The vice president is rolling out her first revenue-raising policy proposal as the Democratic presidential nominee and drawing a contrast with GOP opponent Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris is calling for raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, her first major proposal to raise revenues and finance expensive plans she wants to pursue as president.

Harris campaign spokesman James Singer told NBC News that she would push for a 28% corporate tax rate, calling it “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.”

If enacted, the policy would raise hundreds of billions of dollars, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that 1 percentage point increases in the corporate rate corresponds to about $100 billion over a decade. It would also roll back a big part of former President Donald Trump’s signature legislation in 2017 as president, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

Trump, meanwhile, recently said he would cut taxes even further if elected president, including on businesses.

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Maybe roll it back up to 35 percent instead of letting republicans gain ground every fucking election and doing half assed measures that still result in net loss for the people? I mean it’s a step in the right direction but Jesus fucking Christ man.

      • Lowpast@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Back when there were numerous loopholes, deductions, and methods of evasion and nearly none paid that rate? And when they later lowered effective rates, closed loopholes, and ended up collecting more?

        Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s incentive finding ways to avoid paying taxes.

        This is exactly how you give incentives to higher CEO pay. Record profits? Give all of it to the CEO and you’ll pay none of it to the government. You didn’t mention a higher personal tax rate, so end of the day the CEO wins.

        Own an S-Corp? Pass through all profits to yourself and pay 0%.

        • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Corporations still find loopholes and pay nearly no taxes… If corporations and Billionaires paid their taxes just like common folks, the country would make a lot more in taxes.

          • Lowpast@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The top 1 percent of earners alone pay over one-third of income taxes.

            Accounting for all forms of taxation, they pay roughly 25%.

            Corporations “pay nearly no taxes” is just categorically false. Language matters - some companies avoid paying federal income tax. In these cases, chances are it had a combination of both zero or negative book income and either net operating losses, significant foreign profits, sizable capital investments, or all of the above.

            Of course, it’s also important to remember that federal income taxes aren’t the only taxes corporations pay. Businesses are also liable for state income taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes, of which are almost entirely unavoidable.

            Empirical studies show that workers (i.e., labor) bear more than 50 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax. How is it possible that workers bear the brunt of a tax they don’t even pay? The key lies in the difference between “legal” tax incidence—who is legally obligated to pay a tax—and what economists call “economic” tax incidence—who indirectly pays for a tax, often in the form of lower wages.

            The higher business taxes are, the higher the cost of investing is and the less likely businsess owners are to invest in things like equipment, buildings, and trainings that will make their staff more productive. And the less productive workers are, the less their employers can afford to pay them in the long run.

            Instead, maybe we look at limiting a companies ability to offshore profits, limit incentives for stock buyback, and adjust how deductions for stock options work.

            Crazy idea, how about we make it easier to pay taxes so companies don’t feel the need to cheat. What if we make it so it’s cheaper to pay federal taxes than it is to avoid them.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              What if we make it so it’s cheaper to pay federal taxes than it is to avoid them

              I’m with you if we also include penalties for avoiding taxes. Carrot and stick.

              The top 1 percent of earners alone pay over one-third of income taxes.

              The top 1% have approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of the total wealth of the country. So this tax rate sounds fair. Probably should pay a little more to account for the progressive nature of taxes.

              Personally, I’d like to see more inheritance taxes. We shouldn’t have a class of nobility.

              Also lift the cap on social security taxes.

              • seth@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                If they own 30% of the wealth they should be paying far more than 30% of taxes. After taxes and the cost of living comfortably, they are steadily increasing the wealth disparity and benefiting from a society where they are exploiting the lower classes, especially considering that a sizable number of people in the full-time working lower classes are not ever able to reach a level of basic comfort and security, as a direct result of them hoarding not just wealth but power, and not paying “their fair share” of either.

    • big_slap@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Maybe roll it back up to 35 percent

      let’s go for 40% to account for inflation. and that’s being generous lol

      • dan@upvote.au
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        2 months ago

        That’s… Not how inflation works, lol. At that rate, they’ll eventually be taxed more than 100%.

        • big_slap@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          hmm, true lol. I just want gigantic companies to pay their fair share, and 28% is just too low for my taste when we were getting way more from big businesses back during the 50s and 60s.

          I understand lowering the rate helps businesses grow, but come on, there are way more shittier companies taking advantage of the lower tax rate than it’s helping.

    • ???@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      As someone who lives in Europe, I already pay this much on income taxes. Is this considered high?

      Edit: actually like 30-33%

      • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I blame Reagan. It’s been historically really low ever since and every time it’s tried to be raised Republicans scream that they’re are coming for your money. Even if they are only trying to raise it for ppl making over 2 million or whatever.

    • RunningInRVA@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      She advocated for that in 2020 and lost, so she rolled it back to be more moderate. You can’t sell shit that people won’t buy.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You can’t sell shit pass legislation against corporations that people won’t buy are legally allowed to bribe our representatives

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Does it really matter what the rate is when they don’t pay it anyway?

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/13/companies-spend-more-executive-salaries-than-taxes/72941207007/

    "The analysis names 35 corporations, including Tesla, Netflix and Ford, that each reportedly spent more on compensation to their five highest-paid executives than they paid in federal income taxes over five years.

    Collectively, the 35 corporations spent $9.5 billion on their top executives over that span, the report said, while their combined federal tax bill came to -$1.8 billion: a collective refund."

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      To be fair, this is about the corporate tax rate, not the income tax that corporations pay.

      However, that article does mention the corporate tax rate and how corporations pay less than they are supposed to:

      The watchdog report draws on recent research by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, another nonprofit, left-leaning think tank. That group found 342 large corporations that paid a cumulative effective tax rate of 14.1% over five years, well short of the statutory corporate tax rate of 21%.

      Hopefully a Harris administration would close such loopholes as well.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    This needs to happen. Also massive corps need to start paying minimum tax. No more tax free years.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      I’m still stumped how ads make money. If your product ad interrupts my enjoyment, I am now fully aware of what I will not buy under any circumstance. How does that benefit anyone?

      • dan@upvote.au
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        2 months ago

        You’re not the average person though. A lot of people do respond to ads. The average ROI (return on investment) for digital ads is 200-500%, meaning for every $1 the advertiser spends on ads, they make $2 - $5 back. Retargeting ads (the ones that show you products you’ve viewed before) are even more effective.

        The reason ads are so prevalent is because people want stuff for free, and ads work well enough to cover the costs of providing a free service. I’m not saying they’re bad or good, just that that’s the state of things today.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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        2 months ago

        I’m just like this. On principle, I’m never going to click through an ad nor purchase the advertised product.

        That said, ads online have been so pervasive for so long that a lot of people just plain do not see any problem. In every thread about brave browser idiots try to make the use that “responsible” ads are actually good, like they’re providing you a service by making you aware of some thing you wanted to buy.

        Even in this thread, someone will probably be along shortly to tell us all about how the advertising revenue model is the only way to find the modern web. Vapid youtubers need to get paid somehow after all.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Taxing profit rather than revenue might be one of the reasons companies look for unlimited growth. If they had reasonable growth or were steady, they’d need to pay more in taxes since they’d be profitable. Instead if they spend all their money on regrowing and growing and growing and paying executives.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Encouraging unlimited growth is fine as long as there is robust anti monopoly work. Companies trying to grow is how we get better innovations and efficiency. But letting them grow infinitely is literally cancer.

      Encourage growth. It’s a good thing. But when a company gets too big, the government should hold a “yay, you won capitalism!” party, purchase every share of stock, give every worker a big bonus, and then break that company apart.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Important questions. Fiscal policy is wildly complex and what’s that saying about the road to hell and best intentions?

      I’m here for that conversation. What does tax hell out of them mean? Sounds good to me, but the idea deserves some talk.

        • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          That’s also because they don’t make much or any profit, right? That’s why I was asking whether they were taxing revenue or profit.

          • Maybe, but logically they should be taxed on revenue, right? I mean, that’s how we’re taxed as individuals. We don’t get to pay nothing because we took our whole salary and reinvested it into real estate or something. But they do.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              We don’t get to pay nothing because we took our whole salary and reinvested it into real estate or something.

              You literally described a 401k.

              I get your point though. All of our income is considered profit, but if we were taxed like businesses we’d be able to exclude rent and groceries etc.

              • Hazor@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Except a 401k gets taxed on withdrawals, potentially at a higher tax rate than you were paying when you invested some or even most of it. Also, we can’t invest our whole salary into a 401k, as there’s a hard limit on contributions. Whereas a business never gets taxed on the assets they invested in to offset their profits (except maybe state/local property tax, but then they get to deduct that from federal tax…), plus they get to deduct the depreciation of said asset for years going forward.

            • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              You also don’t want to put a huge burden on small growing companies though. I think they should transfer from a profit rate to adding on a revenue rate as the company gets bigger and the revenue increases.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Of course it’s on profit, same as the existing corporate taxes. She’s not proposing a new type of tax, just increasing existing rates.

  • samokosik@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    As it was mentioned here, issue is not the rate but the fact they don’t pay it.

    Making the rate higher will not motivate/force them to pay it. Making it too high would only motivate them to find a hole in the system.

  • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Honestly, unless we close the offshore tax loophole, reducing or increasing the corporate tax rate is basically symbolic, since the federal tax rate is functionally 0% for most cooperations.

  • NastyNative@mander.xyz
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    2 months ago

    Kamala here, we couldn’t get it done this term but we will next term. This is 100% what will happen! Biden promised the same, obama promised the same. When are we going to take this for the lie it is.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    2 months ago
    Congressional Budget Office (CBO) - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for Congressional Budget Office (CBO):

    MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United States of America
    Wikipedia about this source

    NBC News - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for NBC News:

    MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
    Wikipedia about this source

    Search topics on Ground.News

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/harris-proposes-raising-corporate-tax-rate-28-rolling-back-trump-law-rcna167208
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-trump-tax-cuts-wealthy-2024-election-rcna157099
    https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/54810

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