>pms wrote:
>>
>> Hey Max, what about the corporate tax? During the eighties(are they really
>> over?)I remember reading in one of the left rags that if the corporate tax
>> burden was the same as it was in the 50's, it would wipe out TheDeficit.
[...]
>One source of company information that amateur stock pickers use is
>Value Line, which you can find in your public library. One row of data
>is the income tax rate as a percentage of profit.
>
>For most companies that I have seen, the rate is 35-45%. There are
>exceptions, and one that I've seen are the pharmaceuticals with income
>tax rates of 10-15%.
>
>On the whole, though, corporations pay a stiffer rate than I do.
>
>I know that there is a general perception that corporations don't pay
>taxes thanks to loopholes, but so far, I have not seen the evidence
>for that.
Here are corporate profits as a share of GDP and taxes as a percent of profits (the effective tax rate), according to the national income accounts. Profits have been doing spectacularly well, but tax rates were a lot higher in earlier profit inflations. Note how good WW II was for profits, though they were taxed at their highest rates ever, peaking at 55% in 1943. If taxes had been that high in early 1998, the government would have $182 billion more revenues.
That, plus $250b out of the Pentagon, could finance a pretty generous public health insurance system, Max.
Doug
----
US CORPORATIONS, PROFITS AND TAXES
profits, tax
% of GDP rate 1929 9.8% 13.2% 1930-34 2.2% 33.8% 1935-39 5.9% 21.0% 1940-44 11.3% 45.6% 1945-49 9.6% 38.9% 1950-54 10.8% 46.8% 1955-59 10.2% 44.1% 1960-64 10.1% 43.1% 1965-69 10.5% 41.4% 1970-74 7.8% 40.0% 1975-79 8.2% 35.6% 1980-84 6.4% 36.2% 1985-89 7.1% 42.5% 1990-94 7.3% 35.8% 1995-98 10.3% 33.4%
max (1943) 55.1% difference 181.9