Sorry, Stanley

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, May 9, 2003

[TroutStalker]

Someone owes Stanley Works an apology. Last year, Connecticut politicians and the AFL-CIO shamed the tool and hardware company out of reincorporating in Bermuda so it could save $30 million in corporate income taxes. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and GOP Congresswoman Nancy Johnson will no doubt now want to take some responsibility for the company's decision this week to lay off 1,000 workers and close nine facilities.

[Asclepius]

Someone owes Stanley Works an apology. Last year, Connecticut politicians and the AFL-CIO shamed the tool and hardware company out of reincorporating in Bermuda so it could save $30 million in corporate income taxes. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and GOP Congresswoman Nancy Johnson will no doubt now want to take some responsibility for the company's decision this week to lay off 1,000 workers and close nine facilities.

Willlie Green, call your office!

[freeper12]

>>Mountains of economic evidence show that corporations don't pay taxes; they merely collect them, with the tax cost absorbed by customers, employees or shareholders

Stupid statement...by that logic, individuals don't pay taxes either, since for the most part they get their salaries from corporations. SO really, corporations pay all taxes right??

[Mr. Bird]

It's not a stupid statement at all.

[JeanLM]

This statement is not stupid. Taking your logic to its obvious conclusion, instead of taxing individuals, the IRS should just levy the tax on the corporation for every employee. This is what social security taxes are. A levy on headcount. Corporate taxes on profits are like any of the other costs of doing business. They are figured into the sales of product or services.

The biggest check I ever wrote was for $700,000 to the IRS for the first quarter taxes when I first went into business. I struggled with the problem of why they took this much money off the top. I've never taken anything like this amount out of the business myself, and at the time I would and could have used it to buy equipment to create more business. What did they( the government ) do to lay claim to that much of the profit generated? I still don't have the answer to that question.

Since then we make sure the tax bill is as low as it can be. Who paid that first tax? The employees I would have hired did.

[IYAS9YAS]

That statement is 100% correct.

[babyface00]

by that logic, individuals don't pay taxes either, since for the most part they get their salaries from corporations. SO really, corporations pay all taxes right??

In a word, no. This would only be true if individuals can voluntarily increase their salaries to offset the cost of taxes. If you have a job like this, please let me know so I can apply there.

[jammer]

You are incorrect.

[freeper12]

>>This would only be true if individuals can voluntarily increase their salaries to offset the cost of taxes.

But corporations can't voluntarily increase prices whenever they want either...not if they need to compete.

[ninenot]

Back when the original list of companies incorporating overseas came out, I noticed that there were a significant proportion of those companies involved in manufacturing hand- and power-tools. Stanley and Cooper still come to mind.

Anyone who's watched the tools biz can tell you that Red China is killing these guys. Milwaukee Electric Tool just moved a number of assembly lines to Mexico, closing plants in Mississippi to do it. THEY HAD JUST BUILT THOSE PLANTS IN MISSISSIPPI within the last 10 years!!!

And it's not just the "cost of labor," by a long shot. Tax and regulatory costs, as well as "lawyer-proof" designs, are driving domestic-manufacturing costs through the roof.

But there are those who think that Gingrich's "Free Trade" legalization of prostitutes is still the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not even the fact that X42, a traitor and pervert, signed this legislation gives anyone pause for thought.

Soon enough, there'll be PLENTY of time available to 'pause for thought;' there'll be no jobs to keep people busy in the manufacturing sector.

[Glock22]

That's an old Reagan line: Corporations don't pay taxes....people pay taxes. ALL the taxes. And he was right. Raise taxes on a corporation, what does it do? Raise prices, if it's going to continue making a profit.

[babyface00]

But corporations can't voluntarily increase prices whenever they want either...not if they need to compete.

Just because there's a potential downside, doesn't mean they can't (and don't) do it. Plenty of businesses are insulated from competition, either by the markets they serve, the products they produce, or the perception of their product by consumers.

IMHO, its a lot different than the position an employee is relative to an employer.

Besides that, many people don't work for corporations - who is paying their taxes? There are very few corporations that don't have any employees, customers, or shareholders.