Tax reform postmortem reveals lethal dose of crony capitalism
BY PHILIP G. COHEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR, the Hill
http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/388281-tax-reform-postmortem-reveals-lethal-dose-of-crony-capitalism
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Furthermore, why was untaxed pre-TCJA offshore earnings of U.S. multinationals only taxed at rates of 15.5 percent for cash and cash equivalents and 8 percent for other assets, coupled with the tax being spread over eight years and heavily back-loaded?
In addition, why has the nation's tax laws moved in the direction of quasi-territoriality, wherein most foreign-sourced dividends received by 10 percent or more domestic corporate shareholders will get 100 percent dividends received deduction, i.e., they pay no federal income tax.
The answer to all three questions is that this was a pay-off to major campaign contributors, where their interests prevailed over those of the nation.
The lost revenue from TCJA will have two deleterious effects to our country. For one, a sizable debt increase, which Fortune indicated, "By 2028, America's government debt burden could explode from this year's $15.5 trillion to a staggering $33 trillion…".
Fortune quotes Moody's Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi: "This [debt increase] is almost like climate change. It doesn't do you in this year, or next year, but you'll see the ill effects in a day of reckoning."
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