Most U.S. corporations avoid federal income taxes

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released today, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

More here.

Automatically, any discussion of who, exactly, ought to bear the main tax burden for the nation will necessarily get into the issue of what's best for the economy. That is, as the right wing always asserts, businesses should pay fewer taxes than individuals because businesses create jobs and drive the economy forward, creating more wealth for all--taxes hurt this economic engine. Typically, wingnuts want to end the discussion right there, without going into any mitigating issues, such as whether low corporate taxes actually help create new jobs here in the US that are actually worth a damn, or whether the so-called expanding pie really does mean more wealth for all.

Longtime Real Art readers already know what I think: corporations essentially pocket these massive tax breaks, helping only themselves, while continuing the now decades old drive to the bottom in terms of cheap wages, outsourcing jobs to the third world, destroying the middle class forever.

But put all that aside for a moment and consider this. Legally, corporations are considered "persons," with almost all rights that actual Americans have, including the freedom of speech, property ownership rights, and the right to sue. If corporations really are "people," then shouldn't they pay taxes like all the rest of us people?

Consider this, too. Corporations operating inside the United States use government services just like citizens do. They depend on the courts to arbitrate disputes with other corporations. They depend on the police and military to protect their investments. They use the public roads to transport their goods. And they make use of these services on a scale that literally dwarfs the usage of actual citizens--for instance, the vast majority of wear and tear on public roads and highways is caused by the trucking industry rather than your and my cars. Often, corporations freely use publicly owned property in ways that ordinary citizens cannot: media corporations use the airwaves; lumber and paper corporations use public lands for logging, and so do mining corporations, often blowing up mountains and laying waste to huge chunks of environment in strip mining operations; Big Pharma, which often blames its big prices on its big research and development budget, is often straight-up given new drug patents which were researched at public institutions funded by federal grants. All this shit is payed for by tax dollars.

In short, corporations take advantage of much much more tax money than real citizens do. They simply owe more. A whole lot more.

So why the fuck aren't they paying more?

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