2 out of every 3 US corporations didn't pay taxes from 98-05
Pepe Silvia
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/busin ... .html?_r=2
Study Tallies Corporations Not Paying Income Tax
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
The study, which is likely to add to a growing debate among politicians and policy experts over the contribution of businesses to Treasury coffers, did not identify the corporations or analyze why they had paid no taxes. It also did not say whether they had been operating properly within the tax code or illegally evading it.
The study covers 1.3 million corporations of all sizes, most of them small, with a collective $2.5 trillion in sales. It includes foreign corporations that do business in the United States.
Among foreign corporations, a slightly higher percentage, 68 percent, did not pay taxes during the period covered — compared with 66 percent for United States corporations. Even with these numbers, corporate tax receipts have risen sharply as a percentage of federal revenue in recent years.
The G.A.O. study was done at the request of two Democratic senators, Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota. In recent years, Senator Levin has held investigations on tax evasion and urged officials and regulators to examine whether corporations were abusing tax laws by shifting income earned in higher-tax jurisdictions, like the United States, to overseas subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.
Senator Levin said in written remarks on Tuesday that “this report makes clear that too many corporations are using tax trickery to send their profits overseas and avoid paying their fair share in the United States.”
But the G.A.O. said that it did not have enough data to address the role of what some policy experts say is a crucial factor in profits sent overseas.
That factor, known as transfer pricing, involves corporations’ charging their overseas subsidiaries lower prices for goods and services, a common move that lowers a corporation’s tax bill. A number of corporations are in transfer-pricing disputes with the Internal Revenue Service.
Either way, the nearly 1,000 largest United States corporations were more likely than smaller ones to pay taxes.
In 2005, one in four large United States corporations paid no taxes on revenue of $1.1 trillion, compared with 66 percent in the overall pool. Large corporations are those with at least $250 million in assets or annual sales of at least $50 million.
Joshua Barro, a staff economist at the Tax Foundation, a conservative research group, said that the largest corporations represented only 1 percent of the total number of corporations but more than 90 percent of all corporate assets.
The vast majority of the large corporations that did not pay taxes had net losses, he said, and thus no income on which to pay taxes. “The notion that there is a large pool of untaxed corporate profits is incorrect.”
In 2004, a G.A.O. study said that 7 in 10 of all foreign corporations doing business in the United States, or foreign-controlled corporations, paid no taxes from 1996 through 2000, compared with 6 in 10 United States corporations.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 14, 2008
An article on Wednesday about a Government Accountability Office study reporting on the percentage of corporations that paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005 gave an incorrect figure for the estimated tax liability of the 1.3 million companies covered by the study. It is not $875 billion. The correct amount cannot be calculated because it would be based on the companies’ paying the standard rate of 35 percent on their net income, a figure that is not available. (The incorrect figure of $875 billion was based on the companies’ paying the standard rate on their $2.5 trillion in gross sales.)
Study Tallies Corporations Not Paying Income Tax
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
The study, which is likely to add to a growing debate among politicians and policy experts over the contribution of businesses to Treasury coffers, did not identify the corporations or analyze why they had paid no taxes. It also did not say whether they had been operating properly within the tax code or illegally evading it.
The study covers 1.3 million corporations of all sizes, most of them small, with a collective $2.5 trillion in sales. It includes foreign corporations that do business in the United States.
Among foreign corporations, a slightly higher percentage, 68 percent, did not pay taxes during the period covered — compared with 66 percent for United States corporations. Even with these numbers, corporate tax receipts have risen sharply as a percentage of federal revenue in recent years.
The G.A.O. study was done at the request of two Democratic senators, Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota. In recent years, Senator Levin has held investigations on tax evasion and urged officials and regulators to examine whether corporations were abusing tax laws by shifting income earned in higher-tax jurisdictions, like the United States, to overseas subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.
Senator Levin said in written remarks on Tuesday that “this report makes clear that too many corporations are using tax trickery to send their profits overseas and avoid paying their fair share in the United States.”
But the G.A.O. said that it did not have enough data to address the role of what some policy experts say is a crucial factor in profits sent overseas.
That factor, known as transfer pricing, involves corporations’ charging their overseas subsidiaries lower prices for goods and services, a common move that lowers a corporation’s tax bill. A number of corporations are in transfer-pricing disputes with the Internal Revenue Service.
Either way, the nearly 1,000 largest United States corporations were more likely than smaller ones to pay taxes.
In 2005, one in four large United States corporations paid no taxes on revenue of $1.1 trillion, compared with 66 percent in the overall pool. Large corporations are those with at least $250 million in assets or annual sales of at least $50 million.
Joshua Barro, a staff economist at the Tax Foundation, a conservative research group, said that the largest corporations represented only 1 percent of the total number of corporations but more than 90 percent of all corporate assets.
The vast majority of the large corporations that did not pay taxes had net losses, he said, and thus no income on which to pay taxes. “The notion that there is a large pool of untaxed corporate profits is incorrect.”
In 2004, a G.A.O. study said that 7 in 10 of all foreign corporations doing business in the United States, or foreign-controlled corporations, paid no taxes from 1996 through 2000, compared with 6 in 10 United States corporations.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 14, 2008
An article on Wednesday about a Government Accountability Office study reporting on the percentage of corporations that paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005 gave an incorrect figure for the estimated tax liability of the 1.3 million companies covered by the study. It is not $875 billion. The correct amount cannot be calculated because it would be based on the companies’ paying the standard rate of 35 percent on their net income, a figure that is not available. (The incorrect figure of $875 billion was based on the companies’ paying the standard rate on their $2.5 trillion in gross sales.)
don't compete; coexist
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
including something on income tax here, but did not want to high jack the thread
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
so the company doesn't pay it's taxes, the employees do
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
companies pay taxes, some do not pay income taxes. Not every tax is an income tax, they appear to use legal loopholes to get out of it, the study never makes it clear whether they are just not paying or are not required to pay income taxes
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
I heard on the radio today Exxon Mobil didn't pay income taxes...they made a profit of something like 600billion and paid shit. How is this possible?
We pay a higher percentage in income taxes than the multibillion dollar corporations :evil:
fucking corrupt politicians fucking us all
since most corporations are publicly owned, should the shareholders be thrown in jail??
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Since corporations are allowed to own other corporations, does that mean they're guilty of slavery?
Can corporations vote? If so, can they also run for office?
Can we ban corporate mergers because they violate the Defense of Marriage Act?
If corporations cause people to die, can we administer the death penalty?
like halliburton they are headquartered in places like the cayman's so they pay no US taxes. companies that receive corporate welfare and no bid government contracts and don't give back
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/06/exxon-tax/
Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS:
Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.
Mother Jones’ Adam Weinstein notes that, despite benefiting from corporate welfare in the U.S., Exxon complains about paying high taxes, claiming that it threatens energy innovation research. Pat Garofalo at the Wonk Room notes that big corporations’ tax shelter practices similar to Exxon’s shift a $100 billion annual tax burden onto U.S. taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found that “two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005.”
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
some lawyer needs to try those, at least your last one! take a major polluter to court for at least reckless endangerment!!
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'