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Reality vs. Buffett Rule
Reality vs. Buffett Rule

by Robert Robb/azcentral.com

At this point, a dispassionate discussion of the taxation of investment income is probably impossible. But let's give it a try anyway.

To promote his proposals to tax the wealthy more, President Barack Obama is trying to create the impression that millionaires and billionaires generally pay a lower effective tax rate than middle-class Americans. That's demonstrably false.

According to the latest IRS data, families with incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range pay on average 8.9 percent of it in federal income taxes. Those making a million dollars or more pay on average 23.3 percent of their income in federal income taxes. The gap narrows when other federal taxes are included, such as payroll taxes, but the federal tax code remains sharply progressive. The perception being peddled by Obama and others finds partial grounding in the difference in tax rates for investment income and wage income. This was highlighted by the kerfuffle over Mitt Romney's tax returns. Romney mostly has investment income which generally has a maximum federal income tax rate of 15 percent, compared to the current maximum rate on wage income of 35 percent.

So, why should investment income be taxed at a lower rate than wage income?

One reason, believe it or not, is equity.

Investment income is primarily dividends, or the distribution of profits by corporations to shareholders, and capital gains, or the increased value of stock or property over time.

Corporate profits, however, are already taxed at the corporate level, at a nominal rate of 35 percent, before they are distributed as dividends and taxed at the individual rate of 15 percent. The blended rate is around 45 percent, already considerably above the maximum wage rate.

Capital gains are taxed on their nominal value, the sale price minus the purchase price. If the asset is held for any period of time, that nominal gain has been eroded by intervening inflation. This is obviously a bigger deal the longer the asset is held and the higher intervening inflation has been. One of the justifications for a lower tax rate on capital gains is to compensate for this.

The economic reason for lower tax rates on investment income is to facilitate the mobility of capital. An economy functions better if capital is readily redeployed from less productive uses to more productive uses.

There is an inherent bias in favor of not realizing capital gains. If you have a capital gain of $100 and you leave the investment in place, the entire amount remains invested. If you realize the capital gain, you can only reinvest the $100 minus whatever you pay in capital gains taxes, currently $15. The higher the capital gains tax rate, the greater the disincentive for the redeployment of capital.

If the tax code disfavors the distribution of profits to shareholders, as the U.S. code still does, capital gets stuck in corporations. Corporations have fewer options and less incentive to redeploy capital than individuals.

Obama finally defined his "Buffett rule" - a minimum federal income tax levy of 30 percent for those making over a million dollars a year. Such a minimum would sharply increase the value of tax-exempt instruments, such as municipal bonds. Why is it economically preferably for rich people to invest in government debt rather than the private economy?

There are reforms that would make it more difficult for Obama and others to demagogue the issue of investment income taxation: Make dividends taxable as ordinary income to the individual but deductible as a business cost to the corporation; make capital gains taxable as ordinary income, but adjust the basis for inflation.

Defending the double taxation of corporate profits and taxing the inflationary increment of capital gains would be more difficult than spinning fairy tales about a tax code that favors the rich.

azcentral.com (column for 2.3.12)

 
Defend My Dividend
Defend My Dividend