by Nicole Sinclair in Yahoo Finance
If there’s one issue that politicians could take on that would have overnight economic impact, it’s corporate tax reform.
A new Harvard Business School study on competitiveness concluded that tax reform is the single most powerful step to improve America’s economic trajectory. And the impacts would be felt almost immediately.
“Tax reform is the great unexploited opportunity we have to change the game at this point,” Professor Mihir Desai told Yahoo Finance. “We’ve been monkeying around with monetary policy for a long time, basically pushing on a string at this point. And tax policy is actually the great opportunity to do something that can actually move the economy onto a different trajectory.”
Meanwhile, it’s been 30 years since any tax reform has been enacted. During this time, the economy has changed dramatically and other countries have modernized their systems.
“There are a lot of global realities which our tax system just doesn’t match up with,” Desai said. “So there’s a huge opportunity.”
Mihir added that good tax policy should be driven by the goals of increasing economic efficiency, achieving greater equity, and reducing complexity.
“The forces of globalization have amplified the inefficiencies and complexities of the current tax system,” according to the report.
