htmLower the top corporate tax rate of 35% and make up for the lost federal revenue by reducing the number of business tax breaks -- especially those much maligned and ill-defined "loopholes" carved out by corporate lobbyists.
The Republicans advocate for it. And now the White House is proposing it.
There's just one small problem. If you want to lower the top rate to 25%, as House Republicans want, or 28%, as President Obama wants, you can't pay for it simply by cutting some business tax breaks, or even "dozens" as the president recommends.
"A lot of people in this town are playing a shell game," said Eric Toder, co--director of the Tax Policy Center.
Indeed, to reduce the top rate of 35% to 28% in a way that is "revenue neutral" -- meaning it doesn't add to the deficit -- would require eliminating all major business tax credits and deductions, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. And the JCT said even then it would not necessarily stay revenue neutral after the first 10 years.
The Republicans advocate for it. And now the White House is proposing it.
There's just one small problem. If you want to lower the top rate to 25%, as House Republicans want, or 28%, as President Obama wants, you can't pay for it simply by cutting some business tax breaks, or even "dozens" as the president recommends.
"A lot of people in this town are playing a shell game," said Eric Toder, co--director of the Tax Policy Center.
Indeed, to reduce the top rate of 35% to 28% in a way that is "revenue neutral" -- meaning it doesn't add to the deficit -- would require eliminating all major business tax credits and deductions, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. And the JCT said even then it would not necessarily stay revenue neutral after the first 10 years.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
3 replies, 1154 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (1)
ReplyReply to this post
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The corporate tax "shell game" (Original Post)
antigop
Feb 2012
OP
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)1. Why, why, why, why is Obama lowering the corporate tax rate??
Are we using Iceland as an economic model?
RC
(25,592 posts)3. Taxes are too high!
Translation: There are still taxes.
Maybe if we stopped our Middle East aggression, war mongering and Colonialism, we could learn to live within our means with the low tax structure we have now.
Until then Raise the Damn Taxes to something sensible, until we pay off the debt! We need to repair THIS country first.
WE are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the world in everything from transportation to communications to education to health care to living standards to quality of life even.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)2. If Obama lowered the Corp. tax rate to 0%, gave them all the breaks that could be thought up,
reduced the tax rate to billionaires and millionaires to 0% ...
John Boner would still call a press conference and say it didn't go "far enough" and that it would be a "job-killer".