Replacing the Corporate Income Tax with a Cash-Flow Tax‪.‬

Americans have been inundated with financial scandals at large corporations during the past two years. In many cases, unethical behavior and poor oversight of corporate management are to blame. But the corporate income tax has also been a key source of corporate inefficiency and scandal. The tax code distorts financial and investment decisions, and spurs executives to hunt for tax shelters. These tax problems are highlighted in the 2,700-page report on Enron Corporation by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT 2003a). Enron is just one company, but it took a team of JCT investigators a year to figure out how all its tax shelters worked. The JCT's efforts were a mirror image of the efforts of Enron, the accounting firms, and investment banks that put Enron's tax shelters into place originally. The JCT (2003a:16) concluded that Enron "excelled at making complexity an ally." While an ally to Enron, tax complexity is an enemy to productive corporate management and efficient investment decisionmaking.