Fair Taxes Are Fair.

       Have you paid much attention to corporate taxes? I suppose unless you're a corporation, you haven't. The point is some corporations pay the somewhat high 39% or close to it. But other companies pay no tax at all or nearly none. That's not a fair arrangement. Not to Americans and certainly not to companies paying the full boat. But then, that's the case with a lot of our tax code.
       Now there's a newer idea that's beginning to get listeners. It's a tax on the profits of products and services on the corporation that generates those products or services in the jurisdiction of final sale. In other words, if Apple builds a new I-phone, it wouldn't matter where it was built or who holds the patent, it would only matter where it was sold. So if Apple or GE or any other company sells $9 billion and makes $5 billion in profit in America, they pay taxes on $5 billion. If they sell $20 billion to the rest of the world, the rest of the world can tax it any way they want.
       This would include any company from anywhere in the world. So if a Chinese company sells cheap electronics here or Bangladesh sells cheap shirts here, they have to pay the same taxes on profits here on those items sold here as our own companies. The advantages are several. First, there would be no reason to hold profits offshore in tax sheltered locations. By taxing the profits on all product sold here, by all companies, the tax rate could be lowered considerably. There would no longer be tax advantages for manufacturing items to be imported to America. Foreign manufacturers would no longer get a break that American companies do not.
       It may not be a perfect idea and given our Congress's track record, a simple law just might wind up being hundreds of pages long and remain just as confusing as our current tax code. But at least we'd be leveling the playing field for our own manufacturers.