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Yes, if we eliminated corporate taxes we would need to raise individual taxes in order to maintain government revenue.

But we could do so in a way that was:

A) Far more efficient - The deadweight loss of corporate taxes is higher than individual taxes. Corporate taxes are crazy complicated by necessity and lead to all sorts of crazy behaviors.

B) More fair - A millionaire should pay higher taxes on his profits from stock ownership than a middle class person. When a corporation pays its taxes those two people are taxed at the same rate.



A sister poster suggests offsetting with higher cap gains, which could be a component of what you're suggesting and I could see how that would work as a concept, but I have issue with pragmatism within the US. As far as I understand it, didn't both the prior tax holiday come essentially in isolation of balancing factors, alongside a broader tax plan that de-emphesized the higher tax brackets and cap gains? (and from a brief reading, seems to have added a significant amount to the national debt via lost tax revenue, during a period of drastically increasing inequality) This was my original concern when posting earlier, that I haven't seen a history of positive outcomes, or strategies that offset like you're suggesting.


Oh I agree with you - the current tax holiday plan is just a dramatic wealth transfer from the rich to the poor. In an increasingly globalized environment, trickle down economic gains are diffused over investors all over the world. The current Republican tax plan has a 1950's era view of the world. With the current proposal, the only way to sustain the middle class is to close our border and become more nativistic - which is what happening.


I agree that a "tax holiday" is a bad plan. I also agree that from a political standpoint my plan might be unworkable. I think it's a good plan from an economic standpoint though.




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