Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
I just linked to the doc I saw the stats referenced from...I didn't read the entire thing.
It's perfectly fair to ask how tax revenue is being used. I think we'd all agree that if Congress was more careful with our money they'd need less of it.
But the point of it all is that the US doesn't seem to be that out of line when it comes to corporate taxes when compared to our peers.
-spence
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For the most part, the doc you linked trends to a more Reaganesc approach to taxation--lower taxes and easier methods of compliance, the combination leading to greater government revenue.
The study has little or nothing to do with U.S. economic problems or the loss of jobs to other countries. The cost of labor probably has more to do with "shipping jobs overseas" than corporate tax burdens. Most of those jobs did not go to our high income "peers," but to where the cost of doing business was sufficiently lower to make expensive moves feasible. The total tax rate borne by business is part of its cost and is passed on to the consumer in the price of the product. So U.S. business taxes, to a point, affect the American consumer more than the seller. Taxes raised beyond a point, as the study states, have a negative impact on investment and growth.
Taxes are necessary to fund the existence of government and are good so long as the government is unobtrusive to the growth and function of an economy and to the liberty of the individual. When taxes are collected to fund government expansion into what should be private sector responsibilities, the government power grows and the citizen's power shrinks. This is contrary to the intent of this country's founding.