Please show me the drop in corporate income tax collections. I don't see it. What I see is that corporate tax revenues have dramatically outpaced inflation, meaning we collect more real revenue from corporations than at any other point in history.
For example, in 1960, corporate tax revenue was ~$22B. A dollar from 1960 is worth $7.76 today [1]. To keep pace with inflation, today's revenue would would have to be ~$170B. 2012 corporate tax collections was $240B, or significantly greater than inflation.
And the further back in history you go, the more dramatic the effect.
Wouldn't it be more useful to measure corporate tax collection per capita? Keeping pace with inflation is only meaningful if the population is static.
From your numbers and the 1960 census, it looks like we were collecting $944/pp (2013 dollars). Accounting for today's population, we're now collecting $771/pp.
Assuming you buy the idea at all that corporate taxes have an obligation to feed the poor, it certainly does look like the supporting-power of said taxes have decreased over time.
I think trying to talk about corporate tax collection per capita makes the discussion much more complex because we have to consider a lot of other questions (such as determining the impact of corporations on median standard of living).
But let me take a stab at it anyway.
I think its fair to say that the GP's concern is not collections per capita, but collections per person in poverty. In the 1950s, there were 39.5M people in poverty [1], while in 2012 there were 46.2M people in poverty [2]. So in 2012 dollars, we were spending ~$4500 per person in poverty in 1950, while today we spend ~$5200 per person in poverty.
Of course, you can play with the start and end dates to make the trend look different. But the fact is, by just about any measure, corporations paying quite a bit in taxes.
It takes some real special reasoning to look at a tax burden shifting from 1:1 personal to corporate to 5:1 personal to corporate and say that corporate tax rates haven't fallen off.
It takes some real special reasoning to spin an explosion of personal income tax collections, which necessarily indicate massive increases in standard of living, as something negative or as a "burden" imposed on individuals by corporations.
Comments
Of course, at one time, people spent a moment of critical reflection before speaking. But I suppose trolls aren't people.
Here is some real data from a left-center think tank:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Doc...
Please show me the drop in corporate income tax collections. I don't see it. What I see is that corporate tax revenues have dramatically outpaced inflation, meaning we collect more real revenue from corporations than at any other point in history.
For example, in 1960, corporate tax revenue was ~$22B. A dollar from 1960 is worth $7.76 today [1]. To keep pace with inflation, today's revenue would would have to be ~$170B. 2012 corporate tax collections was $240B, or significantly greater than inflation.
And the further back in history you go, the more dramatic the effect.
[1] http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
Wouldn't it be more useful to measure corporate tax collection per capita? Keeping pace with inflation is only meaningful if the population is static.
From your numbers and the 1960 census, it looks like we were collecting $944/pp (2013 dollars). Accounting for today's population, we're now collecting $771/pp.
Assuming you buy the idea at all that corporate taxes have an obligation to feed the poor, it certainly does look like the supporting-power of said taxes have decreased over time.
I think trying to talk about corporate tax collection per capita makes the discussion much more complex because we have to consider a lot of other questions (such as determining the impact of corporations on median standard of living).
But let me take a stab at it anyway.
I think its fair to say that the GP's concern is not collections per capita, but collections per person in poverty. In the 1950s, there were 39.5M people in poverty [1], while in 2012 there were 46.2M people in poverty [2]. So in 2012 dollars, we were spending ~$4500 per person in poverty in 1950, while today we spend ~$5200 per person in poverty.
Of course, you can play with the start and end dates to make the trend look different. But the fact is, by just about any measure, corporations paying quite a bit in taxes.
[1] http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/#3 [2] http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2011/...
It takes some real special reasoning to look at a tax burden shifting from 1:1 personal to corporate to 5:1 personal to corporate and say that corporate tax rates haven't fallen off.
It takes some real special reasoning to spin an explosion of personal income tax collections, which necessarily indicate massive increases in standard of living, as something negative or as a "burden" imposed on individuals by corporations.
A better estimate would be percentage of GDP.