Comments on Advance Indiana™: Should Indiana Be Cutting Its Corporate Income Tax 40% Now?

Several thoughts... (1) Corporations/Companies do...

2011-02-10T10:42:34.306-05:00

Several thoughts...

(1) Corporations/Companies don't pay taxes - their customers do when they buy the product. The tax burden is embedded in the cot of the product. So, when you buy Milk you're paying the grocery store, the transportation company, the farmer's, etc... taxes. Ronald Reagan once quipped in the 70s that taxes doubled the cost of a loaf of bread.

(2) In lieu of massive reform, tax reduction is good wherever you can get it so long as the taxes on others, who do not directly use a specific government service such tax pays for, are not increased. (reducing a broad income tax to put in place a more specific use fee, for example, is sometimes better).

(3) Ideally, we'd be moving completely away from income taxes and to a more broad based consumption tax. After which, effort should be put into reducing the rate of the consumption tax to get it as close to zero as possible.

We need elimination and / or dramatic reduction of...

2011-02-10T00:19:58.692-05:00

We need elimination and / or dramatic reduction of many programs & taxes.

Capital goes or is invested where it's welcome & remains where it's well treated. Review apportionment trends. Estonia has more truly progressive tax policy than we do (US).

Taxes are sticks & subsidies are sticks or at best carrot sticks- we need far less of both.

There's reportedly THREE TRILLION DOLLARS nationwide, of ponzi schemed, unfunded municipal pension liability. Brace yourselves folks, there's a wall coming...

Corporations pay no taxes anyway..those taxes are ...

2011-02-09T22:44:44.705-05:00

Corporations pay no taxes anyway..those taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer through higher prices to recoup the cost of taxes.

Good post, Gary. "Indiana has increasingly s...

2011-02-09T07:16:00.628-05:00

Good post, Gary.

"Indiana has increasingly shifted its tax burden from businesses to individuals over the past decade."

That, right there, is the essence of the manner of leftist party the current Republicans have become.

Both business costs and government services costs are socialized under Republicans. It's actually a substantial bit more unjust and crushing than the manner of collectivism the Democrats employ.

Remember that a person is the indispensable actor in any moral code. In the absence of government, all property is held by persons. A person preexists the government, while governments and corporations are merely legal fictions. In exchange for the benefits of a corporate charter, corporations can be widely told what to do, as corporations are not repositories of a priori rights.

In theory, as governments nominally help all men, all men can be compelled to support the government. By contrast, it is positively unjust to force any individual to pay the costs for a group of individuals' corporate undertaking for which the benefits are privately held.

The Republicans, however, view corporations as necessary state functions that help all residents, thus being able to make demands on all citizens for support. That's collectivism of the Mussolini sort.

Excepting government, it's an utter inversion of the proper moral order to have an individual pay the costs of other mens' fictions.

"It seems to me a decision to cut the corpora...

2011-02-09T05:47:00.541-05:00

"It seems to me a decision to cut the corporate income tax rate without significant tax reform is a mistake."

You nailed it. Reformation with an emphasis on simplicity and greater participation would increase trust in government and "everyone pulls the wagon", respectively. But, in Indiana & particularly Federally with the last "Bush" rates extension, aren't we now at a stopping place on rates and ready to tackle reform?

"Cutting" business regulation in support of an economy that provides both jobs and government tax revenue- I can't disagree with.

It does not make sense to me, but not much of his ...

2011-02-09T00:36:55.519-05:00

It does not make sense to me, but not much of his administration has. You mention my biggest pet peeve with Daniels' administration -- Indiana's bungling of unemployment the last 6 years.

As long as the morons currently running DWD ("The Reign of Error" as a friend calls it) are still in place the next 2 years, the debt to the federal government will mightily struggle to get back to $0 -- no matter what the General Assembly's current plan to fix it is. Seriously -- Indiana overpaid claimants $1.157 BILLION from '06-'09 (over half the debt to the Feds and more than EVERY state but CA and IL), and no one gives a damn? DWD was responsible for $859 MILLION of that amount, and no one gives a damn? The GA could lower UI benefits to $100 maximum and decrease the share of businesses a few thousand dollars, but as long as the Daniels' DWD keeps screwing-up, everyone will continue to pay.

Also, how can this state be so business-friendly when we became the second state during this recession where our employers have to pay an increase of $21 per employee in federal UI taxes (because we were the second state to have a bankrupt UI Trust Fund, with an increase each year for years to come)? How can we be so business-friendly a state when we will owe the federal government between $80 and $100 MILLION in interest payments this year (and more to come for years) for the federal government bailing-out our UI?

Maybe I'm missing something. When Daniels came into office in 2005, there was still over $150 MILLION in the UI Trust Fund. Now, Indiana owes $2.1 BILLION for a bail-out. The recession did not cause all that money to disappear.

Meantime, corporations will be given a break while the small businesses are especially socked with unemployment taxes and losses of money because DWD has been run by idiot business people and failed lawyers the last six years (large corporations can survive those blows more easily). The rich get richer in this state. When will people here demand a stop to this crap?