LOWERING CORPORATETAXES GOOD IDEA?

If everyone agrees that corporate taxes should be lowered, why isn’t there a deal? One reason is that many corporations, despite claims to the contrary, don’t mind a complex tax code with a high statutory rate — often because few large companies pay anything close to 35 percent. Multinationals avoid taxes by moving profits around their global subsidiaries. U.S.-based businesses hire huge teams of lawyers to navigate motley tax laws and widen every loophole. All politicians advocate eliminating these loopholes until it’s their constituents that benefit — in which case the loophole is renamed an “incentive.”