Remove all corporate taxes: Second Look

Letter to the editor:

To retain companies like Carrier, in order to save American jobs, we must go a step further than lowering corporate taxes to 15%. These taxes should go all the way to 0%.

One thing many people, including political leaders, don’t realize is that corporate taxes are just a form of individual taxation. All companies are owned by individuals. It’s that simple.

The problem is that in this competitive world, where companies have a choice where to locate jobs, this tax policy is incredibly penny-wise but pound-foolish. For the couple of cents on the GDP dollar paid in corporate taxes, greater amounts are lost to the economy when jobs and all the taxes those individuals pay are gone.

The enormous amount of time spent calculating corporate taxes is a huge waste of time and talent. Why do we have this complex system set up for taxing shareholders when there is already another simpler system in place in the form of capital gains and dividend taxes?

The concern that if corporate taxation is eliminated, government revenues will be reduced is ridiculous. The money won’t disappear from the system. It will simply flow straight through companies as it does with millions of S-Corps into the pockets of individuals where it will be taxed, perhaps even at a higher rate.

There will be a larger pie for everyone if we stop discouraging and scaring away our golden geese.

Chris Waldorf; Seattle