What Do You Think Of The Proposed Us Tax Changes?

Donald Trump this week announced a number of proposed changes to personal and corporation tax bands. They do seem to be more focused towards big business and high earners or is that an unfair summary?

 

I am all for allowing people and companies to keep more of the $ they earn. Since the bottom 50% pay little or no income tax, the top 20% pay nearly 85% of income taxes, and the top 1% pay nearly half the income tax (and more than the bottom 95%), for a tax cut to be effective and meaningful it must apply across the board.

Of course it can also be argued that the few super-rich elites who are politically well-connected may buy themselves exemptions and may pay very little, and that some of the biggest corps may be able to write so many things that they pay very little - but those corps often pay a fair amount of income taxes overseas. And some big corps such as Walmart pay relatively high corp taxes.

Lowering the corporate tax will greatly help small business owners, who hire and employ nearly two thirds of the workforce.

It's true that successful professional investors like Buffett who buy and hold large amounts of stock for long periods of time end up paying very little relative to their net worths and the amounts of unrealized capital gains they tend to accumulate. But I don't think that the powers that be should just start indiscriminately ripping away deductions - they should tread lightly with any "loopholes" they want to close.

In general, lowering taxes and regs are a good thing. More business investment = more and better paying jobs and better and cheaper goods and services. The best ways to stimulate the economy are to let businesses do their thing, and to provide poor people with jobs and to provide working people with better and more opportunities.

 

Agree totally.

 

I agree Steaktartare,

I watched a program last year and a young member of the audience summed up socialism in one quote:

"The problem with socialism is that at some point you run out of other people's money to spend"

Why do those who can work but dont have an air of entitlement? If you put nothing into the pot (assuming you are fit to work) why should you expect to take anything out?

 

Personally, I think small businesses and those who are self-employed are the beating heart of any economy. Quite why the politicians bow down to the larger corporations, often at the expense of small businesses and the self-employed, beats me. There are obviously additional costs associated with running a company but a 33% tax rate as an individual who is self-employed seems criminal to me. We think it is tough in the UK, but compared to the US perhaps we don’t know how well off we are?