AMERICAblog: A few words on McCain's corporate tax talk
sukabi1
· 1 year ago
Chris, what do you know about McCain's proposed "2 tax rates" schtick that he pulled last night... it was something about throwing out the current tax code and just having 2 rates... he didn't give any detail (not surprising) and said some nonsense about we could try it for a while and give folks a choice and if they didn't like it then we'd go back...
sounded like a load of crap to me, not any kind of plan ... just a couple of random thoughts... and a recipe for failure..
I'd go look at his campaign site, but I've got an aversion to "crotchedy old men"... so what do you know about it? or is it a new "talking point" that he was trying out last night?
The rate may be 35% but with loopholes many companies pay $0. The GAO released a report in July:
the GAO study indicated that most corporations owed no taxes from 1996 to 2000, a boom period for corporate profits.
Those untaxed corporations earned $3.5 trillion of revenues.
The GAO study found that 71 percent of foreign-controlled corporations operating in the United States paid no taxes in those five years; nor did 61 percent of US-controlled companies.
The basic corporate tax rate stands officially at 35 percent. In reality, it's far below that for most companies. And the importance of corporate tax revenues for Uncle Sam has shrunk. That's shown by the numbers.
Corporate taxes have fallen from 5 percent of gross domestic product, the nation's output of goods and services, in 1946 to 1.4 percent now.
you know it would be handy and informative to have a chart of US and foreign corporations with listings of who did and didn't pay taxes, how much was paid in actual dollar amount and tax rate and another column added that showed how much government money they RECEIVED in the form of grants, bailouts and other special programs.
FauxReal
· 1 year ago
Here's a link to the :PDF of the GAO Report. It doesn't list specific companies.
With regard to those 2 tax rates, McCain said this when he spoke to a small business group in June:
McCain's tax proposal was the most drastic of the pro-business policies he mapped out Tuesday in a speech at the National Federation of Small Business' annual summit in Washington, D.C. McCain hopes to introduce a new, opt-in tax system with two rates and a "generous" standard deduction. Individuals would have the choice of filing under either the old or new system.
"What we need is a simpler, flatter and fairer tax code," McCain said.
McCain also pledged to keep income and investment tax rates low, and to reduce the corporate tax rate. He would further cut business taxes by allowing first-year expensing of new technology equipment purchases
sukabi1
· 1 year ago
thanks... there still isn't any detail... and sounds like a typical Republican scam...
and you can currently claim a full depreciation (don't have to stretch it out over several years) in the first year of your business purchases on equipment and computers... so that's nothing "new"
ekwhite
· 1 year ago
I say great - let's cut our corporate tax rate to 12.5% WITH NO LOOPHOLES. Watch the Chamber of Commerce go ballistic over the proposal.
vwcat
· 1 year ago
I have heard that one reason that companies are leaving here is not the tax rate or anything like that. It's health care. Since most large employers usually offer health care and it was pretty standard for companies for many years and with the costs getting so out of control, the only way they get out of the high cost is to leave. I don't know if it's true but, it seems to ring right to me. The health care insurance for employees are getting so prohibitive that many companies are getting nailed really hard with the out of control price and that actually, many would be welcome universal health care as it's eating up alot of profits. Midsize companies are drowning from the cost of it. I've heard that companies have said they would stay if there was health care like other countries and that is what is really driving them away much more then wages.
LKN
· 1 year ago
It's misleading when the candidates talk about another counry's low corporate tax rate without comparing the TOTAL tax systems of countries. Ireland, I believe has a value added tax that partially replaces the corporate tax. The benefit of this kind of tax is that it is added to imports (acting like a tariff - imagine how our multinationals would scream at a value added tax on their products from China!) and deducted from exports. Ireland also has universal health care and fully funded education.
Whenever candidates talk about low corporate tax oversees, make them compare total tax systems!
nipsop
· 1 year ago
McCain has stated, although not at the same time, that he will extend GWB's tax cuts, add about $800 billion of his own, put a spending freeze on gov spending (except defense and veterans) and balance the budget by 2013.
Someone in the mainstream press should ask him how this will be accomplished since the interest on the debt will be higher than defense spending.
All Comments
sounded like a load of crap to me, not any kind of plan ... just a couple of random thoughts... and a recipe for failure..
I'd go look at his campaign site, but I've got an aversion to "crotchedy old men"... so what do you know about it? or is it a new "talking point" that he was trying out last night?
the GAO study indicated that most corporations owed no taxes from 1996 to 2000, a boom period for corporate profits.
Those untaxed corporations earned $3.5 trillion of revenues.
The GAO study found that 71 percent of foreign-controlled corporations operating in the United States paid no taxes in those five years; nor did 61 percent of US-controlled companies.
The basic corporate tax rate stands officially at 35 percent. In reality, it's far below that for most companies. And the importance of corporate tax revenues for Uncle Sam has shrunk. That's shown by the numbers.
Corporate taxes have fallen from 5 percent of gross domestic product, the nation's output of goods and services, in 1946 to 1.4 percent now.
As a percentage of all federal tax revenues, corporate tax payments have declined from 23 percent in 1960 to 13 percent in 1980 and 8 percent today.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0419/p16s03-cogn....
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08957.pdf
McCain's tax proposal was the most drastic of the pro-business policies he mapped out Tuesday in a speech at the National Federation of Small Business' annual summit in Washington, D.C. McCain hopes to introduce a new, opt-in tax system with two rates and a "generous" standard deduction. Individuals would have the choice of filing under either the old or new system.
"What we need is a simpler, flatter and fairer tax code," McCain said.
McCain also pledged to keep income and investment tax rates low, and to reduce the corporate tax rate. He would further cut business taxes by allowing first-year expensing of new technology equipment purchases
and you can currently claim a full depreciation (don't have to stretch it out over several years) in the first year of your business purchases on equipment and computers... so that's nothing "new"
I don't know if it's true but, it seems to ring right to me.
The health care insurance for employees are getting so prohibitive that many companies are getting nailed really hard with the out of control price and that actually, many would be welcome universal health care as it's eating up alot of profits.
Midsize companies are drowning from the cost of it.
I've heard that companies have said they would stay if there was health care like other countries and that is what is really driving them away much more then wages.
Whenever candidates talk about low corporate tax oversees, make them compare total tax systems!
Someone in the mainstream press should ask him how this will be accomplished since the interest on the debt will be higher than defense spending.