Raising the corporate taxes to cover the proposed infrastructure bill needs to be reconsidered. Very little of that bill is slated for real infrastructure considerations and much more is slated for political spending projects unrelated to infrastructure. Wise infrastructure spending should be considered, not the unconnected spending.
Even though it sounds good to lay the payment on taxing corporations it’s really you and me that pay those taxes. In theory, corporations do not pay taxes, they collect them and distribute any increased load which lowers employees’ wages and benefits, shareholders dividends and capital gains and customers paying higher prices. This is the way tax and spend politicians get around the claim they are only taxing the corporations.
Corporations pay taxes on their net earnings, then pay shareholders dividends out of the after-tax earnings. Shareholders then pay taxes on that income as personal income taxes. In reality, double taxation. You say this doesn’t apply to you? Your pension funds or other retirement funds are supported by dividends and interest from corporate stocks. If those profits are reduced by higher corporate taxation, retirement funds are impacted from lower dividend returns which may affect your future pension or other retirement payments. Many pension funds are already underfunded and underwater.
Taxing corporations excessively makes corporations less competitive in the world economy resulting in lost jobs to countries with lower taxes. If they stay, they end up reducing their investment in growth and employment. Less money is available for the viability of the community.
The existing corporate tax rate or even individual tax rates worked as evidenced by pre-COVID low unemployment among all worker groups and their increased wages. Why change a proven economic success now. We don’t need to blunt an improving economy with excessive spending and taxes for unneeded political wish lists.
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Arnold A. Myhra
Lake Shore
