Fair Share?
Contribution of individual and corporate income tax to government and social infrastructure over time. I made this graph from official tax revenue data of the US government. It shows the ratio of percent of GDP of individual tax revenue to percent of GDP of corporate tax revenue over time. As you can see, even though they consume far more public resources and earn greater profits, the share being paid by corporations to our infrastructure, roads, transportation, education of workforce, etc has decreased greatly over time, shifting the burden of all public infrastructure to labor.
Blue is people. Gold is corporations. What’s graphed is the bill for running the country. It goes from 50-50 to individuals paying most of the bill.
Right… but when other countries already have lower corporate tax rates than the US, how do you convince corporations that can’t wiggle through tax loopholes to stay here?
Companies like GE that do keep their headquarters and revenues in the US have massive teams dedicated to maximizing tax breaks. For instance, the tax rate at the top corporate bracket is 35%, but GE’s effective rate was sub-10% last year (quoted anywhere from a negative number to +7%, depending on the source). GE’s CEO has even said US corporate tax rates should be in the low 20s with zero loopholes.
I don’t claim to know the right answers; I’m just saying finding a way to fairly divide up taxes for public resource funding is not an easy thing to do.
