2/3 of US Corporations Pay No Income Tax

[American Horse]

Whirlpool Corporation recorded $18 billion in global sales and $619 million of earnings in 2010 but won't pay anywhere near the U.S. statutory tax rate of 35% on those profits. Its effective tax rate will be 0%. ...

Whirlpool has stockpiled more than $500 million in tax credits for making energy-saving "energy star" appliances—washers, dryers, refrigerators and so on. The firm gets a production tax credit of up to $200 per refrigerator, $75 per dishwasher, and $225 per washer and dryer. ...

Those credits can be carried over from one year to the next for up to 20 years. ...

Jill Saletta, Whirlpool's communications director [says] that "remaining competitive in today's global marketplace is a top concern for Whirlpool Corporation. Taxes, administrative and other costs are higher in the U.S. than in some other countries." ...

[C]ompanies without the right lobbyists or friends in Congress pay a punitive 35% rate that even Europeans have long since abandoned.

Special favors like these also create a business constituency against tax reform that would benefit the overall economy. ...

"This is why so many companies actually oppose lowering tax rates,"

Our liberal friends like to tell us that U.S. businesses pay too little in taxes, despite the world's second highest corporate tax rate. What they don't say is that one reason is because liberals keep writing loopholes.


Review & Outlook: Tax Reform Exhibit A - WSJ.com

 

[gautama]

2/3 Corporations pay no tax ? Good. That provides jobs.

Something like 50% of Americans, most of them parasites, don't pay taxes ?????

Bad. They should replace the illegal immigrants in the fields.

 

[Big Fitz]

Whirlpool has stockpiled more than $500 million in tax credits for making energy-saving "energy star" appliances—washers, dryers, refrigerators and so on. The firm gets a production tax credit of up to $200 per refrigerator, $75 per dishwasher, and $225 per washer and dryer. ...

Who was stupid enough to give them this tax credit? Oh that's right, econazis who wanted to push us to less functional, more energy efficient appliances we would junk in a heart beat if we could get the ones made back in the 1980's in most cases.

This is called social engineering not for improving society but to push a political agenda.

 

[Big Fitz]

2/3 Corporations pay no tax ? Good. That provides jobs.

Something like 50% of Americans, most of them parasites, don't pay taxes ?????

Bad. They should replace the illegal immigrants in the fields.

Attach it to welfare checks and yes that's precisely what needs to be done. Add in chain gangs from jail, to make em work instead of improving their skills as criminals and kill each other, and we have a solution to that farm labor shortage overnight.

 

[Misty]

But all the people who work for corporations pay taxes.

So this op is an inconvenient lie that liberals have been using for decades

 

[Care4all]

But all the people who work for corporations pay taxes.

So this op is an inconvenient lie that liberals have been using for decades

oh bulloney Misty....all the employees who work for any business pays taxes not just employees of corporations and these businesses have to pay taxes as well?

Our corporate tax code must be reformed....it is not fair to some corporations that do pay the 35% that are based only in the usa, while these other global corporations get all the write offs and loopholes that allow them to pay zero.

I mean, how fair of a tax code is that?

We need reform bigtime......

we need to lower the marginal corp tax code by at least 50% to a FLAT TAX of 15%.

It will bring global corporations here and increase jobs, and it will bring the money home, to the USA that global corps are afraid to repatriate here due to the 35% marginal tax rate.

 

[American Horse]

ONLY in CRA areas, was where the govt encouraged banks to find a way to make housing loans affordable.
THIS WAS LESS THAN 10% of ALL of the subprime/bad loans that busted with the crash.

90% of all the shady loans that the mortgage companies and banks produced were to people NOT IN Community reinvestment act zones.

The government DID NOT force these Banks to make their piece of crap loans nor did the government force these banks to put these risky loans in to Mortgage Backed Securities, and nor did the govt force Moody and other Agency rating companies to give these VERY INSECURE LOANS that the banks all on their lonesome did, a Triple A Rating

Please inform yourselves on the REAL DEAL SCAM of the Banks....

I am not absolving the government for this crisis....there were many things that our gvt did wrong....

But they are NOT to blame for Wall Street's fiasco of giving no job, no reference loans to people they KNEW could not pay them back....other than the lack of regulators doing their job and some of the deragulation they did in previous years that ALLOWED this crap to happen.

Loans were so available because of Fannie and Freddie absorbing all new loans as they were closed, making more money available to the mortgage lenders; free money. Appraisals were written to match offers, regardless of any real relationship to value of the real-estate. The rule became the value is what a willing seller and a willing buyer agree on. Real estate appraisals became tools of realtors and loan sharks aka mortgage brokers. This increased the loan values of properties completely out of respect of real value (a bubble), which put so many property owners upside down, or "underwater" on their mortgages.

 

[Care4all]

ONLY in CRA areas, was where the govt encouraged banks to find a way to make housing loans affordable.
THIS WAS LESS THAN 10% of ALL of the subprime/bad loans that busted with the crash.

90% of all the shady loans that the mortgage companies and banks produced were to people NOT IN Community reinvestment act zones.

The government DID NOT force these Banks to make their piece of crap loans nor did the government force these banks to put these risky loans in to Mortgage Backed Securities, and nor did the govt force Moody and other Agency rating companies to give these VERY INSECURE LOANS that the banks all on their lonesome did, a Triple A Rating

Please inform yourselves on the REAL DEAL SCAM of the Banks....

I am not absolving the government for this crisis....there were many things that our gvt did wrong....

But they are NOT to blame for Wall Street's fiasco of giving no job, no reference loans to people they KNEW could not pay them back....other than the lack of regulators doing their job and some of the deragulation they did in previous years that ALLOWED this crap to happen.

Loans were so available because of Fannie and Freddie absorbing all new loans as they were closed, making more money available to the mortgage lenders; free money. Appraisals were written to match offers, regardless of any real relationship to value of the real-estate. The rule became the value is what a willing seller and a willing buyer agree on. Real estate appraisals became tools of realtors and loan sharks aka mortgage brokers. This increased the loan values of properties completely out of respect of real value (a bubble), which put so many property owners upside down, or "underwater" on their mortgages.

Fannie and freddie did not make the banks lower their business standard for loans....the banks did this all on their own....which was a very poor business decision on their part and was driven by GREED....

and much of this took places years before fannie and freddie changed their rules to buy up the MBSecurities of these other banks.

The BANKS are at fault.....and so is fannie and freddie changing their tune and buying up some of these bad securities from them.

The BANKS created their own market for these newly created by them, MBSecurties.....

to give the Banks a PASS on this is simply wrong.

the BANKS made their own bad decisions and they are the ones to blame.

 

[boedicca]

But all the people who work for corporations pay taxes.

So this op is an inconvenient lie that liberals have been using for decades

oh bulloney Misty....all the employees who work for any business pays taxes not just employees of corporations and these businesses have to pay taxes as well?

Our corporate tax code must be reformed....it is not fair to some corporations that do pay the 35% that are based only in the usa, while these other global corporations get all the write offs and loopholes that allow them to pay zero.

I mean, how fair of a tax code is that?

We need reform bigtime......

we need to lower the marginal corp tax code by at least 50% to a FLAT TAX of 15%.

It will bring global corporations here and increase jobs, and it will bring the money home, to the USA that global corps are afraid to repatriate here due to the 35% marginal tax rate.

Double taxing foreign based profits here in the U.S. will only cause multi-nationals to move their HQs out of the U.S. altogether.

 

[Care4all]

But all the people who work for corporations pay taxes.

So this op is an inconvenient lie that liberals have been using for decades

oh bulloney Misty....all the employees who work for any business pays taxes not just employees of corporations and these businesses have to pay taxes as well?

Our corporate tax code must be reformed....it is not fair to some corporations that do pay the 35% that are based only in the usa, while these other global corporations get all the write offs and loopholes that allow them to pay zero.

I mean, how fair of a tax code is that?

We need reform bigtime......

we need to lower the marginal corp tax code by at least 50% to a FLAT TAX of 15%.

It will bring global corporations here and increase jobs, and it will bring the money home, to the USA that global corps are afraid to repatriate here due to the 35% marginal tax rate.

Double taxing foreign based profits here in the U.S. will only cause multi-nationals to move their HQs out of the U.S. altogether.

What's the double tax Boe? Maybe I missed something?

 

[boedicca]

oh bulloney Misty....all the employees who work for any business pays taxes not just employees of corporations and these businesses have to pay taxes as well?

Our corporate tax code must be reformed....it is not fair to some corporations that do pay the 35% that are based only in the usa, while these other global corporations get all the write offs and loopholes that allow them to pay zero.

I mean, how fair of a tax code is that?

We need reform bigtime......

we need to lower the marginal corp tax code by at least 50% to a FLAT TAX of 15%.

It will bring global corporations here and increase jobs, and it will bring the money home, to the USA that global corps are afraid to repatriate here due to the 35% marginal tax rate.

Double taxing foreign based profits here in the U.S. will only cause multi-nationals to move their HQs out of the U.S. altogether.

What's the double tax Boe? Maybe I missed something?

The write-offs and loopholes you are citing are ones that exempt foreign based profits from taxation in the U.S. The corporation has already paid foreign income taxes on the earnings sourced from other countries. Paying taxes on them again in the U.S. is double taxation.

The best way to get more profits here in the U.S. to tax, if that is the objective, is to lower our corporate tax rate below that of other countries. Instead, we are nearly double the average OECD rate. High taxes cause business to locate in lower tax jurisdictions. That's just a fact which the left often ignores. Tax rates affect behavior.

Businesses and individuals are not indentured servants of the government. Raise taxes, and they will do whatever they can to minimize their tax burden by either moving or reducing their activity to the point where they feel the marginal tax burden still results in enough profit for them to make the activity worthwhile.

 

[Care4all]

Double taxing foreign based profits here in the U.S. will only cause multi-nationals to move their HQs out of the U.S. altogether.

What's the double tax Boe? Maybe I missed something?

The write-offs and loopholes you are citing are ones that exempt foreign based profits from taxation in the U.S. The corporation has already paid foreign income taxes on the earnings sourced from other countries. Paying taxes on them again in the U.S. is double taxation.

The best way to get more profits here in the U.S. to tax, if that is the objective, is to lower our corporate tax rate below that of other countries. Instead, we are nearly double the average OECD rate. High taxes cause business to locate in lower tax jurisdictions. That's just a fact which the left often ignores. Tax rates affect behavior.

Businesses and individuals are not indentured servants of the government. Raise taxes, and they will do whatever they can to minimize their tax burden by either moving or reducing their activity to the point where they feel the marginal tax burden still results in enough profit for them to make the activity worthwhile.

I suggested a 15% flat tax.....do you see a problem with that?

 

[Immanuel]

But all the people who work for corporations pay taxes.

So this op is an inconvenient lie that liberals have been using for decades

oh bulloney Misty....all the employees who work for any business pays taxes not just employees of corporations and these businesses have to pay taxes as well?

Our corporate tax code must be reformed....it is not fair to some corporations that do pay the 35% that are based only in the usa, while these other global corporations get all the write offs and loopholes that allow them to pay zero.

I mean, how fair of a tax code is that?

We need reform bigtime......

we need to lower the marginal corp tax code by at least 50% to a FLAT TAX of 15%.

It will bring global corporations here and increase jobs, and it will bring the money home, to the USA that global corps are afraid to repatriate here due to the 35% marginal tax rate.

I am going to duck and cover after I post this, but I just can't help myself.

Since when does a person who leans left care about a fair tax code?

Later!!!!!

Immie

 

[boedicca]

I'd be happy to see a flat tax on individual income of that level - (assuming that SS and Medicare taxes are eliminated and those programs are treated as the actual welfare they really are) - on every dollar of income, no exemptions, no tax credits, etc. This should be the only source of federal tax, and all excise taxes and other forms of double and triple taxation should be eliminated.

I really don't see a societal benefit in taxing corporate profits. Dividends are taxed at the individual level - and taxed at the corporate level (double taxation). Cash kept by the business is better used for expansion of that business or as dividends to investors to reinvest elsewhere. IMO, the economy and society are better off keeping money in the private sector for job creation instead of funneling it into government expansion.

 

[Flopper]

2/3 Corporations pay no tax ? Good. That provides jobs.

Something like 50% of Americans, most of them parasites, don't pay taxes ?????

Bad. They should replace the illegal immigrants in the fields.

I just paid my taxes and it was damn painful. Having 2/3 of the corporations and half the individuals in this country escaping the tax collector is beyond being unfair to the rest of us. We need to reduce government spending but we also need more equitable taxes. Every business and every individual benefits from the government in some way and everyone should pay their share.

Congress decided that we needed to encourage home ownership so we get a mortgage deduction. Run up a lot of medical bills and get a deduction. Wife works, get a deduction for child care. Get a deduction for sales taxes, property taxes, state income taxes. Wreck your car, get a deduction. Have a bunch kids, get a deduction. Give some old clothes away, get a deduction. In fact, you get a deduction for just being alive. Businesses can deduct anything needed to produce revenue and that includes a zillion tax dodges.

 

[American Horse]

Fannie and freddie did not make the banks lower their business standard for loans....the banks did this all on their own....which was a very poor business decision on their part and was driven by GREED....

and much of this took places years before fannie and freddie changed their rules to buy up the MBSecurities of these other banks.

The BANKS are at fault.....and so is fannie and freddie changing their tune and buying up some of these bad securities from them.

The BANKS created their own market for these newly created by them, MBSecurties.....

to give the Banks a PASS on this is simply wrong.

the BANKS made their own bad decisions and they are the ones to blame.

So much of that is wrong, Care; but too much money chasing a place to go becomes Money for nothing; Everyone wants a share. The banks were simply the points of distribution. But I'll agree, the big banks suck.

My own local banks always held me to a20/80 Loan to value ratio, and a lot of other requirements on my commercial loans and even my speculative construction loans (40/60). Still loose standards for buyer/borrowers benefitted me in moving inventory. The big banks infiltrated our local market with the so called "mortgage brokers" who actually charged for services our local banks provided at no cost to the borrow if the borrowers went directly to them.

Without F&F none of what I mentioned above would've taken place.

 

[Care4all]

I am for a Flat tax on individuals as well, but I believe it would be unconstitutional for individuals IF there was not a standard deduction for what everyone spends on food and necessities....the gvt can tax profits....they consider income profits, AFTER the amount of the standard deductions taken for people to survive.

 

[Immanuel]

I'd be happy to see a flat tax on individual income of that level - (assuming that SS and Medicare taxes are eliminated and those programs are treated as the actual welfare they really are) - on every dollar of income, no exemptions, no tax credits, etc. This should be the only source of federal tax, and all excise taxes and other forms of double and triple taxation should be eliminated.

I really don't see a societal benefit in taxing corporate profits. Dividends are taxed at the individual level - and taxed at the corporate level (double taxation). Cash kept by the business is better used for expansion of that business or as dividends to investors to reinvest elsewhere. IMO, the economy and society are better off keeping money in the private sector for job creation instead of funneling it into government expansion.

My big problem with the "flat tax" is that too many people will simply work under the table and not pay a gosh darn dime in taxes. And that will be people from every wage group. It would simply be too easy to hide income.

That is why I prefer the "Fair Tax". People don't have to declare income at all. They pay taxes when they consume. Now, many people say it is not "fair" to the lower income earners... which I disagree with, but if that is what the country feels then fine, I'm okay with any method developed that will lower the tax burden of the poor in a fair manner, which is what the pre-bate is supposed to do with the "Fair Tax", but our current tax code is designed in such a piss poor manner that it needs to be scrapped.

Immie

 

[boedicca]

I am for a Flat tax on individuals as well, but I believe it would be unconstitutional for individuals IF there was not a standard deduction for what everyone spends on food and necessities....the gvt can tax profits....they consider income profits, AFTER the amount of the standard deductions taken for people to survive.

If you are going to make that argument, then you are basically agreeing that the income tax in and of itself is unconstitutional. There is nothing in the Constitution which says that each person needs an equal amount for basic survival. Such a claim for a standard deduction is the camel's nose in the tent for the byzantine social engineering/political pay off code we now have.

 

[boedicca]

I'd be happy to see a flat tax on individual income of that level - (assuming that SS and Medicare taxes are eliminated and those programs are treated as the actual welfare they really are) - on every dollar of income, no exemptions, no tax credits, etc. This should be the only source of federal tax, and all excise taxes and other forms of double and triple taxation should be eliminated.

I really don't see a societal benefit in taxing corporate profits. Dividends are taxed at the individual level - and taxed at the corporate level (double taxation). Cash kept by the business is better used for expansion of that business or as dividends to investors to reinvest elsewhere. IMO, the economy and society are better off keeping money in the private sector for job creation instead of funneling it into government expansion.

My big problem with the "flat tax" is that too many people will simply work under the table and not pay a gosh darn dime in taxes. And that will be people from every wage group. It would simply be too easy to hide income.

That is why I prefer the "Fair Tax". People don't have to declare income at all. They pay taxes when they consume. Now, many people say it is not "fair" to the lower income earners... which I disagree with, but if that is what the country feels then fine, I'm okay with any method developed that will lower the tax burden of the poor in a fair manner, which is what the pre-bate is supposed to do with the "Fair Tax", but our current tax code is designed in such a piss poor manner that it needs to be scrapped.

Immie

Then they are marginalizing themselves to where they cannot get credit to buy a house or a car due to lack of documented income, etc.

This is a red herring. The underground economy already exists and always will for people who live on the fringe. The current compliance costs for the rest of us who play by the rules far outweighs any benefit of recovering these taxes.