Corporate tax declines and U.S. inequality

[Joanne98]

Over the last 60 years, the U.S. tax code has dramatically shifted away from corporate taxes and toward taxes on individuals, especially through the payroll tax, the financing backbone of Social Security and Medicare. In the 1950s, the corporate income tax brought in, on average, one of every four dollars in federal tax revenues. By the 2000s, however, it raised just one of every 10 tax dollars.

The shrinking share of corporate taxes was made up by an increase in payroll taxes to fund social insurance and retirement programs. Excise and other taxes—such as fuel taxes, phone taxes, etc.—shrank as well over the last 60 years, while the individual federal income tax rose slightly, from an average of 43% of total federal revenue in the 1950s to 46% in the 2000s (see chart).
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080409

[flashl]

1. K&R

[sugerdady87]

2. corporate tax

The corporate tax is a tax on individuals

[tblue37]

3. About 1/4 of my income comes from self-emplyment, which means, of

course, that I pay double in SS taxes on that income, since I pay both the employer's share and the employee's share. As a result, I lose to taxes about 40% of everything I earn as a self-employed person. I don't make that much money, but I pay a very large chunk of it in taxes, so it really pisses me off that these multibillion dollar corporations that achieve obscene windfall profits by shipping jobs overseas to exploit starving laborers in developing countries are also able to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

[tblue37]

4. Oh, and K&R. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

5. corporations have options that individuals don't . . .

if they don't like their tax rates, they can always move their headquarters to some foreign country, with no apparently no penalty whatsoever . . . individuals generally aren't able to do that . . .

[fed-up]

6. k/r nt