SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Corporations Paying Little to No Taxes... or Taking Refunds?

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

NY Times wrote:

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether:

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

Between G.E., Google and reading about the Double Irish Arrangement yes, I am more and more in favor of aggressively taxing large corporations and closing loopholes as a method of solving our national debt and financial crisis.

Posted: Mar 25 2011 12:14 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

NY Times wrote:

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether:

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

Between G.E., Google and reading about the Double Irish Arrangement yes, I am more and more in favor of aggressively taxing large corporations and closing loopholes as a method of solving our national debt and financial crisis.

While that's a wonderful thought, nothing's really going to prevent said company from going to another country, say, India, that lets them ignore that altogether. Besides, Big Business and Big Government are best buds. I'm sure they'll say they paid X on paper and then received it all back in 'subsidies' or 'enticements' or some other vaguely erotic terminology.

Posted: Mar 25 2011 11:00 pm

wasnt this one of ralph naders points? i think he wanted to shift most of the tax burden to corporations iirc

Posted: Mar 26 2011 08:48 pm

aeonic wrote:

While that's a wonderful thought, nothing's really going to prevent said company from going to another country, say, India, that lets them ignore that altogether.

Yes there is, high tariffs or banning imports altogether. I personally favor a solution of requiring companies that are incorporated in the United States to maintain the vast majority(say, 90%) of their operations and employees within said US. If they don't want to do that, fine. They will not be considered American companies and will not be granted the benefits of that designation, and will have tariffs put upon their products(that are now considered imports) as a result.

The idea of extra-national companies needs to be destroyed. You've gotta be a citizen of somewhere, not everywhere.

Posted: Mar 26 2011 08:51 pm

Jack Slater wrote:

aeonic wrote:

While that's a wonderful thought, nothing's really going to prevent said company from going to another country, say, India, that lets them ignore that altogether.

Yes there is, high tariffs or banning imports altogether. I personally favor a solution of requiring companies that are incorporated in the United States to maintain the vast majority(say, 90%) of their operations and employees within said US. If they don't want to do that, fine. They will not be considered American companies and will not be granted the benefits of that designation, and will have tariffs put upon their products(that are now considered imports) as a result.

The idea of extra-national companies needs to be destroyed. You've gotta be a citizen of somewhere, not everywhere.

I agree.

Posted: Mar 27 2011 10:12 pm

heres another article relating to the OP:
Ten giant U.S. companies avoiding income taxes: Sen. Bernie Sanders list
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_companies_avoidin.html

Quote:

The Bernie Sanders Ten, per release....

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.

Cool

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.

now, if you are doing well i dont think we should punish you by taxing you more than the average joe, but you should be taxed a fair & reasonable amount.