Corporate, Capital Taxation, And What To Do About It.

[OldGimletEye]

On 2/25/2017 at 1:04 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

It's a good topic but I don't know what kind of response you expect. 

I sit here a bit clueless about how to resolve this issue.

All the responses that I'm seeing has given me something to think about. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

One of the biggest problems we have is that we aren't creating a system from scratch - it's easy to consider a better mousetrap in a vacuum, but our system in the US has been remarkably stable since at least the 1939 Code.  That is, though there was tax reform (and some of it significant) in 1954 and 1986, a lot of the principles are really unchanged.  This has created entrenched economic realities (like the mortgage interest deduction) that it might be very hard to unwind. 

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, Mlle. Zabzie said:

That is, though there was tax reform (and some of it significant) in 1954 and 1986, a lot of the principles are really unchanged.  This has created entrenched economic realities (like the mortgage interest deduction) that it might be very hard to unwind. 

I'd be interested in a list (even a short one) that you think would be the biggest problem areas as far as entrenched realities go. Like you I'm not a fan of the mortgage interest deduction (but, you are right that it would be hard to get rid of). Which ones do you see being hard to remove with respect to corporate taxes?

[Mlle. Zabzie]

15 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

I'd be interested in a list (even a short one) that you think would be the biggest problem areas as far as entrenched realities go. Like you I'm not a fan of the mortgage interest deduction (but, you are right that it would be hard to get rid of). What others do you see being hard to remove?

Well, it's moot for now because Mnuchin has confirmed that the administration is behind it staying.  Ah well.

I think the following are also really hard:

1.  Business interest deduction (the favoring of debt over equity investment has always been a bit puzzling to me).  But it's really hard to get rid of at this point given how ingrained it is in the credit markets.

2.  Capital gains preference (you've seen my reasons for not liking it).

3.  I'm actually not a big fan of tax deferred savings plans - I think they are just fee generators for mutual fund managers.  I don't have solutions though because the demographic pressures of pension type plans are crippling.

4.  Other goodies for real estate and oil and gas are lower hanging fruit but NAREIT and the oil and gas lobbies are super powerful.