> ...dividends and buybacks create income for individuals who will pay tax on that income)
This is an important point people miss. The owners of those companies eventually pay taxes on the profits, so a corporate tax is a double tax.
There are a lot of things that get taxed: property, income, sales, corporate profits. You can vary these rates and still come up with a viable government revenue model. Oregon doesn't have a sales tax; Washington state doesn't have income tax. The only problem, and it's what this deal is about, is when these varying policies interact, or one jurisdiction does something very different from others.
What you end up taxing is a social policy lever, but it's otherwise not all that important. The important part is getting some degree of alignment so you don't encourage people to live in Vancouver, WA, but buy everything in Portland.
> The owners of those companies eventually pay taxes on the profits, so a corporate tax is a double tax.
Will they? Countries have a wide set of positions from "tax only corporate income" to "tax only dividends", with a lot of them sizing both taxes taking the other one into account.
This is an important point people miss. The owners of those companies eventually pay taxes on the profits, so a corporate tax is a double tax.
There are a lot of things that get taxed: property, income, sales, corporate profits. You can vary these rates and still come up with a viable government revenue model. Oregon doesn't have a sales tax; Washington state doesn't have income tax. The only problem, and it's what this deal is about, is when these varying policies interact, or one jurisdiction does something very different from others.
What you end up taxing is a social policy lever, but it's otherwise not all that important. The important part is getting some degree of alignment so you don't encourage people to live in Vancouver, WA, but buy everything in Portland.