Surprise, surprise: The tax bills that Congress rushed through without much oversight proved themselves to be full of loopholes. That is according a group of 13 tax law professors and lawyers who recently published a 34-page paper detailing what the unintended consequences of the final tax bill might be, Slate reports.
Here’s the verdict: The bills contain nearly two-dozen loopholes. Their impact will, in fact, make the rich even richer – not only with a 20 percent tax rate but also by allowing companies and investors to shelter their fortunes in various ways.
For example, investors might be able to shelter their profits by using C-Corporations, which will receive the 20-percent tax rate. Wealthy individuals across the board could save on their taxes by creating firms like partnerships and LLC’s that would bypass the corporate rate.
Here’s how that might play out: Baseball players would start to separate companies to collect all of their endorsement cash and royalties while saving on taxes. A law firm could break itself into multiple pieces to do the same.
And what does that do to our social services? As the rich use loopholes to save even more money on taxes, austerity measures will be put in place as the national deficit rises. The poor will bear the burden because the rich refuse to pay their fair share into the system. This is, in many ways, a corporate coup in action.
According to Slate, some of the bill’s incentives might actually encourage companies to move jobs overseas, which is the exact opposite of what Republicans claimed that the bill would accomplish.
And guess what? The tax plan is likely going to cost much more than what the Joint Committee on Taxation officially projected. More revenue will leak out than initially expected through the sheltering tactics described above.
Today’s political landscape is overwhelming. That is, in part, why the tax bill was able to pass through so quickly. With so much to focus on, it can be easy to place true tax reform on the back burner. But it is arguably more important than ever to focus on finding ways to undo the war that free market extremists are waging on our economy.
Get out and vote in 2018. Encourage your legislators to pass fair and rational tax reform that redistributes wealth into the social programs on which so many Americans depend. If we don’t, Americans across the country will have nowhere else to turn.
Featured Image Via YouTube Video.
