Some companies pay their CEOs more than Uncle Sam, study says

[lpast]

It has become a bipartisan article of faith in some quarters that the income tax on U.S. corporations must be lowered.


Of last year’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives in the United States, 25 earned more in pay than their company recorded as a tax expense in 2010.


Some companies pay their CEOs more than Uncle Sam, study says - The Washington Post

 

[Councilman]

This is the best example there should ever be a flat tax for Business and Personal income with no deductions.

It would insure that everyone pays their share. For people who currently pay no tax the system could be set up based on income and have levels. Corporate taxes should all be the same.

I also think there should be a flat tax of say 3% sales tax on everything except food and prescription drugs and freeze the tax on Fuel at the rate before the last increase.

We should have a flat rate tariff on all imports

 

[TurtleDude]

It has become a bipartisan article of faith in some quarters that the income tax on U.S. corporations must be lowered.


Of last year’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives in the United States, 25 earned more in pay than their company recorded as a tax expense in 2010.


Some companies pay their CEOs more than Uncle Sam, study says - The Washington Post

why should shareholders be taxed twice?

 

[David D.]

why should shareholders be taxed twice?

TD - Just a thought. Say an electrician comes to your house and does some work and you pay him with your own income which has already been taxed.

Should the electrician not have to pay taxes then again on that income, because it was already taxed before?

 

[Helix]

Any company that fires loads of workers to split the money among management is going to have an ever increasing PR problem. Additionally, the practice contributes to demand for an increasing entitlement state, and it invites legislation. A company would be poorly advised to sink such a percentage of its proceeds among so few people during this current employment crisis.

 

[Gipper]

TD - Just a thought. Say an electrician comes to your house and does some work and you pay him with your own income which has already been taxed.

Should the electrician not have to pay taxes then again on that income, because it was already taxed before?

Strawman. In your case, there is a chain. In TD's, it's a single entity. Yours is not double taxation. His is.

And I'm against all of this. Corporations do what they do because they are incentivized to do so. Domestic employment, sponsorships, scholarship system, charitable donations - all of this is done (I'm willing to argue) because of the tax benefits, not because General Electric or Wal-Mart wants to be altrusitic. If you just support a flat tax with no "loopholes", all they will do is judge cost-benefit analysis without any external concerns or proxies. Outsourcing would go through the roof. College reimbursement would dry up. The Ronald McDonald House would get boarded up like a ghetto crackjoint.

Tax breaks exist to encourage positive externalities.

 

[whysoserious]

Strawman. In your case, there is a chain. In TD's, it's a single entity. Yours is not double taxation. His is.

And I'm against all of this. Corporations do what they do because they are incentivized to do so. Domestic employment, sponsorships, scholarship system, charitable donations - all of this is done (I'm willing to argue) because of the tax benefits, not because General Electric or Wal-Mart wants to be altrusitic. If you just support a flat tax with no "loopholes", all they will do is judge cost-benefit analysis without any external concerns or proxies. Outsourcing would go through the roof. College reimbursement would dry up. The Ronald McDonald House would get boarded up like a ghetto crackjoint.

Tax breaks exist to encourage positive externalities.

But isn't there a chain? The company made money off of services rendered, and you made money from owning stock in a company that made money. And until they change the ruling that a corporation is a person, then you have to double tax since it is two separate entities receiving money. You can't have it both ways.