The Corporate Tax Myth - CNN

[Bill USA]

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/23/news/international/corporate_taxes/index.htm?iid=EL

- U.S. corporations pay one of the highest tax rates in the world. There's little debate about that.

Still, some argue the difference in the overall tax burden for U.S. companies isn't nearly as great it appears.

In fact, the United States collects less corporate tax relative to the overall economy than almost any other country in the world.

And that's a more objective measure of tax burden. Different accounting rules around the world means what's counted as income in one country isn't counted in another -- that makes comparisons of tax rates misleading.

U.S. corporate tax collections totaled only 1.7% of GDP in 2009, the most recent year for which complete data is available, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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[Bay Boy]

1. Aren't corporate profits...

...either going to be paid out as dividends and then taxed or used to grow the business and create jobs?

[Vincardog]

3. Or go to bribe politicians to pass them more benefits.

[Bay Boy]

5. Isn't that a positive benefit too?

You don't want the politicians to go to bed hungry do you?

[OrwellwasRight]

10. Lobbying expenses are deductible!

But are donations to Crossroads GPS and all those other "educational" groups? Is direct spending on issue advocacy?

[GeorgeGist]

12. Like wages?

[tom2255]

2. I don't get this one.

" U.S. corporations pay one of the highest tax rates in the world."

If they already pay more than almost anybody else in the entire world, why would we think that is not enough? They should pay twice as much as anybody else in the entire world? 10 times as much?

[Vincardog]

4. Research the difference between Stated and Effective rates. Hint they don't pay the rate

they claim.

[tom2255]

6. So the rate is high, but they don't pay that rate.

That makes more sense.

[Vincardog]

7. They have been writing the Tax Code for 30 years. Does it make any sense for them to get tax breaks

for moving factories to China?
Does it make sense for them to avoid taxes because they rent a mail box in the Bahamas?
Does it make sense that PEOPLE have an alternative Minimum Tax and Corporation don't?

[antigop]

8. 16 giant corporations have basically stopped paying taxes while also cutting jobs

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/16-giant-corporations-have-basically-stopped-paying-taxes

Outside the stadium our nation's kids and seniors and low-income mothers may be dealing with food and housing cuts, but on the corporate playing floor new low-tax records are being set again this year. Just as this is a golden age for sports, this is also, as noted by the New York Times, "a golden age for corporate profits."

Corporations have simply stopped paying their taxes, perhaps using the 2008 recession as an excuse to plead hardship, but then never restoring their tax obligations when business got better. The facts are indisputable. For over 20 years, from 1987 to 2008, corporations paid an average of 22.5% in federal taxes. Since the recession, this has dropped to 10% -- even though their profits have doubled in less than ten years.

Pay Up Now just completed a compilation of corporate tax payments over the past five years, using SEC data as reported by the companies themselves. The firms chosen are top-earners who have filed 10-K reports through 2012. Their US Tax figures represent the five-year total of "current" payments.

The 64 corporate teams paid just over 8% in taxes over the five-year period.

[BootinUp]

9. 1.7% ? Fuck that sounds pretty low. nt

[OrwellwasRight]

11. Very misleading first sentence, CNN.

It should read:

"The US corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the world."

It is misleading bordering on a lie to imply that it is the rate that "Corporations pay." So even when CNN tries to get it right, they don't really. They promote the Republican anti-tax meme in the first sentence. Sigh.