Marius sat and listened to the initial criticisms. It was interesting that most complaints had come from the government's side of the chamber, the side that was required by the Confidence and Supply Agreement to vote in favour of the bill. Nonetheless, he supposed it was good that parliamentarians were staying honest to their policy standpoints. He looked around, and felt it was about time to stand in defense of his bill. Marius stood, and cleared his throat.
"Madame Speaker,"
Puertollano wrote:"That corporate tax rate is needlessly high. It will kill local business across St Hilda; and that's my most optimistic point of view. Or, alternatively, there can be tax subsidies for our agribusiness and agricultural sectors. That way we can make sure that our food is locally produced, that we keep our jobs here and that our farmers aren't left in the dark.
Thoughts?"
"I respect the honorable member's care for the significant matter of local agricultural industry. He should consider that the maximum corporate tax rate proscribed will only apply to large corporations, that do no work towards sustainability, and do not produce new jobs for Saint Hilda. Additionally, I find that supporting specific industries or goals via indirect funding routes like targeted tax breaks is inefficient, and builds towards a great byzantine treasury which is difficult for the public to hold to account, to the benefit of special interests. If the honorable member wishes to provide support to local agricultural industries, he should consider a direct funding method such as an actual subsidy, rather than accomplish such things through complicating the taxation scheme."
The Archipelago Territory wrote:“I agree with the honorable member. This bill is a socialist bill, not a liberal one. It tries to control the tax rate by forcing businesses to do things or else pay abnormally high taxes!”
"Madame Speaker, the term "Socialism" refers to a variety of economic and political models wherein the capital goods of a society are owned in public, collective, or cooperative ownership. The Rational Taxation Scheme Act makes no mention of capital goods one way or the other so to hang the banner of socialism on the act is nothing short of hard-right fear-mongering. The member, I believe, refers to the indicative planning methodology utilized in the corporate taxation section of the bill."
"Indicative planning, unlike directive/mandatory planning, is utilized in many free market economies, prominently France and Japan. In fact, non-universal tax cuts are common in many very right-wing governments. The only difference being that the indicative planning used in this bill is used not to support the extremely wealthy, but to build a sustainable future and grow the desperately needed job market in our economy."
Idzequitch wrote:"First of all, I'm happy to see that our fledgling government is taking rational steps and attempting to find a reasonable tax system for all hard-working Sankta Hildans. I am also pleased to note that the tax rates proposed here are not outrageously high. With that said, I am concerned that the proposed rates are high enough to place a burden on people who have limited means to bear it. In addition, I fear that the rather high proposed corporate tax may have the unintended consequence of stifling our economy and limiting career opportunities for the people of Sankta Hilda.
The people of our great nation work hard, and I think it behooves us, our people and our economy to let our people keep as much of their hard-earned money as possible."
"Madame Speaker, I am appreciative that there are honorable members to the right of my position who can make known their concerns in a reasonable and principled manner. The honorable member will be pleased, I am sure, to hear that the tax rates proposed in this bill are actually much more forgiving in terms of personal income than the rates our citizens were paying to Sweden prior to independence, so the member could reframe his thinking that this is in fact a tax cut for those who need it."
"As for corporate taxes, small businesses that build the foundation of our economy can attain a rate as low as 10% of net profits if they are willing to work towards the goals we as a society share. I am confident that this bill will not be found overbearing to the good, hard working people of our nation."