Corporate Taxes

Corporations must pay their fair share. If corporations are given lower taxes or end up paying none it should yield more good jobs and livable wages. It's time we enforce this trade off and work together to achieve this goal. Additionally, we need to continue developing up-to-date tax treaties with foreign countries and agree on principles that better reflect today's multinational and digital world.

I will start by stating this: not paying taxes is un-American, whether you are an individual or a corporation. I’ll take it a step further by stating that anyone who introduces legislation that takes away from our tax base, helps to grow our deficit, and makes it harder to fund public programs. In some way, shape or form, from the very founding of this nation, as a country, we have always imposed a charge (ex. tariffs, taxes) on businesses and commerce for the good of the American people. The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution grants Congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. I operate by the same fundamental belief that we should render to the government what belongs to the government.

I challenge anyone who disagrees with me to visit a foreign country that does not impose or collect taxes! They will face a very rude and scary awakening!

Everyone, especially corporations, should pay their fair share in taxes and be required to pay some minimum amount of tax to help fund the government. Tax is essential to help the government provide protections to citizens, build better roads and bridges, institutions and create better infrastructure. Tax is a burden we must all live with, rather rich or poor, rather we like it or not, as it continues to play a crucial role toward the progress of humanity. Taxes are used to fund various social welfare packages that we would not otherwise have, such as social security and programs for the less fortunate. Taxes are the life source of a nation. In order to keep the nation functioning, we should be patriotic to this life source.

It’s been said that America’s corporate tax rate is the highest among developed countries. So what. They also reap the most benefits! This is an argument often fueled by politicians who support cutting business taxes. However, what companies actually pay varies according to profit, exemptions, deductions, and credits. For example, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) corporations’ tax rate dropped from 35% to 21%. This gift was supposed to be in exchange for more jobs and better wages. However, many companies didn’t even pay the 21% due to loopholes in the system and those who did made no changes for their workforce at all.

When we have multi-billion-dollar companies paying little to no taxes on their income, while those with a single filing status are getting more than 25% taken from their earnings per paycheck with more money owed during tax season, this is a problem. I don’t think teachers and firefighters should be paying more for running the federal government than huge American corporations that make billions. We need to ensure that our corporate tax code remains fixed and heavily monitored by a fully functional and operational IRS system.

Indiana's GOP senators support legislation which has led to a huge drop in the amount of taxes we collect from big corporations. This is unpatriotic, irresponsible, and downright dangerous to the public services we find most vital, which include national security. If they want to lower the tax rate for their corporate buddies, they can replace it with their own government paychecks!

On November 3, 2011, I was the first person to publish a detailed account of the cry from the “99%” protesting on Wall Street during the Occupy Movement for more corporate accountability. As a United States Senator, I promise to bring this same energy with me to D.C. and do the following:

Work with my colleagues to ensure it's impossible for corporations to pay zero corporate income taxes on profits
Capital Gains Tax: Everyone must pay their fair share of taxes. I support legislation which taxes capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income because let’s just be real, it is income. Additionally, I support legislation which requires the tax be paid annually.
Support legislation that prevents large American companies from receiving so many credits, exemptions, deductions, and passing through other loopholes that makes it impossible for them to pay a single dime and also not provide livable wages to workers.
Develop up-to-date tax treaties and agreements between countries so that American companies doing business overseas must pay tax. The profits corporations earn overseas should also be subject to a tax. However, subsidiaries of U.S. corporations are entitled to a tax deferral unless the income is repatriated to the U.S. America cannot lose trillions in tax revenue that could have otherwise been used for improving healthcare, education, transportation, and so much more. As a U.S. Senator, I promise to also work hard with corporations to get their input on legislation.
Work on legal maneuvers used by Fortune 500 corporations which purposefully minimize their tax bills (ex. Selling or licensing intangible assets to foreign subsidiaries or pretending to operate overseas when they are not).
Create and support legislation that makes it impossible for corporations to underreport to the IRS while overreporting to investors.