Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes

[Tx4obama]

Over a four years period from 2008 to 2011, Corning Inc. was one of 26 companies that managed to avoid paying any American income taxes, even though it earned nearly $3 billion during that time. In fact, according to Citizens For Tax Justice, the company received a $4 million refund from 2008 to 2010. That didn’t stop Susan Ford, a senior executive at the company, from telling the House Ways and Means Committee this week that America’s high corporate tax rate was putting her company at a disadvantage:

American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.

Ford told the committee that Corning paid an effective tax rate of 36 percent in 2011, but as CTJ notes, she is counting taxes on profits earned overseas that haven’t yet been paid and won’t be unless the company decides to bring the money back to the United States. Corning’s actual tax rate in 2011, according to CTJ’s analysis, was actually negative 0.2 percent.

The territorial system Ford testified in favor of would actually encourage the offshoring of profits earned by American companies, thereby reducing the amount they pay in taxes even more. And rather than helping remove a disadvantage that prevents companies from creating jobs, an economic analysis of such a tax system found that it could actually cost the United States as many as 800,000 jobs.

-snip-

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/20/558931/corporation-that-paid-nothing-in-taxes-for-four-years-tells-congress-it-pays-too-much-in-taxes/

[Kalidurga]

1. I can't wrap my head around this...

shouldn't you have to be paying some taxes to testify about how taxes are harming your company?

[BlueToTheBone]

7. Only if you live in the world of normal.

otherwise, this is perfectly sane.

[zbdent]

20. AND receiving a refund???

wtf was refunded????

[Doremus]

39. Getting a refund when no taxes were paid = Corporate Welfare nt

[BillyJack]

42. +1000

The Corporate Welfare Queens want MORE!

[avebury]

55. Totally Agree! nt

[TheFarseer]

44. corps that show a loss

can go back 3 or 5 years (I forget which) and get a refund from what they paid in those years. I forget the exact rules.

[CrispyQ]

26. Getting a $4 mil refund is not enough.

And I know too many Americans who will agree with her because after all,

1) Corporations create jobs;
2) If you tax them they will just raise the price of their products & services.

No shit. I hear those two all the time. Like we have a plethora of jobs & prices are stable.

[ErikJ]

41. HAHA-dont be naive

[HiPointDem]

2. kr. more lies from shameless lying liars

[cstanleytech]

3. Isnt that called perjury? nt

[surrealAmerican]

8. It sure sounds like it to me.

She knowingly gave false information in her statement to Congress. Arrest that woman!

[elleng]

28. No, its called 'accounting.'

NO (sarcasm)
And 'tax accountants' fees are tax-deductible!
System encourages this, so its 'legal.' System should be changed.

[limpyhobbler]

4. well that takes some nerve. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. She was of course challenged by the entire Congressional committee

and forced to see her error and admit it. No? No?

[bluedigger]

23. Well, they nodded their heads sagely and harrumphed.

Does that count?

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Ford and others like her will continue to complain

about taxes until workers begin paying for the privilege to work for their companies. Unfortunately, I think the odds of that happening are about 50/50.

[Zalatix]

15. They won't even stop complaining then.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

29. The teabaggers demand it!!

[freshwest]

38. +1

[slampoet]

52. That's what internships are. I still get offered them after 20 years in my field.

It is now common to pay a college for the privilege of working at a business.

[AzDar]

9. ...

[valerief]

10. These people are the real villains of America. And Congress are their agents. nt

[Canuckistanian]

11. Agents?

More like co-conspirators.

[valerief]

13. Congress writes the laws to make the crimes against humanity legal/possible. They're agents who get

renumerated well.

[raouldukelives]

17. Yep, as are all the investors.

Well that is, the knowledgeable ones. Placing personal wealth above humanity, cash over climate change. Only ever strengthening the underpinnings of the current system. Making corporate rule and extreme weather events that bring misery to millions that much more of a reality with every dollar.

[woo me with science]

53. Thank you. nt

[marias23]

12. Where is Wikileaks when we need them

I bet Mittens paid no taxes some years. I hate to invade anyone's privacy, but when you run for president you give that up, especially wher money is concerned. Repubs - don't you care that he destroyed much of his records as governor (why is that legal) and now is stonewalling on taxes. Why is he hiding so much?

[beac]

14. More logic from Mitt-Romney's 1% world:

Actual people shouldn't get "free stuff" but corporate "people" deserve all the free stuff they can cram into overseas accounts.

A NEGATIVE tax rate? Isn't that what the GOP has been bitching about poor people paying???

[woo me with science]

16. DU Rec

[bulloney]

18. It's the same as people bitching that Obama raised their taxes when they were reduced.

This country is so intellectually lazy that they allow bloviating, drug-addled, whore mongering airbags on the radio to do their thinking for them.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. K&R

Keep pounding this over and over. Corporations have obfuscated that their so-called "pay too many taxes" is never the reality when the returns are exposed.

Their short-sightedness by going with short-term spite will ultimately lead to their self-destruction, because they have systematically shorted the producers of their products who they seem to forget would also be the consumers of their products.

And thus greed results in products that consumers can no longer afford. And they are doing this world-wide.

[LiberalFighter]

22. A bit difficult to have an effective tax rate of 36 percent when they don't pay any taxes.

The question that should really be asked is "How much of their net revenue in the USA is taxed?"

On the corporate tax bit I think it is screwed up the way it is set. They go up and down on the rates. It appears the smaller businesses get screwed the worse on this.

15% -- 0 to $50k
25% -- 50k to $75k
34% -- 75k to $100k
39% -- 100k to $335k
34% -- 335k to $10 million
35% -- 10m to $15 million
38% -- 15m to $18,333,333
35% -- over $18,333,333

[SunSeeker]

24. Wow. Couple that with lower effective tax rates as the incomes go up...

As Chris Hayes said on Lawrence O'Donnell, "We no longer have the ability in this country to really tax people at the top."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002978955

[radhika]

25. I just posted a snark on the Corning, Inc Facebook Page - join me! n/t

[CrispyQ]

27. Bloodsuckers.

The corpos are going to suck everything dry. The economy, the planet, our humanity. All for the profit of a few.

[Snarkoleptic]

30. She's whining because Corning didn't get a larger negative tax rate (refund).

Cuz, ya know, she's one of the chosen ones...the job creators.
LOLz

[Initech]

31. The absolute worst kind of grifter.

[aquamarina]

32. And she probably said it with a perfectly straight face.

Corporate executives are SO out of touch it's mind blowing sometimes to listen to them.

[lonestarnot]

45. I stopped listening to their shit long ago. Why would anyone want to waste their time listening to

lies? In fact, if one listens to lies repetitively, one may start to believe them.

[LiberalFighter]

33. Here is a good response from CTJ Citizens for Tax Justice

It’s unclear how Ms. Ford comes up with a 36 percent rate, but clearly one thing she’s doing is counting Corning’s “deferred” U.S. taxes (taxes not yet paid) as well as “current” taxes (U.S. taxes actually paid in 2011). Of course, those “deferred” taxes may eventually be paid. If and when they are paid, they will be included in Corning’s “current” taxes in the year(s) they are paid.

But current taxes are what Corning actually pays each year, and Corning has amassed an impressive record of paying nothing, or less than nothing, in current U.S. taxes. CTJ and ITEP’s November 2011 corporate tax avoidance report found that between 2008 and 2010, Corning didn’t pay a dime in federal corporate income taxes, actually receiving a $4 million refund to add to its $1.9 billion in U.S. profits during this period. And a more recent CTJ report found that in 2011, Corning earned almost $1 billion in U.S. pretax income, and once again didn’t pay a dime in federal income tax. These data paint a dramatically different picture from the “36 percent” claim made by Corning before Congress today.

In fact, over the 2008-2010 period, Corning paid a higher effective corporate income tax rate to foreign governments than it paid to the US government. (Which wasn’t hard to do, since it paid nothing to the U.S. government.) CTJ’s November 2011 report shows that over the 2008-2010 period, Corning paid -0.2 percent (negative 0.2 percent) of its US profits in US corporate income taxes, but paid 8.6 percent (positive 8.6 percent) of its foreign profits in foreign corporate income taxes.

[link:http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/07/corning_pays_zero_federal_taxe.php|
Full Response]

[Scurrilous]

34. K & R

[mahatmakanejeeves]

35. It's certainly not reflected in the stock price.

I wish I could "retroactively" not have bought that one.

[blkmusclmachine]

36. A bunch of empty suits in Congress,

This is how you drown a functioning democracy in a bathtub, my friends. Pedal to the metal. Hop aboard DC's Bipartisan Express. Next stop, Hooverville.


Do you know about Operation Northwoods?

[blkmusclmachine]

37. That's Change You Can Believe In!!!

[Kennah]

40. Pardon the pun, but that's rich.

[midnight]

43. Corporations need to be given the tab for the chaos created by their greed and ungrateful free ride

for way too long....

[Iggy]

46. These crybabies are total Hypocrites/Liars

right now, numerous highly rated S&P companies are sitting on well over $1 Trillion in liquid cash.

it's just sitting there doing nothing, not being invested in America. I can almost guarantee you some
of these companies are the ones whining and moaning about "high taxes".

WTF??! why do they need more tax breaks when they are clearly not investing in the U.S.? GE creates _plenty_ of
jobs-- in other nations. should they get a tax break forever?

again, Congress = FAIL.

[Iggy]

47. Uber Wealthy Hiding at Least $21 Trillion worldwide

Sweeeeeeet, eh?

A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.

The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.

The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for by the Tax Justice Network.

Tax expert and UK government adviser John Whiting said he was sceptical that the amount hidden was so large.

Mr Whiting, director of the Office of Tax Simplification, said: "There clearly are some significant amounts hidden away, but if it really is that size what is being done with it all?"

Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.

Mr Henry used data from the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments.

His study deals only with financial wealth deposited in bank and investment accounts, and not other assets such as property and yachts.

The report comes amid growing public and political concern about tax avoidance and evasion. Some authorities, including in Germany, have even paid for information on alleged tax evaders stolen from banks.

Just me or is there something very wrong here?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097

[woo me with science]

48. Kick

[avaistheone1]

49. Go figure.

[valerief]

50. K&R

[piperpibroch]

51. Makes sense. They paid too much in comparison to what they have to pay in the Caymans....ZERO.

It's all relative. When you're used to getting something for free, any amount would be too much.

Hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

• Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy
• Private banks help wealthiest to move cash into havens

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy?INTCMP=SRCH

[rks306]

54. Taxes to high

44% of corporations don't pay any income tax. I know what GOP comeback is 47% of people do not pay tax. This would include soldiers. They don't do enough for this country. What does make better since tax people that make little or tax corporations that are making highest profits in history.

[Hubert Flottz]

56. We need to drug test those fucking corporations on welfare!