http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1249465620080812 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said. The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005. More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said. During that time corporate sales in the United States totaled $2.5 trillion, according to Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who requested the GAO study. The report did not name any companies. The GAO said corporations escaped paying federal income taxes for a variety of reasons including operating losses, tax credits and an ability to use transactions within the company to shift income to low tax countries. With the U.S. budget deficit this year running close to the record $413 billion that was set in 2004 and projected to hit a record $486 billion next year, lawmakers are looking to plug holes in the U.S. tax code and generate more revenues. Dorgan in a statement called the report "a shocking indictment of the current tax system." Levin said it made clear that "too many corporations are using tax trickery to send their profits overseas and avoid paying their fair share in the United States." 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. (Reporting by Donna Smith, Editing by David Wiessler)
Ok.... One more time..... Eliminate the IRS.... Implement a sole 10% consumption tax.... The tax take will increase many times over.... And the money stays at home.... Why...because the other home wants some too..... ........................................................................... Nobody get's it.... In fact Bernanke is of the opposite school, a rather socialistic one.... .................................................................. A world wide new stock exchange, efficiently handled in all aspects, plus local personal discount banking, plus a 10% sole consumption tax to be collected and managed by township.... Get's the US hummin again....and can get done with a little paper and ink.....and will make the world hum along.....
The real answer is a consumption tax with no exemptions. Point of sale terminals can handle that with great ease...
"The GAO said corporations escaped paying federal income taxes for a variety of reasons including operating losses, tax credits and an ability to use transactions within the company to shift income to low tax countries." Big suprise that corporations that lose money don't pay income taxes. Big suprise that corporations that have net tax credits don't pay income taxes. Big suprise that corporations that do have taxable income shift as much as possible to low tax countries. Big suprise that corporations behave rationally when it comes to paying taxes. Big suprise that super greedy government thinks that corporations are greedy.
The real answer is a consumption tax with no exemptions. Point of sale terminals can handle that with great ease... Exactly right...... THEY JUST DO NOT GET THE BIG PICTURE....... THE MONEY MADE IN THE US....WILL STAY IN THE US........ IF NOT....IT GETS TAXED AGAIN..... FRIENDS IT WILL STAY HOME....AND REBUILD THE COUNTRY.....
No, they get the bigger picture. The Game isn't about absolute wealth or plenty for everyone. Its about RELATIVE wealth and consolidation of power at the top. There's a reason why the Founders outlawed any type of non-apportioned tax on wages - because it erodes middle class wealth through unfair taxation! An enriched middle class is anathema to political and corporate influence because it represents a DECENTRALIZATION OF POWER, from the top, to the people. Much easier to control and steer Nations when all the power is in few hands. What better way to do that then tax the hell out of private wages and let the rich (who own Corporations) pay nothing, so as to amass more wealth (and power). All these "fuck ups" and "bungling" aren't fuck ups. The entire system is designed to favor and enrich the Ultra Elite at the expense of the middle class. Why? Because it was the Ultra Elite who DESIGNED the System, in the first place!! Is it really so hard to believe wealthy people rigged the Game to favor themselves at the expense of everyone else?? Thats human nature, folks. Crack any history book, peer into any Corporation, study any society. They're all structured top down pyramid, where the downtrodden poor and middle class amass wealth thats, in the best of circumstances, "transferred" to those sitting atop the Apex. Thats actually why the Pyramid ensigna was chosen for the Federal Reserve note. Its an in-your-face symbolic declaration of the New construction of American Society. The Bankers and Corporate Elite OWN your ass!
They DO get the picture. Having a complicated and involved tax code is a method of control. If the government wanted to sway public opinion toward product X instead of product Y all they have to do is create some sort of tax incentive for you to buy product X. What will people do? They will buy product X. If you had that kind of power would you give it up? That is the primary reason for the IRS and the tax code. It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with power. The IRS has the power to control the herd with one stroke of the pen.