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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a generalised tax on businesses?
Compared with say higher tax on capital gains to personal income, I'm not sure I can see any real advantage to corporate tax. But I know next to nothing on the subject, so keen to learn. A couple of fairly obvious points to consider:
> Whenever possible, businesses' tax expenses will simply be passed on to customers, so in effect they're as much a tax on consumers as anything else.
> Where they actually do affect the businesses' bottom lines, it means less money for re-investment in that company (in contrast to taxing the money when it leaves the company as capital gains).
> Such taxes can stifle new and small businesses, and hence general innovation and improvement. (Could the corrolary argument be made, that with small business exemptions they'd have a competitive advantage which encourages inmovation?)
> Are taxes easier to evade or avoid for businesses, or for personal income?
Interested in folks' opinions. And let's pretend that all else being equal it's better for a government to have more revenue, not less, so no presumptions that lower taxes are inherently good
Compared with say higher tax on capital gains to personal income, I'm not sure I can see any real advantage to corporate tax. But I know next to nothing on the subject, so keen to learn. A couple of fairly obvious points to consider:
> Whenever possible, businesses' tax expenses will simply be passed on to customers, so in effect they're as much a tax on consumers as anything else.
> Where they actually do affect the businesses' bottom lines, it means less money for re-investment in that company (in contrast to taxing the money when it leaves the company as capital gains).
> Such taxes can stifle new and small businesses, and hence general innovation and improvement. (Could the corrolary argument be made, that with small business exemptions they'd have a competitive advantage which encourages inmovation?)
> Are taxes easier to evade or avoid for businesses, or for personal income?
Interested in folks' opinions. And let's pretend that all else being equal it's better for a government to have more revenue, not less, so no presumptions that lower taxes are inherently good
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