Middle Class Growth

In order to restore middle class growth and pay down the deficit the following needs to take place:

• All compensation from employment needs to be defined as wages.  This includes various perks and benefits as well as stock options, dividends on stock acquired from employer awarded options, and capital gains on the sale of stock acquired through employer awarded stock options.
• Earned and unearned income needs taxed at the same rates.  There is no economic evidence that preferential rates for capital gains provide economic benefit deserving of lower tax rates.  The same can be said for dividends.
• The should be two additional marginal tax rates, one starting at $500,000 and the second on income over $1,000,000.
• Deductions and loopholes for individual income with the exception of charitable deductions and deductions for catastrophic uninsured events (including illness) where the loss or costs exceed 40% of income.
• Tax legislation that permits corporations to “park” income offshore needs to be repealed.  If corporations are “people” as defined by the Citizens United decision corporations should be taxed the same as a US citizen working abroad with the same requirement to report income earned out of the country and pay US taxes on that income
• A corporation that has stock listed on any US stock exchange, regardless where corporate “headquarters” is located should be considered a US corporation for tax purposes
• All income reported on an annual report or income used for executive compensation regardless of whether earned in or out of the US should be subject to US income tax rates. 
• Any corporate tax legislation giving exemptions, deductions, exclusions, or special consideration for specific named corporations or specific named industries needs to be repealed.
• Any corporation selling goods or services to the US government should be subject to paying US corporate income tax on all profits from the sales to the US government regardless of whether or not the corporation is an actual US corporation.
• Corporations such as cruise lines that are dependent upon business from the US should have a US corporate tax liability proportional to the degree of business derived from US customers.