262 points
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Republicans love to harken back to “the golden age” of america. Ever wonder what paid for it? A big portion was … corporate tax!

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/historical-corporate-tax-rates-brackets/

Corporate tax is currently at the lowest point since 1940

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/corporate-tax-rate

See this big drop in corporate tax? You thank ol’ trumpy for that

Along with personal income tax - Note this is the top bracket of tax

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IITTRHB

Want your golden age back? Tax these fucking billionaire grifters.

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94 points
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Another thing that raising the corporate tax rate does is make it more profitable to re-invest your income into the company. Since they’re only taxed on profits they’ll pay zero taxes if they make zero profit. How do you do that? Expanding your business, spending money on R&D, and paying your employees more.

Edit: Haha, just kidding, they’ll blow it on stock buybacks.

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41 points

Ideally, yes - but until share buybacks are outlawed - companies will just ‘reinvest’ by buying up shares (increasing their price, and thereby existing shareholder wealth), and issuing them as bonuses to their C-suite in lieu of payment… by-and-large avoiding a lot of the income tax that they would otherwise be due to be paid.

Our current late-stage capitalist corporate system is built upon layers and layers of tax-avoidance and self-enrichment at the cost of society as a whole.

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16 points
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5 points

The numbers, what do they mean?

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141 points

Fucking insane that 28% is a tax hike.

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57 points

Should be no less than 90%, like it used to be.

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13 points
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You have to bear in mind that the “like it used to be” part operated when digital card payments were not a thing. A customer would give you cash, and maybe you would write it down in your taxes, but there was no digital indicator of what actually happened.

Small business owners got to stay afloat by swindling the government, and this was the normal way for centuries.

I’m not saying it’s right, just that the high business tax of the past wasn’t as effective as you think it was, and will hit extremely differently this time around in the digital era.

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20 points

The best thing to have is a variable tax rate that goes up the more profit is made.

That’s how it is in my country.

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2 points

I’m afraid to ask, but what is the current number?

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2 points

Currently a flat 21%

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1 point

I almost pay that already. No wonder they have no public health services shit police, school issues.

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1 point

Flat? Meaning all corps pay the same regardless of revenue?

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137 points

Awwww… Raise it above the old 35% tax rate at least.

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57 points

It’s still a start, and something more likely to get though congress

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53 points

49% is golden. But 28% is a start.

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14 points

Staggered based upon gross income just like personal taxes.

Tiny businesses 5% Small businesses 25% Mid sized companies 50%. Mega-corporations wth billions - 95%

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11 points

One problem with that is that companies could create a ton of subsidiaries or shell companies and move money around in funny ways to keep all of them at the lowest bracket

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4 points

Sure. Gimme a progressive tax rate across the board.

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23 points

And index it against inflation. 😉

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9 points

No better: to the cost of living index. That way if they pump prices up like they have in the last few years, they choke themselves with their own rope.

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103 points

God I can’t wait until US news headlines aren’t tainted with the name Trump. I’m so tired of it all.

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39 points

There is one headline with his name that I can’t fucking wait to see.

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9 points

Yeah me too but then the guy missed.

…Oh wait, you mean the other headline.

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0 points

Personally, I was going for the McHeartattack option.

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24 points

There’ll always be someone else. But we may have a bit of silence when Trump is gone.

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14 points
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Deleted by creator
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21 points

I know, I’ve just waiting for this turd to flush since 2016

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14 points

We all have. Damn shame he turned out to be a floater, but let’s hope this time does it.

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1 point
Deleted by creator
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5 points

He shouldn’t even be allowed to run, how can you foment a coup and still run for President. Failed state

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4 points

Same here. I was exhausted with his run in 2015/2016 and being the king of the birthers and hoped his loss would put his stupid name behind us and he could go back to trying to make a name for himself with morning zoo DJs or wrestling or whatever the fuck.

I despised the guy even before he was given that stupid game show. It got even worse when he “won” in 2016.

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4 points

I just can’t wait to never hear of this dude ever again, or see his name or his anus mouth. It’s been a fucking agonizing 8 years with this mother fucker.

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62 points

The amazing economy that these MAGA people dream of getting back to can be largely attributed to two things. The first is lots of manufacturing, which the CHIPS Act is a step in the right direction towards, but is impossible to ever really get back to ever since Nixon opened the door to China as a trade and manufacturing superpower in the 70s, and companies decided to lower costs by sending manufacturing over there. The second is a MUCH higher business tax rate. At one point, it was 91%. I’m not saying that that’s the correct rate in the modern economy, but 28% ain’t shit. Raise it to 40% at least, and then use that additional revenue to get everyday Americans’ heads above water.

I’m an extremely lucky 35-year-old American white guy, married with no kids or pets, denied ourselves several comforts and luxuries, and I’m still just now at a point where I’m trying to buy my first home. I have almost every advantage possible, and I’m still over ten years behind my parents’ generation. That shit ain’t right. Help us, the people.

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30 points

The higher the corporate tax rates the more the companies reinvest into the company to keep profit margins down which causes the economy to flourish rather than funneling as much cash as possible to shareholders.

Companies generally would rather pay their own workers more than pay more in taxes. If you’re going to lose the money anyway, might as well spend it keeping your workforce happy than give it to the government.

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13 points

You might be right, but what’s silly is that you think companies wouldn’t do everything in their power to not reduce pay to both workers and the government at the same time. And they do. In fact, they lobby endlessly to lower their taxes as well as keep wages low, loosen regulations, dismantle the power of unions, roll back labor rights, and take away voting power of the people who would vote against their interests. You need to understand that the entire motivation of these companies is to maximize profit at all costs. “If you’re going to lose the money anyway” is not something they have ever or will ever accept. That’s like assuming that you accept that you will never eat another scrap of food ever again. Your survival depends upon it, and when access to it is threatened, you will lie and cheat and steal as much as is necessary to ensure your survival.

If the government taxed businesses at a higher rate and used that increased revenue to improve the quality of life and access to opportunities for all, I’d say that that’s a much better use of that money. We’ve tried taxing businesses less in hopes of having anything other than piss trickle down to the workers. That’s how we got here. Productivity has boomed, yet wages have stagnated and people are struggling to get by. It’s time to stop propagating broken bullshit-ass Reaganomics and start advocating for your fellow human to be able to afford access to the bare minimum of food, shelter, and medical care. The GDP of the US is over $25 TRILLION. So why in the blue fuck are people still freezing and starving to death in this country? Unacceptable.

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2 points

Yes it would be ideal for the government to do all that, I’m just saying that increased corporate tax rates lead to increased reinvesting into the companies themselves which is generally good for workers. Part of them avoiding paying taxes would lead to working at those companies being better because pushing pure profit margins wouldn’t be as effective for gathering wealth. There are so many companies where it is downright miserable working for them due to rampant cost cutting to make record breaking profits, so tax the fuck out of those profits and stupid choices like that become less fiscally appealing.

For instance In order to boost profit margins at the end of last year 7 Eleven put a halt to all preventative maintenance. If it is no longer cost effective to do that due to high taxes on those profits that maintenance would have been done which would have seen a higher retention in maintenance staff. (As well as less money spent replacing equipment in 2024)

I’m not saying one change will fix everything, but it’s a start.

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2 points

Congrats, I just bought a cottage because rents have gone insane

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3 points

Rents have gone so insane that (assuming everything goes smoothly and we close) we will spend like $500 less per month by moving from our 2 bedroom apartment into a 4 bedroom 1800sqft townhouse. It’d be even less if interest rates weren’t dog water right now haha. But there was only one other family competing to go under contract, so the high interest rate is how we got ahead of the upcoming gold rush. Houses are about to go for much higher than right now.

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