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October 05, 2004
Targeted Tax Cuts are a Slippery Slope
In the recently signed tax cut legislation were 23 tax breaks for businesses that were about to expire. While lower taxes are a good thing in principle, many of these are much too targeted. From Inc.com's reporting of this news:
"(P)art of the tax package are 23 tax breaks for businesses that were set to expire. Among the breaks, worth approximately $12.97 billion, are a research and development tax credit, credits towards alternative energy production, and additional support for the continued economic recovery of lower Manhattan. The tax relief is expected to cost the government $131.4 billion in revenue over the next decade and would affect an estimated 94 million Americans."
Economic engineering does not work over the long-term. A better policy is broader tax cuts that can help all businesses and all citizens help to continue to support economic expansion.
And while we are at it, since when did tax cuts become "costs"? That seems to imply that it is the government's money to begin with. The only costs for government are things that they spend, not revenue that they are not allowed to take from us. It is bad enough when the main stream media uses such language, but even more frustrating when a business news source, such as Inc, talks this way....
Posted October 5, 2004 10:05 AM
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at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
