Corporate Tax Should be Abolished

Thanks for submitting your argument Victorian. Firstly I'd like to discuss your first argument, which deals with corporate personhood. I accept that corporations consist of many people, however the law views corporations in a different manner. Since the Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward case, 1819, and subsequent U.S. Supreme Court cases, have ruled that a corporation should be guaranteed the same rights as a natural citizen of the United States. Such legal interpretation of the state of corporations has been used to argue against corporate regulation, upholding a corporation's right to donate to political parties and many various other cases, where corporations have claimed personhood for their own personal betterment. With this interpretation, it is only fair that this 'legal citizen of the United States' pay tax. Corporations, as much as they would like to, cannot only have the better side of the deal. Corporate taxation contributed to 10% of US Federal government revenue in 2013, over $234 billion. This is a substantial amount of money, money that goes into education, health, infrastructure, the military and many other key areas of government spending, all of which rely entirely on such finances. Ultimately, the supposed 'burden' on middle and lower class Americans from corporate taxation is removed, because the revenue raised goes into necessary services for these people. To the average American, a well funded local public school and appropriately maintained roads are simply more important than $5 or $10 off the weekly shopping bill. Furthermore, the competitive nature of retail and industry in this country, between corporations, practically force prices down to as low as possible. The removal of a corporation tax would be unable to in any means lower or reduce overall prices dramatically enough to impact someone's back pocket. Furthermore, the United States is in a chaotic fiscal climate. While debt and deficit continues to restrict the ability of the United States Government to deliver various services in a climate of fiscal austerity, the removal of a major revenue raiser would only further impact the budget. If the government, like you suggested, were to instead raise income taxes and abolish/lower corporate tax, this would have a direct impact on the American middle class, through additional taxation. This would grossly reduce spending and slow economic growth, which is a much greater burden on corporations than a corporate tax that has always been implemented. Any attempt now, or in the foreseeable future, to change the tax system in such a negative way would ultimately lead to the detriment of the US economy, the American middle and lower class and the United States budgetary crisis. Also, I agree that not all corporations are large, wealthy multinationals. The law and the US tax code recognizes this. In the United States, there are many different types of business ownership/entities, which are recognized under federal and state law. For example, a small business in Wyoming classified as a sole proprietorship would be taxed differently to a multinational corporation based on Wall Street. The corporate tax system is flexible in that respect, and larger more affluent corporations are taxed higher than smaller businesses.