Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by etchalon on Sunday February 23, 2025 @03:04AM
(#43147603)
Corporate income tax exists because S-corps have legally distinct income. If you set that rate to 0, there would be nothing stopping everyone from forming an S corp, transacting solely via that S corp, and evading massive amounts of tax.
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by kelnos on Sunday February 23, 2025 @04:38AM
(#43148073)
That's not how taxes work, though. By the time a corporation pays taxes, employees have already been paid, and that's a business expense that hasn't been taxed.
Ironically, if you reduce employee salaries or benefits, then you will have lower expenses, and thus a larger amount of profits you have to pay taxes on (regardless of the tax rate).
I do agree that corporate tax should be progressive, though, just like personal income taxes are. Corporate taxes used to be progressive, but Trump and the GOP changed that in 2017.
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by mdnahas on Sunday February 23, 2025 @09:49AM
(#43149615)
Former quant, current economist here.
One policy economists of all stripes agree on is having 0 tax on corporations. We should tax the profits when they show up in the owner’s income. Otherwise, you are taxing owners who are poor.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/07/19/157047211/six-...
If you run a corporation, and a larger tax bill comes, you will keep your own salary (hence, wealth) and either pass the tax onto your employees or cut employee benefits/jobs to afford the tax.
With corporate tax in effect what you are doing is handing the responsibility of allocating obligations to the owners/controllers of the corporation. They will definitely choose to pay the tax in a regressive manner.
Instead what must be done is a progressive income tax, enforced evenly, even for owners of corporations. Unsurprisingly, what we are seeing today is an immense tax cut for high earners.