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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: willcousa who wrote (173007)	2/11/2003 3:38:55 PM
From: tcmay	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

"It would be great if all of the tax cuts went directly to small business or venture capital but the political reality is that it cannot. Maybe someday when there is a general understanding that such incentives do the most for all of us." Your opinion above, perhaps shared by some others on this board, is precisely what is wrong with taxation in the Western world. You want to use tax rates as an instrument of social or economic policy. Taxes should first of all be _predictable_. This is the bedrock. Unpredictability not only is punitive to those who took the previous policy at its word, it increases friction and entropy in the system. It favors gamblers and "arbs" over "simple investors." Secondly, taxes should be fair and consistenly applied. Why, for example, should I be taxed at 40% on gains I made in one investment and taxed at a reduced rate on gains made in some "small business or venture capital" thing that some politicians decided was a politically advantageous thing to support. I hope Amy's startup does well, but there is no grounds based on the Constitution for taxing gains in her company at a lower rate than gains in a steel company or even in Intel. Further, variable tax rates makes the tax code even more complicated than it is now. The very same "Big Five/Four" accounting firms now in trouble for advising their clients on incorrect tax planning strategies will be rubbing their hands with glee that a complicated scheme to vary the tax rate depending on political payoffs will make tax advice even more lucrative for them. Lastly, attempting to manipulate the economy by picking "winners" is what MITI and the Europeans (Esprit) have been doing for decades. It doesn't work. And it isn't "right" to manipulate tax rates. Tax at a flat rate, or, at the very least, tax at a consistent and unchanging rate. --Tim May