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Tax Reform Should Begin With Eliminating Corporate Taxes
IBD ^ | 03/18/2014 | LAURENCE J. KOTLIKOFF

Posted on 03/19/2014 7:20:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

My daydream is to lock all members of Congress and the president in a classroom with a big whiteboard and not let them out until they can pass a basic test in public finance. The first thing I'd teach them about is tax incidence — who really bears the burden of a tax.

Our politicians seem to think the burden of taxes falls on those who they require to pay, as in remit or transmit or hand over or submit or mail in, the tax. This is entirely off base. Who bears the burden of (is hurt by) a tax has nothing to do with who physically delivers the payment to the government or how it's delivered.

Suppose, for example, apples are selling for $1.00 each and the government passes a law requiring apple producers to pay a 10-cent tax on each apple they sell. Also suppose that the folks buying apples are very keen on continuing to buy as many apples as they did before, even if it means paying $1.10 per apple.

In this case, the apple tax will result in a market price of $1.10 per apple, leaving the sellers netting $1.00 ($1.10 less 10 cents) per apple.

Yes, the sellers will collect the tax and deliver it to the tax authorities. But because they receive, on net, the same amount per apple, they are no worse off. The buyers, in contrast, are worse off, since they end up buying the same number of apples, but at the higher price.

So a tax that the government says and thinks is falling entirely on apple sellers ends up falling entirely on apple demanders — i.e., buyers.

Our politicians never publicly discuss tax incidence, so one must presume that they have little or no understanding of this critical issue.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corporatetax; tax; taxes; taxreform
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1 posted on 03/19/2014 7:20:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

A political non-starter, as the average voter is too stoooooopid to realize that corporations actually NEVER PAY any taxes.


2 posted on 03/19/2014 7:25:04 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

No, eliminate the income tax, is the first thing to do.


3 posted on 03/19/2014 7:25:08 AM PDT by Politically Correct (A member of the rabble in good standing)
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To: SeekAndFind

Is true, the politicians don’t understand or do they? When taxes are increased on businesses, the businesses has to pass the increased taxes onto consumers of their service or product. The businesses would soon be out of business if the businesses did not. Simple economics but politicians never understand or do they?


4 posted on 03/19/2014 7:25:52 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: SeekAndFind
It's not confined to Congress/Washington, though.

Look at the (alleged) popularity of the $15/hr minimum wage for Wendy McBurgerking.

I'll bet half of the folks supporting it think it will come out of the corporate slush fund (all corps have them, you know), and won't raise the price one bit.

5 posted on 03/19/2014 7:26:14 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a logical solution.

PEOPLE pay taxes, corporate taxes is just a means to double tax the same earnings.


6 posted on 03/19/2014 7:26:59 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the final analysis, corporate taxes are actually hidden sales taxes whose costs are ultimately filtered down to the users of services and products provided by corporations. That, of course, is YOU...the consumer.

The liberals think they are punishing those big bad evil corporations with higher taxes. But it is the little guy who gets hit hardest when taxes are raised on corporations.


7 posted on 03/19/2014 7:27:45 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: Izzy Dunne

increasing minimum wage is a political play much like eeeeeevil republicans want to make grandma eat cat food.


8 posted on 03/19/2014 7:28:05 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: SeekAndFind
I think the reality of an increasing tax burden is more complicated than ‘the end user bears the cost’. In reality, demand is rarely as inelastic as the writer seems to suggest from the apple example.

End users have a limited amount of resources upon which to draw from. At some point, they (we) are forced to reduce spending in other areas to pay for the increased cost of goods and services. This alone (in this example) can have the tendency of actually reducing tax revenues - this is well-demonstrated in a number of examples.

Unfortunately, this deception gets played out every time some liberal wants to punish some sector of the economy. Whether it be insurance, oil companies, automobile manufacturers or tobacco firms, We The Sheeple get told that we're gonna make them pay for their (real or imagined) sins - and we shout and cheer, never admitting that it's not going to cost them much in the long run, but us.

And when prices do go up year-over-year (for any reason, not just from tax burden related causes), the government aids and abets the deception by manipulating the Consumer Price Index. Instead of using equivalent prices on goods and services, the formulas ‘presume’ that consumers will shift to less-expensive alternatives when prices spike on a particular commodity.

That's all well and good - many of us do just that - but more and more people have already shifted to the alternatives, and as a rising tide lifts all ships, so do rising commodity prices affect both the commodity itself but also the alternatives, leaving consumers holding the bag once again.

It's no wonder that people feel that the cost of living goes up much more than what the CPI indicates - it's because it has.

9 posted on 03/19/2014 7:40:06 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (Liars use facts when the truth doesn't suit their purposes.)
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To: Politically Correct

All taxes should be on spending not income. There should be no corporate welfare, no corporate political spending, and no corporate tax on profits.


10 posted on 03/19/2014 7:42:27 AM PDT by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
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To: SeekAndFind

As long as corporate welfare ends at the same time


11 posted on 03/19/2014 7:47:14 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: no-to-illegals

The politicians understand that people are stupid


12 posted on 03/19/2014 7:48:39 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: GeronL

and the politicians do understand that by dividing the People the politicians will win their precious battle to enslave us. Vicious circles where too few know the truth or are unwilling to learn the truth, thus we have today and perhaps tomorrow of more tyranny and less of what made America great.... maybe. At this time ... I still believe in America and the American People (paraphrasing President Reagan) but Should the People prove me wrong ... it will be the People’s choice to place themselves in chains.


13 posted on 03/19/2014 7:55:38 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: no-to-illegals

Americans have been too dumbed down to make rational choices


14 posted on 03/19/2014 7:59:00 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: GeronL

Then we shall accept our chains till We the People make our attempt to break those chains. It is the rule of the jungle on this planet ... People never understand what they have till it is gone. Some will remember as the chains are placed upon the People. Some will teach their children the truth and maybe once more eventually the People or their Children or Grandchildren will once more rise to take back what was lost. May there always be Freedom and Justice though I too agree ... Freedom and Justice are being lost.


15 posted on 03/19/2014 8:03:45 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

yes...so people are being taxed on all items they buy plus on their incomes, plus on the cars, homes....it is almost slavery to the bureaucratic feds and states. This will end.


16 posted on 03/19/2014 8:06:00 AM PDT by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: Taxman

Fair Tax Ping.


17 posted on 03/19/2014 8:06:14 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: SeekAndFind

bump


18 posted on 03/19/2014 8:11:15 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator ( 2+2 = V)
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To: SeekAndFind

So reduce the corporat tax to zero and the price of your apple will be...$1.10 with an additional 10% added to their profits.


19 posted on 03/19/2014 8:15:10 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: SeekAndFind

It is the people who toil who pay all the taxes. (Quoted from memory.)—Calvin Coolidge

“The rich” pay their taxes by changing their economic decisions. Corporations, same thing. All taxes are actually paid by people who actually toil for a living.


20 posted on 03/19/2014 8:20:30 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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