When you tax something you disincentive it. Corporate income tax is a disincentive to profit.
Worse, profit is too intangible, and essentially all companies above a certain size hire teams of creative accountants to either 1. Create faux losses, or faux deferments. (See Hollywood). Or just locate abroad, see Google.
It's a tragedy of the commons. If you're not doing these things, you're at a competitive disadvantage.
Much better to tax wages, property, sales, etc. And of course, as progressively as possible.
Overly complicated or bureaucratic schemes never work.(Carbon tax, Trading), instead tax fossil fuels.
Edit: Perhaps Iand has already said this in a simpler manner:
"They are pointing out that they pay taxes on tangibles such as salaries, VAT and business rates. Corporation tax is based on the fungible concept of profit and really is unworkable."
Yes, it needs to be pointed out that the corporate income tax is basically regressive. Large corporations with enough scale can afford to implement advanced tax avoidance strategies along with armies of accountants, lawyers, and shell companies.
Your average small business and even larger private companies can't afford to do this at all. Yes, they have the S-corp option available, but a C-corp paying 3% effective tax rate on its profits and its shareholders only paying a dividend tax is superior to being an S-corp and paying payroll taxes on your paycheck to yourself (required) and then personal income taxes on the rest.
39% corporate tax rate is really mind boggling IMO.
Worse, profit is too intangible, and essentially all companies above a certain size hire teams of creative accountants to either 1. Create faux losses, or faux deferments. (See Hollywood). Or just locate abroad, see Google.
It's a tragedy of the commons. If you're not doing these things, you're at a competitive disadvantage.
Much better to tax wages, property, sales, etc. And of course, as progressively as possible.
Overly complicated or bureaucratic schemes never work.(Carbon tax, Trading), instead tax fossil fuels.
Edit: Perhaps Iand has already said this in a simpler manner:
"They are pointing out that they pay taxes on tangibles such as salaries, VAT and business rates. Corporation tax is based on the fungible concept of profit and really is unworkable."