Sunday, August 7, 2011

Big Corp Tax Loophole Closer #40: Big REITs

In thoroughly studying earnings of publicly-held companies, I am just amazed at how many large publicly-held Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) I have run across.

And so many of these REITs are extremely profitable, particularly on an after-tax basis, since they pay so little US federal income tax.

When the country faces such an incredibly high debt, the last thing we want to do is to permit publicly-held REITs to be operating as tax-free entities.

And many of these REITs have nothing to do with the RE, or Real Estate. They are simply tax dodges…..pure and simple.

My proposal here is that all publicly-held REITs be taxed, for federal income tax purposes, as a normal corporation would be.

All of the tax proceeds raised here should be used to reduce the massive US debt.