It looks obvious

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” — Albert Einstein

Confusing but positive development

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This article in the Wall Street Journal left me somewhat confused:

BERLIN — Europe’s major economies are competing with one another to cut corporate taxes as they fight to attract and keep investment, fueling a trend that has taken Europe’s corporate-tax rates below those of other regions.

Nominal tax rates on corporate income in the European Union average 26%, compared with 30% in the Asian-Pacific region and nearly 40% in the U.S. The latest moves by European governments suggest business taxes in the EU will fall further in coming years.

Firstly - if the European countries recognize the benefits of reducing and simplifying the tax code why not making the jump toward flat-tax rate.

Secondly, and more interesting for me, is the question why not doing the same for non-corporations? if the purpose of taxes in mainly social-democrat Europe is to redistribute wealth, isn’t cutting taxes for the people who are suppose to be the greatest beneficiaries of the tax collected?

I guess this is a typical case of ideology meets reality, and since the progress is overall positive I shouldn’t complaint too much. Now we need to wait for the effect to get across the ocean…

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Written by Rogel

April 18th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

Posted in Europe, The Free Market

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