The United States must lower the corporate tax rate now to jumpstart the nation's economy, renowned economist Art Laffer, the father of supply side economics and member of Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board, told Newsmax TV.
"I really want to see us get that corporate rate down," Laffer told host Bill Tucker on Monday's "America Talks Live." "That's the killer here.
"There are a lot of companies now that pride themselves on paying no corporate taxes whatsoever because they use the tax code law to the fullest. If you cut that rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, which is what Trump proposed, they're not going to pay any less in taxes. They're not paying any now.
"What you're going to find is that these people at 35 percent find it worthwhile to hire lawyers, accountants, deferred income specialists, lobbyists, all those people to find ways around the tax codes and not pay taxes."
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At 15 percent, Laffer said, those lawyers, accountants and lobbyists "become much more expensive, and they'll ensure the use of shelters, and they'll pay their damn taxes and save money and make more."
He said the difference between the statutory corporate tax rate and the effective tax rate is huge in the United States because of shelters.
"If we drop that corporate tax rate, shelters will disappear and that almost by itself would cover the ecstatic revenue losses," Laffer said.