This article has 11 comments:

Register or Login to rate comments »
•  
  • User 268871
  • 8 Comments

  Oct 15 04:55 PM
  >>More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies, or 66.7 percent of them, paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales
  
  This results in an average sales of $2.02MM a year for these companies. I doesn't take a genious to figure out that a company that does only $2MM in sales is a small business that is either breakeven or paying the bulk of the earnings to the owner in salary.
  
  >>The study showed about 28 percent of large foreign corporations, those with more than $250 million in assets, doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes in 2005 despite $372 billion in gross receipts, the senators said. About 25 percent of the largest U.S. companies paid no federal income taxes in 2005 despite $1.1 trillion in gross sales that year, they said.
  
  Likewise, 28% of foriegn companies and 25% of largest US companies are either not making money or havent made up for prior losses.
  
  Again, none of this is surprising, and does nothing to counter the argument that US corporations, when profitable, pay far too much in federal taxation.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • Brian27
  • 37 Comments

  Oct 15 05:00 PM
  Obviously the writer is oblivious to the fact that corporations do not pay taxes but collect taxes from its workers, investors and consumers.
  
  In a competitive world economy investment goes to were it receives the highest return. Hence, very little of the corporate income tax is collected from investors.
  
  In a competitive world economy corporations cannot pass on the cost of the corporate taxes to consumers because they can buy a foreign substitute product with the lowest price.
  
  So who is left holding the bag and paying for corporate taxes? Employees of the corporation of course. They can't move their labour services between countries to avoid paying the corporate tax. So employees end up paying the cost of corporate taxes. Some studies show up to 90% of the tax incidence falls on labour.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • Whidbey
  • 782 Comments

  Oct 15 05:09 PM
  Corporations have spent years getting their costs subtracted from their revenues, then making some adjustments to gross income before taxation. My experience is that most corporations are not net earners, but they do pay staff, pay dividends and produce something the public wants. There are advantages for Corps that no individual can use, but it is all arbitrary so, now it gets Changed again? Just helps business.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • Champ3
  • 2 Comments

  Oct 15 05:09 PM
  And how many of those domestic corporations are Sub S, where they are taxed as individuals?
  
  

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • akapital
  • 80 Comments

  Oct 15 05:17 PM
  i am in favor of corporations bearing more of a tax burden but we do have to keep in mind that corporations who employee US workers do have to contribute to Soc Security and Medicare, which are not taxes per se but still cost of doing business in the U.S.
  
  Many argue that these businesses would not operate in the U.S. if they had to pay higher taxes but important point here is that if you look at the alternatives (e.g. taxes in other countries) I think you would see even higher taxes. I would welcome some hard numbers here but I think U.S. corporate taxes are far less than most other countries. I agree they need to contribute more, if they did they would certainly benefit more in the long run....but no one is in it for the long run.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • User 268871
  • 8 Comments

  Oct 15 06:16 PM
  by this writers logic, individual income taxes are far too low because 45% of americans pay no federal income tax.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • otbricki
  • 133 Comments

  Oct 15 08:51 PM
  The fact that 45% percent of the population does not pay income taxes should be a big fat warning that the society we live in is seriously broken. The distribution of wealth in 21st century America is going to lead to huge social unrest and eventual socialization of more and more of the economy.
  
  

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • Deumlaokeng
  • 8 Comments

  Oct 16 12:11 AM
  As others have noted, the small closely held privately companies, numerically the vast majority of corporations (C-Corps), will not show much of a profit as the owners will take it out as salary; otherwise, it gets taxed twice, once as profit and then again as income. At least the income will be taxed appropriately.
  
  Large publicly traded companies need to show profit. But they usually find ways, conspiring with their overpaid tax consultants, to screw the populace and avoid paying taxes. These people are referred to in the vernacular as Republicans. For those who refuse to open their eyes, may I suggest reading any of David Cay Johnston's recent books such as 'Perfectly Legal' or 'Free Lunch'.
  
  By the way, I have yet to hear of any banks in the Caymen Islands experiencing financial stress.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • this Bud's for you
  • 40 Comments

  Oct 16 09:10 AM
  "to screw the populace and avoid paying taxes. These people are referred to in the venacular as Republicans."
  
  I think you are thinking with your a$$. Congress - in the plural - writes the tax laws of this nation. Last time I checked, it was not a Republican only club.
  
  Reasonable and educated people know that both sides of the isle play the game with favored tax treatment among the lobbyists of industry groups. Float a trial balloon about taking away a special tax favored status or hint that a new tax will be instituted and receive cash for the kitty. This is how they "earn" the money for their reelection campaigns. And we applaud them for sending a few pigs ears home by reelecting them over and over again. That is insanity.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • huangjin
  • 280 Comments

  Oct 16 05:26 PM
  Maybe you should talk to a corporate tax attorney or a corporate accountant. Corporations may pay little taxes to the Federal government, but they spend billions of dollars finding ways to make that possible. The easiest solution is to abolish taxes on corporations and free up a lot of mental energy for productive uses.

  Reply | Link to Comment
•  
  • Lala72
  • 1 Comment

  Oct 30 07:26 PM
  This is the problem when you have idiots that have no formal business/finance education running and commenting on this nation.
  
  Here's the truth: Corporations are NOT viable "beings"; they're not EVIL people; they're not BAD creatures. Really, a corporation is nothing but a collection of people, such as shareholders and employees. Corporations are not kings and queens and sadists and murderers. They're nothing more than their employees and their shareholders.
  
  Now, your average shareholder in the U.S. earns less than $80,000 a year in annual income. Is that rich? Is that big, bad, and ugly? Well, that person is getting taxed on any profits and subsequent dividends paid by that big, bad corporation, to the tune of 15% in capital gains tax.
  
  Then, we have the employee, who is subject to every nickel of taxation due in federal and state income taxes, typically to the tune of 50% annually.
  
  Now, why should a corporation be taxed when the corporation has ALREADY been taxed twice?!!
  
  A corporation isn't anything tangible. It doesn't breathe, it doesn't eat, it doesn't shit...
  
  And it shouldn't pay taxes...
  
  Because it already has by way of the people that actually make up that corporation.
  
  But, when you're liberal and stupid and bitter as hell that you are a failure in life, it's probably pretty difficult to grasp that notion.

  Reply | Link to Comment