Rick Kelo- Understanding Tax Rates on a Deeper Level

Rick Kelo is an Authoritative Economic Voice, Who Helps Others Understand How Ideas Have Shaped Our Modern World

Nothing quite sparks heated debate in the US as does the subject of taxes and what we should and shouldn't be paying. On the one hand, many see taxes as an important part of civilized society- providing the government with the money to spend on things we can all benefit on- schools, roads, hospitals and other aspects of infrastructure. For others, taxes are the government greedily deciding how our hard earned money should be spent, and taking the power into their own hands. In many ways it also explains the partisan political divide in the US, as many of these ideas fall on either side of the Republican/Democrat fault line.

Rick Kelo is a head tax adviser, and also prolific economic thinker. He is a member of the academic question and answers forum Quora.com, where he helps answer users questions about economics and explain them in context of the real world. A recent question posed was as to Why the US has the Highest Rate of Business Taxes in the World. IN a short and informative response, Rick Kelo answered as follows.

''Firstly there are Marginal Tax Rates, or the maximum amount on paper that a corporation may pay before deductions. Secondly comes the Effective Tax Rate (called ETR in taxation). This is the amount that a firm actually does pay after deductions. The other point I’d clarify is you say “Businesses.” Really in an American context we’re talking about C Corps, and in the context of the answer I am about to give you it is publicly traded C Corps. It is impossible to verify or truly know the tax rate of private companies. America's Effective Tax Rate, that our large corporations actually pay, is the second highest in the world. Our multinationals (MNCs) pay an average ETR of 30%. Only Japan is higher at 37%.''

Rick Kelo has seen himself become an important member of the Quora community, where he has been able to use it as a platform to share his ideas on classic liberal economics, and the importance of keeping old ideologies such as socialism at bay. His educated mind is one of many which is most welcome on forums such as Quora, which are helping shape the way people think in the age of the internet.