Reader Feedback on As I See It: Shared Sacrifice
April 18, 2011 Hi Victor,
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Your April 11 article, As I See It: Shared Sacrifice, is mind boggling. I’d love to send excerpts to my congressional delegation and governor. I don’t want to plagiarize, so what is the appropriate way to quote your article quoting others? By the way, CVS is one of the few large corporations headquartered here in Rhode Island. –Ed Hi Ed, The fair use provisions of the copyright law say you can quote a few items, but why not just email your politicians a paragraph of your own and then a link to Victor’s story? –TPM Victor: I always enjoy reading your thoughtful essays. And with this one, I agree with the premise of unfairness regarding multi-national corporations being able to report little or no U.S. income and thus pay little or no taxes. But that’s the fault of our corrupt politicians and ridiculous tax code, not necessarily the fault of corporate accountants. Also, you mentioned the 50-plus percent tax rate of Denmark. The highest marginal rate for Federal income tax is 35 percent, plus state income taxes which can hit 10 percent in some states (my state of New Jersey tops out at 8.97 percent), and then there is state/city sales tax (New Jersey’s is 7 percent), followed by property tax–which is not income-related at all, and all the other little taxes we have (e.g., gasoline tax). So I think comparing the U.S. to others just on federal income tax rates is misleading. Thanks again for your articles, they are always thought-provoking. –Paul RELATED STORY
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