Congress Shouldn’t Enact Ill-Conceived New Taxes for Spending Spree

Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, reportedly continues to discuss with House Democrats their ever-evolving plan for expanding the role of government within American life. told her members: “There is no bad decision.”

Bad decisions are inevitable when Congress rushes to approve a poorly vetted plan for paying for its new social spending.

The parade of taxes that congressional Democratic leaders put forward in recent weeks is a clear indication that Congress is deliberating from among many bad decisions.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted last month for a plan that would have increased the tax rates on income from corporations, income from individuals, and capital gains income. The United States would have been one of the top ten countries in the world if that plan had been adopted. highest businessThe average American would eventually pay the highest tax rates in the developing world. payIn the form of lower real salaries.

Last week, Sen. Kyrsten SinemaD-Ariz., strongly opposed the House proposal regarding taxes.

With those damaging taxes apparently off the table, Congress quickly turned its focus to what Democrats are referring to as a “wealth tax.”

It is only a fragment of the plan. existedAs of last week, however, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has hurriedly put together a 107Wednesday’s publication of a proposal that is a page long. The move would fundamentally transform American taxation. 16th AmendmentThe income tax was enacted.

Janet Yellen is Treasury Secretary stated that the new tax “would help get at capital gains.” Specifically, the plan would tax unrealized capital gains. As one’s company or assets increase in market value, he or she would pay annual taxes to the IRS on that increase, even though no actual income was received.

The premise of taxing an asset that hasn’t created actual income is especially problematic when most of an individual’s wealth is tied up in a single asset. Without sufficient income from other sources, taxpayers might be forced to sell their asset—or a portion of it—to pay the taxes they owe.

Contrary to what you might think, the richest Americans often have 90% of their fortunes in one asset, namely stock in their businesses. The vast majority of wealth is concentrated in one asset: stock in their business. Jeff Bezos? Mark Zuckerberg? Warren Buffett, Elon MuskIt is held as stock in Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway, Berkshire Hathaway and Tesla, respectively. Much of their remaining wealth is invested in other business ventures, like Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX.

Tesla’s value increases fivefold to tenfold over a single year. An owner would not have any choice but to sell stock in order to pay the enormous tax.

Even under more typical levels of growth, it’s still unrealistic to think that a billionaire would come up with the money for the tax by “cutting back” on the, say, 2% of his wealth supporting his lifestyle. The tax would be paid out of the 98% that the business owner has invested in support of his or her business.

This capital outflow is the same mechanism that causes a corporate tax to eventually fall on labor via the reduction of real wages. It is not surprising that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was created. observed that the wealth taxes—cousins of unrealized capital gains taxes—tried in Europe have “frequently failed to meet their redistributive goals.”

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that revenues from wealth taxes are very low with very few exceptions. Eric Pichet, economist, estimates that the French wealth-tax experiment resulted in negative revenue effects. French President Emmanuel Macron said that more than 10,000 individuals with 35 billion euros’ worth of assets fled the country to avoid the tax.

Because of the poor record of wealth taxes, and one constitutionalMany European countries, such as France? Denmark? SwedenGermany, Austria? Iceland, FinlandRecent years have seen the abandonment of their counterproductive wealth taxes.

Unrealized capital gains can also be taxing and difficult to administer. There’s no easy way to determine the value of many assets on an annual basis. Therefore, legislators face a trade-off: Put in place a complicated, bureaucratic process to measure all assets’ values, or make certain hard-to-value assets tax-exempt until they are sold. The wealthier people can avoid tax by having more assets exempt.

Fortunately, a deal involving a tax on unrealized capital gains also appears to be off the table after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., blasted the “convoluted” tax proposal. In its place, congressional Democrats now propose a convoluted tax proposal: a corporate profits minimum taxes.

The minimum tax involves a 15% tax on large companies’ book income, which is what companies report in their financial statements. It’s troubling that the rules for determining book income are determined by a Connecticut-based nonprofitThe Financial Accounting Standards Board. This means that Congress could give some of its taxing authority away to a private organization.

Advocates of the new minimum tax justify the tax on the grounds that some corporations “get away with” not paying tax in certain years.

Corporations pay zero taxes each year due to either losses in the year or net operating losses from prior years. Because they help to ensure that the tax code does not bias against businesses that experience periodic losses, net operating losses are an efficient and desirable feature of a corporate income taxes.

Imagine that Company A has $1,000,000 in profit in Year 1. Then, in Year 2, it makes $1,000,000 more. Company B, however, experiences a loss of $10,000,000 in Year 1 and a gain of $12,000,000 in Year 2.

The total profit for both companies is $2 million. Company B would be subject to tax on the $12 million profit in Year 2 if it did not allow for net operating losses. However, the company would not receive tax relief for the losses in Year 1.

A minimum tax on book income complicatesIt distorts the net operational losses system. Book income does not include net operating losses. This creates a bias in tax code that favors loss-making businesses, as well as companies with significant one-time investment expenses, which can lead to a taxable loss.

Taxpayers who have suffered legitimate losses in the past year may not be able to use future gains to offset their net operating losses.

Under the current tax system, when companies do consistently avoid paying taxes, it’s usually because they are able to claim preferential tax credits that are only available to favored businesses or industries.

There are many more than 30New provisions in the House tax proposal would expand corporate tax credits.

Minimal taxes are difficult to administer and must be adhered to, since they effectively create new parallel tax systems.

Congress is considering expanding the corporate profits minimum tax in addition to the corporate profits minim tax. anotherInternational tax code: Minimum tax system

These extra layers of complexity are good for accountants and auditors but bad for businesses that want their focus to be on improving the products and services they offer.

Congress should reject a minimum corporate profits tax for corporations and other tax proposals that would add more complexity to an already complicated tax system. convolutedTax system

Lawmakers should say “no” to bad legislation. Instead of heeding Pelosi’s suggestion that there are “no bad decisions,” they should remember the counsel of Hippocrates: First, do no harm.  

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