Tuesday, January 29, 2008

"Double Taxation" - Corportate Income Tax

George Will states (Opinion, 1/05), without elaboration, that the corporate income tax rate should be zero. He has also said that the minimum wage should be zero and that car companies are welfare states that sell cars to pay the benefits that they agreed to. Maybe it is time for some disclosure. Is Will speaking from some twisted ideology or just plain greed and self-interest? How much does he have riding on the stock market and with which companies?

Corporations are formed by a deliberate legal maneuver designed to insulate the investors from the responsibility of day-to-day management and from personal risk. That is why they are taxed; they are separate legal entities. Otherwise, in a case such as Enron, for example, shareholders would not just lose their investment; creditors could come after their personal assets, as well.

Corporations also leave a huge footprint on the environment - think of all those trucks tearing up the highway – on our courts and regulatory agencies. Why shouldn’t they pay their fair share? Does Will think he is so revered that he can just make crackpot statements without explaining his reasoning or have the Republicans, all, lost touch with reality in their quest for the almighty dollar?

No comments: