The taxation of capital income – corporate profits, capital gains, interest, dividends, etc. – has always been attractive to both politicians and to economists.
Politicians are drawn to capital taxation because it presents an opportunity to raise a substantial amount of income but at the same time is politically popular in a way that labor income taxation or the elimination of the home mortgage interest deduction isn’t.
Economists are drawn to capital income taxation not because it is a good idea – many (most?) economists oppose taxing capital income – but because it presents a number of academically interesting features that are worthy of study. In particular, capital income taxation presents several tricky dynamic considerations that many other forms of taxation do not.
Suppose the United States government sharply increases taxes on business income – say by increasing the corporate profit tax rate. What are the short-run and long-run consequences…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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