Yes, individuals can save on taxes, but can most of us get an effective tax rate of 1%? And, many of the common deductions (mortgage interest, charitable deductions, tuition) all have caps. I don't believe there's a cap on a corporation carrying forward losses from year to year.
There was a 20-year cap on corporations carrying forward losses.I had clients that actually timed-out on using carried-forward losses because they had insufficient profits to use their losses against. However, since 2017, losses can be carried forward indefinitely, but in any given year may only offset up to 80% of taxable income. (As a result of the CARES Act, losses between 2018 and 2021 are not subject to the 80% limitation.)
There are section 382 limitations on losses of acquired companies. (In a nutshell, the idea is to discourage a company from being acquired so that the acquirer can use those losses to offset their own taxable profits.)
There are other limitations on loss carrying as well but they tend to be pretty esoteric.
Yes, individuals can save on taxes, but can most of us get an effective tax rate of 1%?
Yes, you can get a 0% (combined tax rate) as an individual if your income is primarily municipal bonds or other tax-free government bonds, even before taking into account deductions. And wage-earners can get single-digit combined tax rates if they are below the poverty line (the exact threshold varies from state to state).
When you want to tax high-income people at a higher rate, have the courage and forthrightness to simply raise their rate; don't do it via the backdoor complexity of phaseouts.
It’s not like individuals don’t have mechanisms to save on taxes.