A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll finds that 60 percent of respondents support raising taxes on households that earn more than $250,000 a year and 64 percent want to raise taxes on large corporations.
Even 39 percent of Republicans support raising taxes on households making more than $250,000. Independents favor such a move by 21 percentage points, 59 to 38 percent.
Only 38 percent buy the GOP argument that raising taxes on households earning over $250,000 per year will have a negative impact on the economy. Fifty-eight percent do not.
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With the poll finding that 64% favor raising taxes on large corporations, the Economist reported last year (Nov., 2011) that the statutory federal income tax rate for big American companies is 35%. But a study by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, two Washington, DC-based think-tanks, has assessed the tax records of 280 companies from the Fortune 500 list with reliable pre-tax profit reports.
Among these companies the average effective tax rate between 2008-10 was only 18.5%. While 71 companies paid over 30% of their profits in federal income tax, 30 enjoyed negative tax rates over the whole three year period. Pepco, an electricity company, had the lowest effective tax rate of -57.6%. Wells Fargo, a bank, received the biggest tax subsidy over the three years of almost $18 billion, and was one of 25 companies which took more than half of the total $223 billion subsidy claimed. In at least one of the three years, 78 firms paid no or negative tax rates, and legally-by writing off capital investments before they actually wear out (known as "accelerated depreciation"), making use of tax deductible stock options and industry-specific tax breaks, and offshore tax havens.
4 comments:
Even with general public support I feel that raising taxes would not help this situation at all. As I learned in economics that we are in a situation where we need expansionary policy. Since we are in recession it's wiser to lower taxes so people have more to spend.
I think if the public does support the raising of taxes, and there is a chance that it will benefit our economy, we should go for it. Also, perhaps we could combine both policies. Raise taxes and government spending, or lower taxes and raise government spending, although, given our debt, the second option does not seem feasible.
The fact of the matter is that we are certainly facing very difficult economic times, that don't seem to be going to conclude any time soon. A good option must begin with asking the wealthy to pay more in taxes. The social rift that has opened between the upper and lower class will only become worse if the corporations are allowed to continue run unrestrained.
Yes, Karan, logically we need expansionary policy. But the bottom line here is that we are way past the point of logical answers. We need to go against the grain. We need to tackle our deficit and our debt without substantially shaking our growth. Asking the wealthiest to pay more is a healthy answer as it doesn't really cause all that much harm and can bring trillions of dollars worth of revenue into the government
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