My foolproof plan will rescue our society from the sleazy
grasp of special-interest politics.
By Donald Kaul
While pretty much everybody
agrees that the U.S. tax code is a mess, nobody does anything about it. Oh,
politicians talk about doing something, but mainly what they do is make it
worse.
There’s a reason for
this. You. You’re the reason.
People, alas, tend to
be greedy and selfish and their attitude toward taxation is expressed in the
old rhyme: “Don’t tax you. Don’t tax me.
Tax that fellow behind the tree.”‘
This is as true of
liberals as it is of conservatives. We all tend to like those tax provisions
that benefit us and hate those that benefit someone else.
And what they do, specifically,
is lie, cheat, steal, bribe “educate,” and otherwise persuade legislators to
give their clients tax breaks. They descend on the nation’s capital like a
mighty swarm of locusts.
When they’re done, the tax code is a ragged collection
of holes but a hundred or so pages longer. And 80 percent of Congress is
assured of re-election. It’s called democracy.
Just try and cut out a
tax break someday, I dare you. I don’t care if it’s for bee keepers, skateboard
manufacturers, buffalo hunters or buggy whip makers. Every industry and
interest group has its own personal lobbyist working to bury a stealth tax
break in an obscure bill.
Many reformers have
long since despaired of breaking the stranglehold of these “special interests”
on our government.
I have not. I have a
foolproof tax reform plan that will rescue our society from the sleazy grasp of
special-interest politics and set us on the path of justice and righteousness.
Here’s my plan.
Eliminate the
corporate income tax. Don’t cut it. Get rid of it.
In the first place
it’s a tax on success. Corporations that are well-run and make money have to
pay it (theoretically, at least). Corporations that are losers don’t. That’s
not the American way. Let the good and bad corporations compete on a level
playing field.
In the second place,
and more importantly, it’s an almost irresistible invitation to cheat or, at
the very least, evade taxes through shady practices, like setting up dummy
companies in far-away and low-tax places. (I’m looking at you, Apple.)
Corporations wouldn’t
have to cheat on their taxes under my plan because there’d be no taxes. Tax
shelters? Gone. Neither would there be deductible expenses.
Travel expenses,
entertainment expenses, advertising expenses, investment expenses, they’d all
be simply part of the cost of doing business. No more expensive skyboxes rented
by corporations at stadiums — unless the executives thought it was
actually worth the money on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
No more “business
lunches” at fancy restaurants or country club memberships for executives at
company expense. Whatever was spent to make money would be money taken out of
profits.
I know what you’re
going to say: “Where are you going to get the money to run the government?”
From people — people
like you, actually. We would all be taxed at a progressive rate high enough to
fund the government we need. Capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income,
as would everything else.
Our bloated
entertainment economy would shrink. Our dishonest, subsidized corporations
would learn to stand on their own two legs. And a great many lobbyists and
crooked tax lawyers would be forced to find honest employment.
Don’t worry about any
of this happening. The chances of my plan or anything like it being enacted are
less than yours of winning the Powerball lottery jackpot. You’re more likely to
be struck by a meteor.
People hate taxes but
they love deductions.
Nor do our legislators
want lobbyists to disappear. Without lobbyists to give them money, how would
they get elected? By finding real solutions to real problems?
That’ll be the day.
OtherWords columnist
Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. OtherWords.org