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U.S. Companies Pay Just One-Third Of The Legal Tax Rate: GAO Study

Which proposed tax reform?

Several tax reform plans have been discussed, most claiming to be "revenue neutral" which means that rate reductions will be offset by removing "loopholes" including targetted deductions/credits. This means that some will pay more and some will pay less, depending on what changes, other than the rates, are made.

Tax reform plan puts small breaks at risk - The Hill's On The Money

House GOP: We can move tax reform bill without Dem votes - The Hill's On The Money
 
The official rate may be high, but the effective rate is around 12% -- or 1/3 of the official rate.

In comparison, the OECD average is around 15.4%, the G7 without the US is 18%.

The comparison of US to foreign taxation is a very tricky game indeed. Most foreign nations have a single (national) method of taxation, while most US businesses pay both federal and state/local (income/property) taxes. Looking only at the US federal income taxes, while ignoring their state/local taxation makes this comparison very difficult.
 
I expect to indicate that those that say that US corporate taxes are too high, using the corporate tax rate as a comparison, rather then the effective tax rate, that in reality US corporate taxes are not that high.

Are you saying the companies don't pay the corporate rate on all required income?
 
Direct link to the report.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654957.pdf



Wonder how the US conservatives are going to explain this one away..... I am guessing they are going to target the GOA as partisan or something similar.

I really don't think it's necessary to explain anything away. If they are maintaining legal status in calculation of the taxes they owe, then there is nothing unseemly or illegal about it. If anyone here denied that they personally take advantage of every tax advantage available to them, I'd assume they are being dishonest at the very least.
 
I really don't think it's necessary to explain anything away. If they are maintaining legal status in calculation of the taxes they owe, then there is nothing unseemly or illegal about it. If anyone here denied that they personally take advantage of every tax advantage available to them, I'd assume they are being dishonest at the very least.

The exploitation of people in poverty in the 3rd world should be illegal which many big business participate in coca cola, prime mark ect
 
The exploitation of people in poverty in the 3rd world should be illegal which many big business participate in coca cola, prime mark ect

Then our own citizens need to pony up, and be willing to support American workers with our own dollars, and not demand cheap crap from other nations. I don't have a problem with that. Do you? Are you willing to pay significantly more for goods and services?
 
Then our own citizens need to pony up, and be willing to support American workers with our own dollars, and not demand cheap crap from other nations. I don't have a problem with that. Do you? Are you willing to pay significantly more for goods and services?

I am i think we need to make are selves more self sufficient which will improve the economy and employment (living in the uk) however i think we need to help the 3rd world become self sufficient and pay for some of the crimes we have committed there
 
The exploitation of people in poverty in the 3rd world should be illegal which many big business participate in coca cola, prime mark ect

So they should close their plants in those countries and put the workers out of a job?
 
So they should close their plants in those countries and put the workers out of a job?

come on i am talking about the whole Wests involvement in the 3rd world perhaps give fair wages for the time being and compensate for the damage they have done to wild life
 
So they should close their plants in those countries and put the workers out of a job?

I am surprised out how unaware people seem to be on these threads also many people just plain missing the point
 
I really don't think it's necessary to explain anything away. If they are maintaining legal status in calculation of the taxes they owe, then there is nothing unseemly or illegal about it. If anyone here denied that they personally take advantage of every tax advantage available to them, I'd assume they are being dishonest at the very least.

Never said there was anything illegal about it.

The law is the law, and they are not only writing it but exploiting the law to its fullest. The issue is the law and the political system that allows this crap.

Oh and before you think this is a US only issue.. hardly.
 
come on i am talking about the whole Wests involvement in the 3rd world perhaps give fair wages for the time being and compensate for the damage they have done to wild life

So Coca Cola should pay for the sins of the Portugese or Spanish or French back in the 1600's?
 
Did they follow the law when paying their taxes? If so why would you say the did not pay the legal tax rate?

What I find sickening is how the revenue is wasted by the govt, and then we have people bitching about some not paying a full tax rate that they legally avoided. Only the very minimum amount of taxes to allow the govt to maintain the most necessary operations is all that should be collected. This whole premise that the govt is entitled to collect all it can for whatever reason, and we should like it is total bull****.
 
Never said there was anything illegal about it.

The law is the law, and they are not only writing it but exploiting the law to its fullest. The issue is the law and the political system that allows this crap.

Oh and before you think this is a US only issue.. hardly.

It's not crap, and you're not even affected, but you complain as though you are. :lamo
 
U.S. Companies Pay Just One-Third Of The Legal Tax Rate: GAO Study



Direct link to the report.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654957.pdf



Wonder how the US conservatives are going to explain this one away..... I am guessing they are going to target the GOA as partisan or something similar.

They will simply go into denial, and claim that the data is wrong.

I'm just finishing up David Cay Johnston's book "The Fine Print", and this news fits in nicely with what he's saying.

We are so screwed, and the momentum to fascism seems to be building.
 
We are so screwed, and the momentum to fascism seems to be building.

So you're saying they will finally get the trains to run on time? Will hell also freeze over?
 
Much big businesses are criminal and should be treated as such i found it hard to believe we live in true democracy rather a college of cooperation

We dont live in a true democracy. No one does on the entire planet.

Our legal and tax code is so complicated at this point that probably EVERYONE is a criminal at some point whether they know it or not.
 
They will simply go into denial, and claim that the data is wrong.

I'm just finishing up David Cay Johnston's book "The Fine Print", and this news fits in nicely with what he's saying.

We are so screwed, and the momentum to fascism seems to be building.

Or say "you are not effected so why do you care"... simply because the messenger is not an American citizen.....
 
We should drop the rate below Europe's and collect it from every business. The corporate tax system needs a lot of work.

Every business already pays taxes.
 
Every business already pays taxes.

and a lot of the bigger ones manage to skirt the tax, giving them an unfair advantage over small businesses. drop the rate significantly, and collect it from every business. i have no problem with deducting expenses, but corporations shouldn't be able to set up shell companies for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. the little guy doesn't have the means to do that, and neither should the big guys.

i do agree that the current rate is stupid, though. drop it to match or beat Ireland, and make it seriously difficult to avoid paying it.
 
Or say "you are not effected so why do you care"... simply because the messenger is not an American citizen.....

Yeah, let's see you deny it.
 
and a lot of the bigger ones manage to skirt the tax, giving them an unfair advantage over small businesses. drop the rate significantly, and collect it from every business. i have no problem with deducting expenses, but corporations shouldn't be able to set up shell companies for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. the little guy doesn't have the means to do that, and neither should the big guys.

i do agree that the current rate is stupid, though. drop it to match or beat Ireland, and make it seriously difficult to avoid paying it.

Like a corporate flat tax?
 
Like a corporate flat tax?

i'd settle for a rate like Ireland's, a simplification of deductions, and the ending of the strategies that Apple and others use to skirt the tax.
 
and a lot of the bigger ones manage to skirt the tax, giving them an unfair advantage over small businesses. drop the rate significantly, and collect it from every business. i have no problem with deducting expenses, but corporations shouldn't be able to set up shell companies for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. the little guy doesn't have the means to do that, and neither should the big guys.

i do agree that the current rate is stupid, though. drop it to match or beat Ireland, and make it seriously difficult to avoid paying it.

Small businesses get the same deductions that large corporations get
 
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