alt Hacker NewsUsing graduated rates for corporations isn't used because it doesn't work. The formal entity size is disconnected from the business size.
How many entities is "Google"? Is it one or is Search one company and Android another and YouTube another and so on? If they need to get the size of each unit below some threshold they can just file more LLCs.
Just use the size of the parent company, you say? Okay, which is the parent company, Google or Vanguard? If it's Vanguard then every public company exceeds the largest size threshold. If it isn't, they can use something which is formally an investment fund as the parent company and get as big as they want.
And even if you could do it, you would then create a perverse incentive for the government, because then breaking up those large companies into smaller ones would reduce tax revenue. When you should just break them up to begin with and actually solve the problem.
> Just use the size of the parent company, you say? Okay, which is the parent company, Google or Vanguard?
Could you maybe tie it back to majority control? Alphabet is one company because it actually has a controlling stake over Google, YouTube, Android, etc. Whereas Vanguard is just a minority shareholder in Google.
> And even if you could do it, you would then create a perverse incentive for the government, because then breaking up those large companies into smaller ones would reduce tax revenue. When you should just break them up to begin with and actually solve the problem.
The idea is that you wouldn't need to government to actively break up companies, they'd do it themselves (or get outcompeted). I will admit that this is very much unproven theory though (but I'd certainly be interested in people investigating the theory more formally if nothing else).