WASHINGTON (Reuters) President Barack Obama will call for cutting the top 35 percent corporate tax rate as early as this month, according to two sources close to the administration.The president is likely to propose a rate closer to an average of that seen in peer nations, the sources said.
This would jibe with remarks made last year by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who suggested the United States should be moving to a rate more in line with its major trading partners in the high 20-percent range.I actually agree that lowering corporate income tax rates is a good idea to encourage multinational corporations to make their money in America, instead of in lower tax rates countries. I used to work for a German company that bought office supplies from Germany at a ridiculous price as a way to move net profit from a high tax rate country to a low rate country--and this was strictly penny-ante stuff. I am sure that many corporations do stunts far more outrageous for this exact reason.
There are a number of sleazy stunts that are part of corporate finance that probably need attention at the same time. I'm reading a tendentious book called Perfectly Legal that nonetheless makes some good points about the sleazy manner in which corporations provide use of jets for corporate officers--and the tax code makes it effectively tax-free for the officers.
What upsets me is the way that Obama and other Democrats make a big issue of being on the side of the little people and how Republicans are on the side of big corporations and rich people--and the Democrats are at least as much whores for those interests as Republicans.
No comments:
Post a Comment