Quote Originally Posted by Irving View Post

Corporations don't have to pay taxes on any money except what is left over at the end of the year. It is not a loop hole, it is the way that the law describes how corporations operate. As a result, corporations spend as much money as they can through investments, to lower the profits as much as possible before the taxes are due. If there are still a lot of profits left, then corporations move to alternative means of getting rid of profits by donating to charities, creating scholarships, etc. It's not a loophole, it's the law.
Additionally, and what concerns people, isn't the activity for tax reduction that you point out, but rather avoiding taxes by schemes like creating overseas entities and shelters to retain the profits elsewhere instead of paying taxes. No benefit to society or to the US is gained in those circumstances, some of which are legal, some not and some are in a grey area that keeps lawyers fully employed.


I also agree that you and I are on the same page, however, I feel that the government debt issues are the result of spending more than is available, and not that corporations are paying too little taxes. Think of it this way, when corporations try to ditch profits by making purchases through investments, donating to charities, and setting up scholarships, they are placing that money DIRECTLY into the economy, and sometimes DIRECTLY into the hands of the people. Why would we want to filter that money through the government first, where it will just get siphoned off into endless regulation, redtape, redundant policies and personnel, etc, etc?
In your scenarios, that's optimal. In the ones I described above, at least the US gets to benefit in some diluted manner. It's been some time since I've seen a major US corporation attempt to reduce its tax liability in the manner you describe, especially in comparison to efforts to just keep their profits elsewhere. That's why tax havens exist.



Again, I think that for the most part, most of us are all on the same page here. I'd be okay with having just one tax. If it is income tax, then no other taxes. No property tax, no sales tax, no gas tax, no death tax.
The problem here is that the current tax structures support federal, state, county, city and other local budgets. How would you suppose to provide funding to each of those governments, presuming you feel that each has a need to provide services to its citizens?