In a Remarkable Show of Bi Partisanship... GE Pays No Tax on 14 Billion Profit.

[buckethead]

My reason for wanting an honest debate in our congress is simplicity, transparency, and fairness.

That would be the answer to the question: "Why do you want an honest debate in our Congress".

However, I actually asked a different question.

Why do you think our taxation system needs to be changed radically?

I'm your huckleberry.

Because politicians use it (our current tax code/system) to garner favor and lend competitive advantage to donors, friends, cronies, and themselves. The tax code is a behemoth that takes someone as smart as but a few members here to be navigated. An instrument of public funding for private plunder.

Stephen can probably manage it, but buckethead is lost.

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/mar/15/marcia-fudge/rep-marcia-fudge-says-some-largest-corporations-pa/

... Between 1998 to 2005, GAO found that about 72 percent of large foreign controlled companies and 55 percent of large U.S. controlled companies reported zero tax liability for at least one year. About 57 percent of foreign controlled large companies and 42 percent of U.S. large companies paid no taxes in two or more years, and a third of the foreign companies and one quarter of their U.S. counterparts paid no taxes for at least four of those years. Just 45 percent of large U.S. companies and 28 percent of foreign companies reported a tax liability for each of the eight years. The report defined large companies as those with at least $250 million in assets, or at least $50 million in receipts

When GAO factored smaller companies into the mix, it found a higher overall proportion who didn’t pay taxes. Throughout the eight years the study examined, the overall percentage of non-tax-paying foreign and U.S. controlled companies never fell beneath 60 percent annually.
The report said that corporations may not pay U.S. income taxes for a variety of reasons, including current-year operating losses, tax credits, and multinational corporations shifting income to lower tax jurisdictions.

"Some corporations could have zero income before deducting expenses and others could have zero net income after deducting expenses, both of which could result in no tax liability," the report said.

After the GAO report was released, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Martin Regalia released a statement that stressed the difference between companies not having a tax liability and shirking taxes that are owed.

"The GAO report doesn’t say that businesses aren’t paying taxes they owe," Regalia’s statement said. "Rather, it says that some corporations did not have tax liabilities â€" in other words, they did not owe taxes. So how do corporations avoid having tax liabilities? They don’t make any profits. You can have many billions of dollars in revenue and still have R&D, labor-related and other expenses that are larger than your revenues â€" and therefore no ‘income’ to tax.

"In sum, the idea that there is a large pool of corporations not paying taxes that they legally owe is just incorrect," Regalia concluded.

The nation’s big business representatives don’t dispute the report’s findings, even as they stress it should not be misconstrued to mean businesses are evading taxes they owe. During her television appearance, Fudge stressed that the businesses who don’t pay taxes aren’t cheating or doing anything wrong.

[JagFan07]

I've already paid taxes on my savings and don't want to pay an additional 30%.

And under the current system you will still be stuck with the embedded taxes in all products you buy. The Fair Tax replaces all government revenue, not just Income Tax.

[BridgeTroll]

What about state income taxes?  Local sales taxes?

[buckethead]

I've already paid taxes on my savings and don't want to pay an additional 30%.

And under the current system you will still be stuck with the embedded taxes in all products you buy. The Fair Tax replaces all government revenue, not just Income Tax.

You won't pay tax on any savings. Just "spendings" (to coin a phrase). We'd all be in the same boat, with the rich hit hardest, in terms of double taxation due to a systematic change of taxation (once we decided to spend it on goods and services).

The good news: You would be free to invest your savings in a more productive manner without paying any tax on the new proceeds (until you decide to spend them, of course). Gas guzzling yacht for Lunican? TAX HIS ASS!

Buckethead want's a monster truck? TAX HIM!

The fair tax punishes poor stewardship to our planet.

Bling me??? TAX ME!

[JagFan07]

What about state income taxes?  Local sales taxes?

Sorry should have stated it "replaces all FEDERAL government revenue."

[finehoe]

1)      Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009.  Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2)      Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3)      Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4)      Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5)      Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6)      Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7)      Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

      Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9)      ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10)  Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

[Debbie Thompson]

Ok, catching up.  So basically the fair tax isn't fair, and we are shafted either way.  Big surprise.  Uptown, I guess 1099EZ really only needs two lines.  1) How much did you make last year? 2) Send it in.

[BridgeTroll]

What is it doing in return for those tax breaks?

Thats the complex question for each of these corporations.

All of this talk about closing loopholes.  Isnt it just a way to avoid raising the upper income tax bracket on Corporations?

Back to the levels that were in place when Ronald Reagan was elected president and the long slow destruction of the American Economy began?

If we close the loopholes, isnt that just a way of defunding the charities and economic stimulus provided by the corporations without finding an alternative method of funding them?

Is that responsible?

In addition... all of those "loopholes" are legal.  No one is accusing these companies of doing something illegal to avoid these taxes.  The loopholes were created by and voted on and approved by your congress.  So if you feel the need to "blame" someone... that would be your federal government.

[JeffreyS]

Is it responsible to leave the loopholes might be the more relevant question. Oh I guess they both are relevant .  I say doing nothing is not the responsible thing to do.  Cap the amount or percentage break any one company can achieve.  Large corporations operating inside the U.S. should never have large profits and next to nothing in taxes due.   

I just do not believe any of the mega corporations truly give or stimulate enough to our economy to justify the type of taxes not paid and credits given we have seen here lately.

But I will listen to arguments on behalf of those corporations but I suggest you make them good.

[Timkin]

I guess I should , but do not understand how corporations who make such huge profits, not only do not pay taxes, but get tax credits as well.  There is something wrong with that process, to those of us who do pay, I think pretty steep taxes for the level of income we have .

[NotNow]

I am a believer in the fair tax.  As has been stated before, it is not perfect, but it is at least reasonable in its pure form.

[Timkin]

Do you think it is "fair" for these corporations to not pay ANY taxes?

[Debbie Thompson]

Well, you have to remember that corporations don't pay taxes. People do.  When you tax a corporation 15%, they raise prices at least 15% to cover the cost.  So either way, you are paying them if you buy their product, not the corporation.  That said, if you DON'T buy their product, you aren't paying the tax, so I guess there is that.  But someone is. Maybe not you, but some consumer is covering the cost.

[Timkin]

Interesting.. but why do corporations not pay taxes?