The higher the tax rate, the more cheating you see.
States raised cigarette taxes and people started driving to Indian reservations and other states to get their smokes, or roll their own. Some of these same states are considering lowering the cigarette tax rate now to increase revenue.
The states are more hooked on the tax income than the smokers who have chosen to evade the taxes and quit.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Yes the IRS has increased audits- not just for the rich - but for everyone.
The targets are all those who have their own businesses- or are self employed. This is just another way to smack that golden goose over the head.
Corporate tax rates are the 2nd highest here in the USA. Another way to clobber that golden goose- and make it look so much more attractive to move operations overseas. All corporate taxes are basically just another tax on the middle class - because those costs are just passed on to consumers. So you and I pay more money for a product - from the cost of energy to an Iphone.
The real loss to the economy is not that which we can see- it's all that economic activity that is now missing from the economy. It's that business expansion that did not happen, that employee that was not hired, and that investment that did not take place. These things are hard to quantify- unlike the jobs that are being shipped overseas.
I know many companies who just flat out refuse to re-invest during the Obama administration, they prefer to just hold onto their cash until a more friendly administration is elected.
As an investor - I am also not going to risk my money at this time. There will be plenty of opportunity to invest after the golden goose killers are gone.
That being said, it is a huge incentive to look into keeping an overseas office. I'm not a big employer, but pay plenty of taxes even though all the money I've earned over the past 5 years is exclusively done so overseas. If I can save myself 80k by dong that, it is reason enough. I'll support our government in other ways.
