Want to kill businesses? Add more taxes!
Filed under: Tax
During an election year, one of the common themes we hear from those campaigning is how we're going to stick it to big naughty businesses. Let's make them pay more taxes. They shouldn't have big profits! Let's take those profits away! What the politicians (and their supporters) fail to realize is that businesses are the backbone of our economy. Without businesses, we have no food on our tables and no homes in which to live. Without businesses, there are no jobs for people to earn a living.When taxes are levied on businesses, someone has to pay. And ultimately the consumer pays with an increased price for goods and services. We want to encourage more businesses to open and expand, but if they are constantly threatened with increased taxes, it may take away the incentive for someone to invest money and take a chance on opening a business.
But that's not stopping politicians from increasing taxes all over the place. Take Cook County, Illinois. The County Board has voted to double the county sales tax to 1.75%. When added to the city sales tax, the total sales tax in Chicago is 10.25%. Can you believe that?
Where does all this money go? I'm tired of politicians spending taxpayers' money as if it's unlimited. Instead of trying to find ways to spend more of our money, politicians need to be looking for a way to cut costs and give back the money that rightfully belongs to their constituents.
Let me hear what you think.
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-03-2008 @ 6:26PM
Murray said...
You have that right !
I'm a registered Democrat who is voting Republican these days.
The Dem. party is no longer the Democratic party, it's the new Socialist party.
Reply
3-03-2008 @ 6:34PM
bob sakamano said...
well who voted for that tax increase?!?!?!?
Reply
3-03-2008 @ 7:17PM
LVTfan said...
A better option would be to tax land value. Not buildings, just land value. That would shift the tax burden off homeowners (except maybe those whose homes are located in commercial districts) and off commercial property owners who have put their land to good use -- which creates jobs and a lively marketplace in the goods and services which consumers and other businesses want -- and onto those who are holding vacant land and underused land. In other words, land speculators.
Land speculators contribute little while they sit and wait for their nest egg to hatch. They may have a parking lot, or a diner, or an old building, on a site which cries out for a midrise or highrise building, or even a parking garage.
Untaxing buildings and uptaxing land value would motivate them to put choice sites to good use. The entire community would benefit from the jobs the development of the site would create and the new housing and/or commercial venues the completed buildings would provide.
The only business that would be disadvantaged is a non-business: land speculation. The speculator adds no value to "his" community. (Usually he isn't even part of the community -- an absentee owner.) All other businesses would be invigorated by the economic activity that results from this tax.
If you'd like to know more about these ideas, take a look at http://lvtfan.typepad.com/ and http://www.wealthandwant.com/
Motivate the unmotivated by getting the incentives right. Don't burden the activity we want to encourage; burden the inactivity we mean to discourage! Pretty smart!
Reply
3-03-2008 @ 9:53PM
Tom said...
I strongly agree with the points made in this article.
Profits are good. They go the Gov't already in taxes,
they go to stockholders as dividends, they improve
workers 401K accounts, they are reinvested in the
business and that creates more jobs, and they keep
more jobs in the USA. If Corp. taxes are increased you
will see even more jobs outsourced. If you don't pay
taxes the 30 second sound bite seems great - tax
greedy big business and give me more. In reality it
spells disaster for the economy and working Americans.
Reply