Over Half of U.S. Corporations Pay No Income Tax
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| Â “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” |
| —Late billionaire Leona Helmsley |
According to a study of corporate tax returns filed for the years between 1998 and 2005 issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), over 60% of U.S. corporations paid no corporate income tax at all.
For large foreign-owned corporations operating in the U.S., the number is even higher: almost 75%.
All of this is entirely above-board. After all, the government itself provided the statistics and is therefore fully aware of what is going on.
How is this possible? Simple. Large corporations can avail themselves of loopholes in the tax law that apply specifically to them. Individuals, by contrast, can only legally escape taxation if their incomes are in the poverty-level range.
Will corporations start paying their fair share of the tax burden once their biggest advocate, George W. Bush, is out of office? Don’t bet on it. As taxgirl.com, the site that broke the story, concludes:
Amid rising profits for companies and rising costs to taxpayers, both presidential candidates, Senators McCain and Obama, have vowed to close corporate tax loopholes. My bet is that no matter who becomes president, it won’t happen. And I’m not even cynical—just realistic.
Interested in reading more about how the very rich pay far less in taxes than average working Americans? See also Our Regressive Income Tax on this site.
That’s why lowering the higher tax brackets is so deceiving. The wealthy have ways to avoid taxes, but if they have to pay, it will be a much lower rate.
At Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, two thirds of their largest members don’t pay any taxes, yet they still whine and tell the rest of the country how bad this state is for business.
This brings up back to tariffs and penalties for outsourcing companies. Hell, even in-sourcing companies that don’t like paying Americans higher wages.