Tax-reforms that eliminate the double corporate tax would boost economic growth significantly

See Ending the One-Two Corporate Tax Punch: Jason Furman is right about the ‘stupid’ policy on overseas income. Domestic policy also isn’t so bright. by Brian Reardon and Tom Nicholsin the WSJ. Mr. Reardon is president of the S Corporation Association. Mr. Nichols is a former chairman of the American Bar Association Tax Section Committee on S Corporations. Excerpts:

"On paper, the U.S. has a world-wide tax system that imposes two layers of tax on overseas business income—an initial foreign tax when the money is earned and a second U.S. tax when the money is repatriated. In practice, however, companies actively avoid the U.S. tax by various means, including inversions (moving their headquarters abroad by merging with foreign corporations), shifting profits to foreign subsidiaries, and hoarding the cash overseas."

"On paper, the U.S. also imposes two layers of tax on domestic corporate income—one layer when the corporation earns the income and another on shareholders when they receive the income as a dividend or a capital gain."

"business owners have voted for a single-layer tax here as well. Those that are able become pass-through entities—sole proprietorships, partnerships and S corporations—where their business income is taxed only once, on their personal returns. Those that remain C corporations avoid the double corporate tax by retaining their earnings rather than distributing them, paying their executives excess salaries and bonuses, engaging in share buybacks rather than paying dividends, and borrowing rather than raising capital through the equity markets. The result is less investment, fewer jobs and more debt. It also means that very little corporate income is subject to a second layer of tax."

"Analysis by the Tax Foundation consistently finds that tax-reforms that eliminate the double corporate tax would boost economic growth significantly."

"The current code imposes a very high tax on equity investment, but a much lower tax on debt-financed investments. The dangers of too much debt were exposed during the 2008 financial crisis."