What Are We Doing Subsidizing Corporations Through Tax Giveaways?

[Donnachaidh]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12553


It's tempting to blame government for our middle-income 15-20% tax rates. But the true culprits have documented their own guilt. Comprehensive financial reports called '10-Ks' are issued annually to the SEC by U.S. corporations. Amidst tedious pages of income, flow, and outgo, company accountants deftly balance management's desire to impress stockholders with the need to avoid self-incrimination.

PayUpNow.org has documented recent corporate tax activity from the 10-Ks. We took non-deferred federal tax payments over the past three years and analyzed the figures to determine which companies and industries consistently meet or avoid their obligations. The entire dataset is available on the PayUpNow.org website.

The GOOD seems to be in the health care industry, where Humana, Medco, Wellpoint, and United Health all paid taxes at rates close to the 35% corporate maximum over the past three years. Some nation-wide family favorites fared well, too. Home Depot, Walgreens, CVS, Kohl's, and Best Buy all approached the 35% rate three years running. Good places to shop.

Companies within specific industries were generally grouped together, as if they didn't want to fall far from the tree. In the middle of the pack were Costco, Walmart, and Target, all consistently paying in the mid-20% tax rate range. Even more noteworthy was the tech industry, which had several companies paying taxes at annual rates between 15 and 20 percent: Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Google, Apple, Amazon, Cisco, and Comcast.

More at the link --

[Newest Reality]

1. They are doing exactly as they are expected to.

Not-our-government does not-our-will for those who, for all intents and purposes, are REAL. Real would be defined as wealthy and situated in the machine that, like a bulldozer, is running roughshod over the rest of us while we watch it unfold.

It doesn't take a magnifying glass to see this, just less fear and denial. The information is clear and no decoder ring is required. If nothing at all happens or is done to change and reverse, or even end, this trend, you can at least start to contemplate where you are going to end-up in the aftermath. Shudder? Perish the thought?

Your ability, (I won't say immunity) to survive and navigate the results will be based on either your liquid assets, (you are ridiculously wealthy), or your mental, emotional and physical preparations to do so. It would also help immensely if you can create a close network of people who are willing to chip-in and co-survive. That would be those who understand that the "rugged individual" is more likely to end-up as toast. Mutual interdependence, like it or not after all these years of contrived, social alienation, will prove, once again, to be a true survival tactic.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. If Corporations didn't get tax cuts would they close their doors?

Of course not. Otherwise even the bigwigs jobs would be gone. No, what they would do is spend more of their own profits for R & D, expansion marketing, etc.. They would have to do it to stay in business or compete. End of story. If they really needed the tax cuts to compete then they have a problem with their business model and I don't want any of my money going into a failing company.
The problem is that this kind of thing has become part of their business model, ie. invest 20K into lobbying and get a million dollar tax benefit. It's almost free money to them so why not go for all they can get since it is so easy. Don't forget that the same guy from the company that says that they will go under without tax relief is going to close the doors and lose his salary. I don't think so.
This has been a huge scam perpetrated on the people for years.

On edit: Just another thought. If they really need help to compete with overseas companies then OK, but first all management has to be paid like their overseas counterparts....How about 40 times what the average worker makes? Yeah, that will fly.

[Southerner]

3. When in U.S. history was the first tax deduction put in place?

We probably meant well when it was enacted. But, now we have 12,000 pages of tax code which gives just about everybody and every organization deductions. There is no end to it. Once you go there, there is no stopping it.