Monday, December 19, 2016

A destination-based corporate tax?

Lynlee Browning unsurprisingly does a nice job summarizing the current debate over the possibility of enacting a destination-based corporate tax (DBCT).  One point that could be added, however, is that, if they enacted it, there would be NO reason of international competitiveness to keep the rate as low as they have it, w0%.

Keep in mind, a (DBCT) is a consumption tax.  So, leaving aside a lot of important design details, in some ways it's like having a better-designed retail sales tax.

Only the ignorant and the disingenuous (but both groups are legion in Washington) would assert that, say, a comprehensive and decently enforced 40% retail sales tax would raise "competitiveness" issues in re. attracting global investment to the United States.

If the DBCT is indeed enacted, it would certainly serve a lot of folks right (but also raise rate-change transition issues that David Bradford identified) if first (a) the Republicans were drummed out of office for gutting Obamacare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and then (b) Democrats different from those we now know raised the DBCT rate to 40 or 50 percent (with accompanying measures addressing both high-end and low-end inequality).

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