American Shareholders Association

GOP Passes Pro-Investor Platform

Significant items for shareholders:

• makes the 15 percent capital gains and dividends tax rates permanent
• calls for killing the death tax
• calls for a "major reduction" in the corporate income tax rate
• supports uncapping limits on IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-neutral savings accounts
• calls for voluntary auto-features in 401(k) plans
• supports a voluntary, alternate, two-rate individual income tax system
• calls for making the research and development tax credit permanent
• opposes card check and is for flexible work arrangements
• supports expanding H-1B visas and restoring trade promotion authority

More tomorrow on energy, health care, and more.

20 Reasons to Kill the Corporate Income Tax

Hat tip to James Pethokoukis at the Capital Commerce blog.

1) The United States has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world, just shy of 40 percent when you combine state and federal taxes.

2) The U.S corporate tax rate is 50 percent higher than the average for Organization for Economic Coordination and Development member states.

3) Japan, the country with the highest corporate tax rate, is thinking about cutting its rate.

4) Some 70 percent of the corporate tax burden is borne by workers in the form of lower wages and fewer high-paying jobs.

5) China just cut its corporate tax rate from 33 percent to 25 percent.

6) Fewer than 4 percent of large U.S companies paid no corporate income tax in 2005, according to a recent study.

7) A new OECD study found that corporate taxes are the most damaging kind of tax.

8) Corporate taxes lead to double taxation. Profits are taxed a first time at the company level and then again as dividends.

9) OECD data shows that nine of the 30 OECD member nations, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Iceland, have lower corporate tax rates in 2008 than they did in 2007.

10) In 2007, 20 non-OECD countries, including Israel, Bulgaria, and Turkey, cut their corporate income taxes.

11) The OECD has found that corporate taxes are most onerous for dynamic, high-growth companies that are challenging more established firms.

12) The OECD recommends that countries move away from corporate and personal income taxes toward consumption taxes.

13) An EU study of 50,000 companies found that a 1 percent increase in marginal corporate income tax rates leads to a 0.92 percent decrease in real wages.

14) It's bipartisan. Among people who have called either for a reduction in or elimination of corporate taxes are John McCain, Charlie Rangel, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, Lester Thurow.

15) It's a hidden tax: Even workers get hit by it, but they don't know it because they don't directly pay the tax.

16) Some 30 percent of the corporate tax burden is borne by shareholders.

17) Many companies pay more in accountants' fees to file their taxes than they do in taxes.

18) For every dollar the government collects in revenue, the corporate tax may actually cost the government $1 in revenue through slower economic growth.

19) Eliminating corporate taxes would help offset the burden of environmental taxes from cap-and-auction plans.

20) Next year, 2009, will be the 100th anniversary of the U.S. corporate tax. What better time to eliminate it?

Will Be Liveblogging from the GOP Platform Meetings

Stay tuned for updates on this during the week.  I'm monitoring the tax section in particular, and will report on any developments.

Obama's Cap Gains Flip-Flopping

Good article by James Pethokloukis in US News and World Report on Obama's cap gains flip-flopping.  The ASA chronicle on this can be found here.  Here's a snippett from the US News article:

...we might conclude that by waiting until right before the Democratic National Convention to reveal that he is going with the lower [i.e., hiking the rate from 15 percent to 20 percent instead of 28 percent] cap gains rate (as well as a smaller proposed increase in payroll taxes) means Obama is tacking to the center for the general. That's a place where voters care more about taxes than in the Democratic primaries and might better understand that raising taxes when the economy is weak is right out of the "How to Turn a Downturn into a Depression" handbook. So Obama moves to the center, but voters might wonder if a Pelosi/Reid-led Congress will let him stay there if he occupies the White House in 2009.