Corporations spend more on Congress then on taxes
 

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/2644...paid-lobby.htm

Ayep. So.............

WUT DO, MT.NET? WUT DO?!?

I find this particularly interesting.

Let me find the chart that shows that all corporations pay more in taxes than they receive in profits.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFil...al_taxes_4.jpg


Government Takes a Greater Share than Shareholders

by William McBride


While the corporate income tax code - like the personal income tax code - is complicated by too many credits and deductions that benefit a narrow set of taxpayers at the expense of the many, it is wrong to conclude that corporations in general pay little or no tax. Besides paying corporate income taxes to the U.S. federal government and foreign governments, corporations pay a litany of other taxes, including state and local corporate income taxes, sales, property, and payroll and social security taxes.

The graph below tells the story. It shows 15 years of IRS data, 1994 to 2008, on all corporate income tax returns. It indicates that on average, and in all but three of those years, total taxes paid by corporations exceeded after-tax profits.

After-tax profits peaked in 2006 at $780 billion, and then collapsed with the recession to $607 billion in 2008.

In blue are federal income taxes, which also peaked in 2006 at $315 billion and fell to $208 billion in 2008. That's an effective tax rate of 26 percent of taxable income (pre-tax profits), averaged over 15 years (see this report for more).

In red are foreign taxes paid on the foreign income of U.S. corporations, which continued to climb through the recession, amounting to $98 billion in 2008. (This is an underestimate of foreign taxes paid, based on the foreign tax credit, as discussed in detail here.) Including these taxes on foreign income yields an effective rate of about 33 percent of taxable income, over 15 years.

Finally, in green are all other taxes* paid by corporations that are deducted as business expenses. This number peaked at $357 billion in 2007 and fell to $331 billion in 2008. Adding this to corporate income taxes, both domestic and foreign, brings the total taxes paid by U.S. corporations to $740 billion in the peak year of 2006, and $637 billion in 2008.

That means in 2008, as in most years, taxes paid exceeded after-tax profits, or in other words, government took a greater share than shareholders.


*Details on other taxes: This includes state and local corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, social security and payroll, unemployment insurance, excise taxes, import and tariff duties, business, license, and privilege taxes, and income and profit taxes paid to foreign countries or U.S. possessions unless claimed as a credit against income tax. This does not include state and local taxes paid in connection with an acquisition or disposition of property. Additionally, not all corporations include sales taxes.

See, there's a huge difference in the article linked and what you are talking about Brainy.

You analyze all the corporations, the article I linked just analyzes the top contributors - and tax dodgers.

The OP was intended to point out "Holy shit, the biggest contributors and political spenders pay more for Congress then they do taxes!" - not "Every corporation dodges taxes".

i mean. everyone knows this.

the fact i care about is the amount the spend on lobbying. i couldn't give a damn how little they pay in taxes--regardless of what the top corps. do pay (average is like 18%) our corporate tax rate is the 2nd highest in the world...and then we wonder why all our incandescent light-bulb factories get moved to china.

dodging taxes is an American tradition and I highly encourage it.

Our incandescent light bulb factories moving to china has very little to do with corporate tax rate I would imagine ;).

As for the rest: Think of it another way, Brainy. GE got almost 5billion back from the government (They made profit on their taxes!!) after paying politicians nearly 90million.

This is a bit more than "dodging taxes" in this case.

Why wouldn't they do this? If you could spend $1 in lobbying and get a $1.10 tax break, wouldn't you do it to?

The issue isn't the corporations, it's the tax code that has been written and re-written hundreds of times to benefit various groups or political goals.

Hell, if you can spend $90million in lobbying and get $5billion back in income in taxes, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

But yes, that's the heart of my point Mg. The system's broken - and both sides done broke it.

this.

between 98 and 2010 $4,274,060,331 was spent in lobbying...in one industry, representing only 15% of all lobbying payments.

it's big business, and big gov't loves it and caters to it.