President Barack Obama’s corporate- tax framework
unveiled Wednesday, recognizes that the U.S. tax code desperately needs a spring cleaning. There are too many loopholes, deductions, subsidies, allowances and special rules.
The 35 percent statutory rate is also too high, especially because most companies have figured out how not to pay it, and most countries have dropped their rates below the U.S.’s.
We agree it’s time to lower the marginal rate, conceivably to 25 percent -- lower than Obama’s proposed 28 percent -- which is about where it stood after the last tax reform 25 years ago. Obama’s proposal goes a long way toward streamlining the code and broadening the base of tax-paying corporations, but it contains some obvious flaws and comes up short in a few areas. Luckily, there’s time to fix it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/obama-s-plan-for-corporate-tax-overhaul-could-be-fairer-and-simpler-view.html