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To: Zakeet

Getting rid of tax bennies like the corporate jet tax bennie - otherwise known as the no-millionaire-without-a-jet-bennie - is not a quote-unquote “tax increase” regardless of the fact that it would probably increase some revenue. It is removing distortions and inefficiencies in the tax code that are, by and large, arbitraged by individuals who either would have engaged in the activity in question anyways - i.e., didn’t need the incentive of a tax bennie - or else engage in uneconomic activities for the sake of capturing the tax bennie - i.e., engaging in distortionary activity.

Most of those items on the list included in the post here on FR - tax bennies on corporate jets, corporate yachts, ethanol production (also known as the starve-a-third-world-kid tax credit) - are stupid, distortionary tax bennies that should be gotten rid of in any event. The class of tax bennies for “the largest oil and gas companies” is too nebulous to weigh one way or the other (e.g., if it’s a matter of getting rid of the depletion allowances for oil fields, that is just silly talk; if it’s some sort of other tax credit, that may be something to get rid of).

In fact, the complaining shouldn’t be that these items are on the cutting block, it should be that plenty of other items, like the R&D tax credit - as well as the so-called green credits that a-holes like Al Gore are merrily milking for their own private gain - are not on the chopping block.


41 posted on 07/06/2011 2:02:07 PM PDT by Oceander (The phrase "good enough for government work" is not meant as a compliment)
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To: Oceander
Good post. I agree with everything except your position on the R&D tax credit.

It has been demonstrated empirically that corporate R&D has large spillover effects not captured by the corporation funding it. As a result, without some subsidy, corporations will tend to underinvest in R&D. The tax credit is one way of correcting this problem.

In some sense, we do have a revenue problem, in that we don't have sufficient economic growth. Economic growth, in turn, is mostly driven by innovation. Hence creating incentives for innovation, such as with the R&D tax credit, should be at the top of the conservative agenda.

Of course, there are other ways to consider as well.

44 posted on 07/06/2011 2:11:36 PM PDT by curiosity
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