Who Really Pays for Excessive Taxes?

“Knock Sense Into Taxes,” editorial, April 18: Your appeal for “smarter taxes” is on the mark, but start with a sensible philosophy of taxation. To begin, no less a light than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, appearing before Congress on May 21, 2003, said: “Capital doesn’t pay any taxes; only people pay taxes. What happens is, you impose taxes on organizations which then deflect them elsewhere. But at the end of the day, all taxes are paid by people.” Thus, if we saddle California (or U.S.) businesses with taxes, those taxes will be borne by the customer (usually) or the employee (lower wages) or the owners (lower return on investment).

If there were no taxes on business in California, there would be more businesses here and more jobs. Expecting the “golden goose” of business to pay taxes is like shooting ourselves in the foot. Don’t believe it? OK, double the business taxes, and we’ll then need several additional lanes on Interstate 15 to Las Vegas.

Bill Spillane

Manhattan Beach