If I could rewrite the tax code myself, in addition to treating capital gains and ordinary income the same, I'd seriously consider sharply reducing or even eliminating the corporate tax.
As you said, the corporate tax is an annoying form of double taxation, but governments have also proven to be terrible at actually collecting the corporate tax from big corporations. So really it's the smaller corporations' owners being double taxed.
The one thing I don't like about that scheme is that it makes C corporations into a way for anyone to defer taxation as long as they like. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing, but it could make sense to force owners of corporations (or at least of new fancy untaxed corporations) to realize their gains periodically.
Obviously this isn't 100% thought out. But neither is the current US tax code.
As you said, the corporate tax is an annoying form of double taxation, but governments have also proven to be terrible at actually collecting the corporate tax from big corporations. So really it's the smaller corporations' owners being double taxed.
The one thing I don't like about that scheme is that it makes C corporations into a way for anyone to defer taxation as long as they like. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing, but it could make sense to force owners of corporations (or at least of new fancy untaxed corporations) to realize their gains periodically.
Obviously this isn't 100% thought out. But neither is the current US tax code.