Greyhawk says:
“I’d like the idea entertained that corporations pay no taxes,”
So much for the myth of the corporate person. Would you let Exxon/Mobile keep all the money they have gouged since Katrinia? Please note that came out of your pocket.
Now if I tell a hospital I’m here for a tonsilectomy what happens if they amputate my foot. Please don’t be sarcastic, mistakes like that happen every day at a hospital. I used to work in one. My only option should be free health care?
The person in the story repeatedly told the workers no cheese. If I place an order should I not get exactly what I order?
Now as to the finger thing, I agree and if I remember correctly the two people were prosecuted for fraud and Wendy’s won a civil action against their future earnings as well. The system can work both ways.
Greyhawk, I hope I’m not coming across as sarcastic in the following. Here are my thoughts:
You are right about the corporation being treated as an individual under the law; a corporate person being a myth especially since many like Exxon/Mobile are international rather than American.
Concerning corporations paying federal income taxes, they should not, the same as business and individuals should not. One reason is because the influence of corporations has largely resulted in the mess we now have for tax law. Their corporate attorneys and lobbyists have twisted the IRS into so many knots they’d rather audit you and me! So, not only do corporations avoid taxes through off-shore banking schemes and high priced attorneys, they have made tax avoidance an art form.
This would all go away under the FairTax. Corporations would pay tax at the retail level just like everyone else and they could then bring the billions off-shore home (which would be good for the economy) and dump their tax attorneys and lobbyists.
I can’t understand why oil depletion tax allowances continue to exist. The oil companies themselves have repeatedly said they don’t need the tax write-offs.
Concerning hospital mistakes, my point was that the individual shouldn’t necessarily be able to sue for so much that he’s wildly wealthy for the rest of his life. Yet hospitals shouldn’t get of easily either. There has to be a balance.
Free health care as part of a settlement was mentioned as an option, just an idea. It was just a thought.
If you place an order with a food service thing, you should get what you ordered, of course. But if you are deathly allergic to cheese wouldn’t you open up the burger and look inside? But this doesn’t set McDonalds free of all responsibility – don’t get me wrong.
To repeat something I’d said earlier, corporations don’t really pay taxes anyway. They pass that expense on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
With the FairTax all would pay taxes at the retail level including corporations and the federal government. A corporation pretending to pay federal income tax is sort of like a state having both state income tax and state sales tax. It’s redundant and unnecessary.
Additionally if corporations are “set free” from paying taxes, they should also be forced into real competition with each other, straining to give the consumer the best possible price and paying with large fines and mandatory jail time for secret cartels and price fixing.
Hope this is an adequate set of answers.
Grimmy