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Messages - Kevin Monk

#1
The Podcast / Re: Podcast for 9-5-2011
September 06, 2011, 08:27:54 AM
Enjoyed the Podcast.

Read this for an interesting conundrum regarding Warren Buffett
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/08/17/if-warren-buffett-isnt-paying-the-corporate-income-tax-then-we-should-abolish-the-corporate-income-tax/

Quote
What we're trying to do is get more cash out of the rich people and by insisting that Mr. Buffett's tax bill is only 17.4% of his income we've just proven that the corporate income tax doesn't tax those rich people it taxes the poor workers. In fact, if his tax bill is only that 17.4% then we would like to abolish the corporate income tax for it's just a hidden way of squeezing more out of the poor rather than the let's tax the rich that everyone seems to assume it is.

All of which leads us to a quite lovely logical conundrum. We have two options:

1) Warren Buffett's tax rate really is 17.4% because the corporate income tax is really paid by the workers, not the shareholders or owners of capital.

2) Shareholders and capital really pay the corporate income tax in which case Mr. Buffett's tax rate is not 17.4%.

What we cannot believe is that Buffett's tax rate is 17.4% and also that it's the rich people who own companies that carry the burden of the corporate income tax.

Rather up to you which you want to believe: I tend to the view that the incidence is split, some on the workers, some on capital which leaves me in the interesting position of insisting both that Warren's tax rate is higher than that 17.4% and also that the corporate income tax is a bad tax which should be abolished because it reduces the wages of the workers.

More generally, Tim Worstall runs an excellent libertarian blog.