26 top American corporations paid no federal income tax from ’08 to ’12 – report

[Samm]

Twenty-six of the most powerful American corporations – such as Boeing, General Electric, and Verizon – paid no federal income tax from 2008 to 2012, according to a new report detailing how Fortune 500 companies exploit tax breaks and loopholes.

The report, conducted by public advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), focuses on the 288 companies in the Fortune 500 that registered consistent profit every year from 2008 to 2012. Those 288 profitable corporations paid an “effective federal income tax rate of just 19.4 percent over the five-year period — far less than the statutory 35 percent tax rate,” CTJ states.

One-third, or 93, of the analyzed companies paid an effective tax rate below 10 percent in that timespan, CTJ found.

Defenders of low corporate taxes call the US federal statutory rate of 35 percent one of the highest companies face in any nation. But the report signals how the most formidable corporate entities in the US take advantage of tax breaks, loopholes, and accounting schemes to keep their effective rates down.

“Tax subsidies for the 288 companies over the five years totaled a staggering $364 billion, including $56 billion in 2008, $70 billion in 2009, $80 billion in 2010, $87 billion in 2011, and $70 billion in 2012,” CTJ states. “These amounts are the difference between what the companies would have paid if their tax bills equaled 35 percent of their profits and what they actually paid.”

Just 25 of the 288 companies kept tax breaks of $174 billion out of the $364 billion total. Wells Fargo received the largest amount of tax subsidies - $21.6 billion - in the five-year period. The banking giant was joined in the top ten on that list by the likes of AT&T, ExxonMobil, J.P Morgan Chase, and Wal-Mart....
Read more
http://rt.com/usa/low-corporate-tax-rates-275/

[JJIII]

Hey... has anybody ever heard of the "Fair Tax"?

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by JJIII

Hey... has anybody ever heard of the "Fair Tax"?

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

They still wouldn't pay, John. Charge them 0% and they'll try to get the state and federal governments to give them money.........

Oh, that's right, they already do.

Dave

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by JJIII

Hey... has anybody ever heard of the "Fair Tax"?

http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201104220008

Problematic And Unfair "Fair Tax" Would Burden Middle Class
April 22, 2011 3:21 pm ET

It's no secret hard-right Republican members of Congress love to advocate lower taxes for the richest Americans. One recent GOP proposal from Rep. Bob Woodall (R-GA) exhumes the long-discredited "Fair Tax," a bill that would abolish the IRS and replace income and corporate taxes with a national retail sales tax. But the proposal has numerous problems: It relies on unsound numbers and, in practice, it would cause taxes to rise, incentivize tax evasion, and shift the tax burden onto the middle class.

continued

[4-2-7]

Originally Posted by JJIII

Hey... has anybody ever heard of the "Fair Tax"?

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

I have heard a bit on it and quite a few other countries do it. We just need to find the cleanest way to make it work.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by 4-2-7

I have heard a bit on it and quite a few other countries do it. We just need to find the cleanest way to make it work.

You're confusing a sales tax with a VAT. They are different animals. Besides, countries with VAT tend to have income taxes as well.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by finnbow

You're confusing a sales tax with a VAT. They are different animals. Besides countries with VAT tend to have income taxes as well.

Exactly.

I doubt there is any country in the developed world that has anything near what the Republicans are proposing as a so-called "Fair Tax".

The "Fair Tax" is a right wing scam, specifically designed to shift the tax burden down to the lower and middle classes.