A column in the Washington Post makes an excellent general observation about how taxes on business are actually paid by people. The piece also cites a couple of examples, including an explanation of why the Administration’s big tax hike on American multinational firms will backfire - which is the same argument I made in this video. The moral of the story, of course, is that a bigger burden of government is good for politicians, but bad for regular people.

Geoff Colvin explains:

The average citizen had to conclude that most big U.S. companies are tax cheats. Only a dedicated student of accounting would figure out that the term “tax haven” as defined by the Treasury Department means any country with a lower corporate tax rate than America’s, which is all countries except Japan.

The reality is that the administration is lashing out against perfectly legal behavior. A U.S. company that makes money in Country X pays Country X’s taxes on that money. If the company ever brings the money back to the United States, it must also pay the tax that would be due under America’s higher rate. The administration argues that because the United States has almost the world’s highest corporate tax rate (and even Japan’s is only a fraction of a point higher), current rules create incentives for U.S. companies to operate anywhere but here, at the cost of U.S. jobs. The White House therefore proposes charging all American companies full freight – the whole difference between their overseas taxes and the U.S. corporate rate – on all their profits as soon as they’re earned, no matter where. This measure, in their minds, would bring jobs home.

If the logic eludes you, you’re not alone. The bottom-line effect of the change would be a steep tax hike – more money vacuumed out of corporate coffers. Would that make U.S. companies competing in a global economy more inclined to hire additional workers in the highly expensive United States? The answer is clear. It’s why Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said recently that if the change is enacted, “we’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

…Tax-wise, a company is just a bunch of incorporation papers; all taxes are paid by people – customers, shareholders and employees. And guess who would bear most of the burden of these tax increases? It’s the U.S. employees of the companies being taxed.

Research has shown that when business taxes are raised by a dollar, 70 to 92 cents comes out of employees’ pay. When workers wake up to that fact, they may decide this is one time they don’t want the White House beating up on business.