Yes, you read the title right.. -58%. What would you do for a -58% tax rate? Bribe the government, perhaps?
“The official federal corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is 35%, but plenty of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies are paying no taxes — even getting money back from the government in some cases — in years when they reap big profits, according to a new report,” Market Watch reports.
“Thirty of the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied paid zero in federal income taxes or enjoyed tax rebates in 2008, 2009 and 2010…. And 78 of the 280 companies paid nothing in federal income taxes or enjoyed a tax rebate in at least one of those years. Those 78 companies, including General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) and Pepco Holdings Inc. (NYSE:POM) , earned a total of $156 billion in pretax U.S. profits in the years they paid no income tax, yet received so many tax breaks that they reported negative taxes — a total of negative $22 billion, the study said.”
Seriously, what is this nonsense about the 1% versus 99% and Occupy Wall Street and so on and so on? What are these people complaining about? They have no point or goal. (Sarcasm.)
While the average tax rate for the companies studied was 19% in this 3-year period, as indicated above, one corporation (Pepco Holdings) locked in a negative 58% tax rate. GE wasn’t far behind at negative 45%.
The study was conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group.
In total, the 280 companies, at a 35% tax rate, should have paid $473 billion in taxes, but after subsidies, which totaled $223 billion, they paid $250 billion. Who says corporations have too much control over (or own) Congress?
“More than half the tax subsidies for companies in the study went to four industries: financial services, utilities, telecommunications, and oil, gas & pipelines,” Citizens for Tax Justice says. Oil, gas, and pipelines — no relationship to the US’ unique anti-science stance on global warming; no self-serving control over Congress (ahem, Republicans) whatsoever.
You can read the full report here, if interested: Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010.
Corporations Rule the World photo via elycefeliz