Tuesday, February 9, 2010

In Which We Wonder Why Corporations Are So Levereged

And outsource the task to Felix Salom here.

Click the link - it's instructive. Corporations that finance operations through debt pay a negative six percent tax rate. They simply raise enough debts that they pay more in interest than they earn in income. The tax deductibility of interest payments takes care of the rest.

In a world where everyone would like to return to some semblance of thrift, subsidizing companies to take on debt and taxing equity at rates in excess of thirty percent, can politely be called "a large misalignment of priorities."