Question

In your opinion, do corporations now pay their fai share of taxes? Explain why or why not. If not, what should be done about it?

Answer 1

Big corporations are aggressively pushing two types of “tax reform.” One is “revenue-neutral” reform that closes loopholes and limits deductions and uses the savings to lower the corporate income tax rate from the current 35 percent to as low as 25 percent. This means corporations would not contribute a dime towards deficit reduction or to invest in our economic future. A second priority is creation of a “territorial” tax system. This would allow multinational corporations to pay no U.S. tax on their foreign earnings, thereby accelerating the shifting of profits and jobs to low-tax countries and reducing taxes paid to the U.S. Treasury.

This version of corporate “tax reform” should be rejected; instead corporations should pay their fair share of taxes for many reasons:

1. Some big corporations pay little to nothing in taxes now

2. The corporate share of federal tax revenue has dropped by two-thirds in 60 years.

3. The United States raises less tax revenue from corporations than many of our competitors