Tax incentive

“ And yesterday, I proposed making it easier for small business owners to refinance their mortgages during these tough times.
To give these companies greater incentives to grow and create jobs, I’ve proposed a new tax credit for more than one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, as well as the elimination of all capital gains taxes on small business investment. Finally, we should provide targeted support to the most innovative small businesses, the ones with the greatest potential to export new goods and products all over the world. ”

“ So we have a more broken tax system that is providing greater incentive to evade the U.S. tax system and to locate production overseas. And so the opportunity is to reform the corporate tax system in a way that would maintain our competitiveness and actually encourage domestic production in the United States. ”

“ To be effective, a growth package must include tax incentives for American businesses -- including small businesses -- to make investments in their enterprises this year. And it must also include direct and rapid income tax relief for Americans like you. ”

“ Rather than overriding market forces, these newer proposals attempt to take advantage of market incentives by making moderate price and wage increases a matter of self-interest for firms and employees. The best known of these proposals involves tax incentives to reward or penalize wage decisions that deviate from some established standard. ”

“ Our analysis thus suggests that tax incentives primarily affect decisions about one’s place in the income density. Any individual change that differs from the national average can be interpreted, or defined, as the individual decision to accept another place in the income distribution. ”

“ In addition to cutting the spending deficit, the other essential goal of our plan is to create opportunity in our society where hard work is supported and initiative is rewarded. That's why there were important tax incentives added to this plan: increasing the small business expensing provision to $25,000 a year, a goal long sought by the American small business community; a new venture capital gains tax; big investment incentives for larger corporations to invest in new plant and equipment to create new jobs. ”

“ And millions of entrepreneurs who’ve been waiting to invest in their businesses will receive new tax incentives to help them expand, buy new equipment, or make upgrades, freeing up money to hire new workers. ”

“ This brought me to the conclusion that, “when a reduction of taxation is about to take place, it is exceedingly important that great care and judgment should be exercised in the selection of the tax to be reduced, in order that the maximum of relief may be afforded to the public with the minimum of injury to the revenue.” ”

“ Voluntary incomes policies can also directly influence wages and prices in the direction of moderation and thereby bring inflation down faster and at lower cost to the economy. Through a tax-based incomes policy (TIP) we could provide tax incentives for firms and workers to moderate their wage and price increases. In the coming years, control of Federal expenditures can make possible periodic tax reductions. ”

“ To pay for this historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure, the President is proposing to fundamentally reform the corporate tax code so that is incentivizes — so that it incentivizes job creation and investment here in the United States, stops unfair and wasteful profit-shifting to tax havens, and ensuring that large corporations are paying their fair share. ”

“ It is important that government now rationalize incentives to business to keep inefficient enterprises from proliferating. To promote efficiency and productivity in the financial sector, this Congress must now pass the remaining component measures of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program -- both to simplify taxation and to increase revenue generation. ”

“ To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States. ”

“ Taxation would not then fall unduly on the man of moderate means; and while none would be entirely exempt from assessment, all, in proportion to their pecuniary abilities, would contribute toward the support of the State. A modification of the internal-revenue system, by a large reduction in the number of articles now subject to tax, would be followed by results equally advantageous to the citizen and the Government. ”

“ That tax is to be returned by, and collected from, the corporation as his agent and instrument.
A tax is understood to be a charge, a pecuniary burden, for the support of government. Of all burdens imposed upon mankind that of grinding taxation is the most cruel. It is not taxation that government should take from one the profits and gains of another. That is taxation which compels one to pay for the support of the government from his own gains and of his own property. ”

“ They are, first, that incomes below a certain amount should be altogether untaxed. This minimum should not be higher than the amount which suffices for the necessaries of the existing population. The second condition is, that incomes above the limit should be taxed only in proportion to the surplus by which they exceed the limit. Thirdly, that all sums saved from income and invested should be exempt from the tax ”

“ The very essence of taxable income, as that concept is used in Section 22 (a) , is the accrual of some gain, profit or benefit to the taxpayer. This requirement of gain, of course, must be read in its statutory context. Not every benefit received by a taxpayer from his labor or investment necessarily renders him taxable. Nor is mere dominion over money or property decisive in all cases. In fact, no single conclusive criterion has yet been found to determine in all situations what is a sufficient gain to support the imposition of an income tax. ”

“ For until the bill is signed, its investment incentives cannot be deemed certain, and the withholding rate cannot be reduced-and the most damaging and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in America is to keep him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is. ”

“ The equitable distribution of the costs of government through the medium of an income tax is a delicate and difficult task. In its performance experience has shown the importance of reasonable opportunity for the legislative body, in the revision of tax laws, to distribute increased costs of government among its taxpayers in the light of present need for revenue and with knowledge of the sources and amounts of the various classes of taxable income during the taxable period preceding revision. ”

“ The estimated revenue from these sources was $877,500, affording a small excess over the sum which would be required to pay the interest on the assumed debt. The policy of the measure was discussed in a well-digested and able argument, detailing many motives, in addition to those assigned in his original report, for preferring the system now recommended to accumulated burdens on commerce or to a direct tax on lands.
A new tax is the certain rallying point for all those who are unfriendly to the administration or to the minister by whom it is proposed. ”

“ But we think the tax assailed here finds support in reason, and in the practical needs of a taxing system which, under constitutional limitations, must accommodate itself to the double demand that interstate business shall pay its way, and that at the same time it shall not be burdened with cumulative exactions which are not similarly laid on local business. ”

“ A fortiori do they warrant a tax on sales which is not intended to discriminate against or to discourage them, but simply to collect a revenue for the benefit of the whole community in a convenient way. ”

“ If, as claimed. they are able to procure better management, a tax upon gains will uniformly reflect the effects of such management. And the same principle holds true of every advantage said to adhere in the magnitude of a business.
As we have said, the statute does not purport to levy a tax on incomes. ”

“ Taxation should be as widely diffused as possible, at however small a rate the minimum contribution may be fixed, if only to give the greatest possible number of citizens an interest to watch governmental expenditure, and an incentive to curb governmental extravagance. ”

“ Contrary to these purposes, numerous tax regulations issued over the last several years have effectively increased tax burdens, impeded economic growth, and saddled American businesses with onerous fines, complicated forms, and frustration. Immediate action is necessary to reduce the burden existing tax regulations impose on American taxpayers and thereby to provide tax relief and useful, simplified tax guidance. ”

“ We should contend for an income tax not simply for the purpose of raising revenue but for the purpose of framing a revenue system which will distribute the burdens of government between consumption and accumulated wealth, which will enable us to call upon property and wealth not in an unfair and burdensome way but in a just and equitable way to meet their proportionate expenses of the government, for certainly it will be conceded by all that the great expense of government is in the protection of property and of wealth. ”

“ It is to be feared, therefore, that the fairness which belongs to the principle of an income-tax can not be made to attach to it in practice. This consideration would lead us to concur in the opinion which, until of late, has usually prevailed—that direct taxes on income should be reserved as an extraordinary resource for great national emergencies, in which the necessity of a large additional revenue overrules all objections. ”

“ As we said in the case already cited, 'the power of taxation is an incident to such a corporation, and may be exercised for all the purposes authorized by its charter or subsequent legislation. Whatever the legislature empowers the corporation to do is presumably for its benefit, and may, in 'the proper government of the same,' be done.' Besides the power thus existing at the time the bonds were issued, the act providing for their issue directed, as already stated, a special tax to be levied each year to meet the annual interest on them. ”

“ It was clear that the Government must have a revenue, and that revenue could only be raised by direct or indirect taxation; and he preferred, under the circumstances of the country, indirect taxes, which the people did not feel, and were not compelled to pay unless they liked; for the poor were not compelled to buy foreign imports, but if they bought them they must pay a tax to government. ”

“ It is not material that such profit is taxed, along with other gains, under the general income tax law, for Congress has power to impose an increased or additional tax if satisfied there is need therefor. ”

“ An includable element of the 'invested capital' is the 'accumulated earnings and profits as of the beginning of such taxable year.' § 718. It thus appears that by this method Congress intended, with minor exceptions not here relevant, to impose the excess profits tax on all annual net income in excess of 8% of a corporation's working capital, including its accumulated profits. ”

“ What we would do with the fair tax is to eliminate all the taxes on productivity, which means you could earn anything you want. You wouldn't be penalized for saving, earning, for having a capital gain, making an investment. ”

“ We have reduced taxes, encouraged investment, and removed obstacles to growth. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 I signed into law will provide 23 million small business owners with tax cuts averaging more than $2,200 each. ”

“ We recommend a 10 percent surtax on incomes over $250,000 a year, and we recommend closing some loopholes that let some people get away without paying any tax at all.
For businesses with taxable incomes in excess of $10 million, we recommend a raise in the corporate tax rate, also to 36 percent, as well as a cut in the deduction for business entertainment expenses. Our plan seeks to attack tax subsidies that actually reward companies more for shutting their operations down here and moving them overseas than for staying here and reinvesting in America. ”

“ Unwise methods of taxation may have serious economic consequences, and may be contrary to the common welfare. There can be no doubt that the present system of high surtaxes levied on income by the federal government diverts investment to tax-exempt securities, especially the bonds of states, and thereby subtracts from investment in capital goods, i.e., those things that produce more income. ”

“ A family of four with an income of 40,000 dollars would see their federal income taxes fall from 1,178 dollars to 45 dollars per year. And our plan will improve the bottom line for more than 23 million small businesses.
You, the Congress, have already passed all these reductions, and promised them for future years. If this tax relief is good for Americans three, or five, or seven years from now, it is even better for Americans today.
We also strengthen the economy by treating investors equally in our tax laws. It is fair to tax a company's profits. ”

“ In each case the amount of the tax will increase as the profitability of the interstate business done increases. This Court has consistently upheld state net income taxes of general application so applied as to reach that portion of the profits of interstate business enterprises fairly allocable to activities within the State's borders. We do no more today. ”

“ The fact that Congress has already crafted some deductions and exemptions in the Code also is of no consequence, for the guiding principle is that a tax "must be uniformly applicable to all, except as Congress provides explicitly otherwise." ”