Congressional Research Service analysis on "trickle down economics"

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   Don Wposted 6 years ago

   About the Congressional Research Service:
   
   "The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for more than a century".
   
   In 2012 the CRS published a report titled: "Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945".
   
   It's conclusions were:
   
   "The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.
   
   However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced - lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.
   
   (1) https://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/
   (2) https://www.democrats.senate.gov//files … 0Rates.pdf

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      promisemposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Although it's nice to see the research, it has been obvious to non-partisan Americans for decades that tax cuts benefit the rich to the detriment of the country's national debt.
      
      And Trump's new tax law has made the national debt much, much worse.

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         wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         "Although it's nice to see the research, it has been obvious to non-partisan Americans for decades that tax cuts benefit the rich to the detriment of the country's national debt."
         
         Of course it does.  After all, the country owns that wealth that others created and refuses to keep spending in line with any approximation of a fair tax.

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            promisemposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            By fair tax I assume you mean a fair tax on billionaires like Warren Buffet, who points out that he has a lower tax rate than his secretary.

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               Don Wposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               "Those wondering how many zeros Amazon, which is valued at nearly $800 billion, has to pay in federal taxes might be surprised to learn that its check to the IRS will read exactly $0.00.
               
               According to a report published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic (ITEP) policy Wednesday, the e-tail/retail/tech/entertainment/everything giant won’t have to pay a cent in federal taxes for the second year in a row.
               
               This tax-free break comes even though Amazon almost doubled its U.S. profits from $5.6 billion to $11.2 billion between 2017 and 2018.
               
               To top it off, Amazon actually reported a $129 million 2018 federal income tax rebate—making its tax rate -1%"(1)
               
               (1) http://fortune.com/2019/02/14/amazon-do … axes-2019/

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                  GA Andersonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  I also ran across that information, Don. I was checking out the story about New York losing their Amazon HQ2 deal, and following the details of New York's Amazon Incentive package.
                  
                  The details of that "package" prompted a similar question as your $0 tax point does; "Why?" I wonder if the answer to why Amazon's incentive package was almost $3 billion might be similar to why Amazon received a tax rebate?
                  
                  As in, all but $500 million of that $3 Billion incentive was monies available to any company that would relocate to New York -- $2.5 billion of that "incentive" was state law mandated programs, not Amazon specific deals.
                  
                  I haven't checked, but I would not be surprised if Amazon's $0 Federal tax result, (and even the $129 million refund),  was due to Amazon simply following our tax laws.
                  
                  Maybe we are villainizing the wrong entity.
                  
                  GA

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                     wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     We are.  I've seen many such stories, about large corporations paying little to no tax.  But no one ever questions the "how" or the "why", they never ask what that company paid to achieve that status.
                     
                     So we cry it isn't fair, that companies scrupulously follow our tax laws, including those that give tax breaks for performing actions the govt. wants them to do but can't force onto them.  As always half the story is so much more useful in convincing a gullible audience of evil and wrongdoing.

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