Raising Corporate Taxes Does Not Help Workers

Norbert MichelFor decades, Congress has done little more than complicate the tax code which, to this day, punishes success in a variety of ways. During this time, many politicians have consistently demagogued corporations, treating them as little more than a new source of tax revenue.TheInflation Reduction Act of 2022 continues this trend and ignores the fact that corporations are nothing more than legal associations that represent human beings, all of whom potentially represent employees, consumers, and shareholders. Raise taxes on “corporations” and people will pay–or pay for–higher taxes.A sensible framework would acknowledge this fact and only collect taxes from individuals (once) when they earn or consume income. But Congress refuses to implement that sort of system.Based onthe Inflation Reduction Act, Americans will soon have to deal withan even more complex tax code, one that institutes a corporate minimum tax tied tofinancial statement income. This provision may seem obscure, but as it currently stands, financial statement income and taxable income are very different. So different, in fact, that progressives have long used financial statement figuresto wrongly assert thatcorporations pay very low tax rates.The Inflation Reduction Act also institutes a brand ‐​new tax on stock buybacks (see section10201), one of the latest progressive pet peeves. During the last few years, members of Congress have criticized stock repurchases as devices ...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 9, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Norbert Michel Source Type: blogs