Newsgroups: can.general
Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman)
Subject: Re: Flat-Rate Tax
Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Date: Mon, 25-Sep-89 12:30:28 EDT
Summary: the has to be tax at the corporate level
Message-ID: <1989Sep25.123029.20626@lsuc.on.ca>
References: <1989Aug26.214344.24140@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto

In article <1989Aug26.214344.24140@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>jmsellens@watdragon.waterloo.edu (John M. Sellens) writes:
>>>Ideally, business
>>>income should be untaxed.  You can tax business income by
>>>taxing the dividend and capital gains incomes of individuals.
>>
>>So that someone earning a lot of money in a business can just leave
>>it there earning more money and delay paying any taxes for as long
>>as he likes.  Make the poor pay! :-)
>
>Yup.  Clearly, creating jobs and investing in our economy is evil and
>should be discouraged by taxing it.  Or rather, by taxing people who
>are *successful* at it and therefore make money.
>
>And people wonder why our economy is steadily sliding downward...
>
>"Your deep seated resentment of people who make profits is showing."

I think you're mistaken, Henry.  I'm all in favour of making profits.
What you're overlooking is that if there's no taxation at the corporate
level, there is a very strong incentive to leave funds in the
corporation, whether they are invested in bank deposits, the
stock market or anything else.  This would create a bias to
investment over consumption.  It would also allow those who
earn investment income through a corporation to effectively
defer taxation indefinitely.  It would also be inequitable unless
you allow those earning income directly (not through a corporation)
to defer taxation on all invested income as well.  Kind of like
no limits to RRSP contributions.  That kind of system has been
proposed; when you examine it carefully you realize it's much
like the GST -- a pure tax on consumption (i.e., everything you
don't save).

David Sherman
-- 
Moderator, mail.yiddish
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