Brewman_Jax
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 03:02 PM
Original message |
The Great Corporate Tax Heist |
|
From the article: Remember the old Steve Martin routine on how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes: "First, make a million dollars. ... Second, don't pay taxes." Turns out Martin's joke is standard operating procedure for corporations in the United States -- only, in comparison, Martin was a piker.
Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study on taxes paid by corporations. In what Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., mildly called "a shocking indictment of the current tax system," the GAO found that about two-thirds of corporations operating in the United States did not pay taxes annually from 1998 to 2005.
Now, most corporations in America are start-ups or small, mom-and-pop operations that have adopted a corporate form to lower their tax rates. And a greater percentage of large corporations do pay some taxes. But in 2005, with corporate profits reaching new heights as a percentage of national income, the GAO found that more than one-fourth -- 28 percent of large corporations -- paid no taxes. (It defined large corporations as those with assets of at least $250 million or gross receipts of at least $50 million.) They can tell you how to make $50 million and not pay taxes.http://www.alternet.org/workplace/94985/the_great_corporate_tax_heist/and... Enron Avoided Income Taxes In 4 of 5 YearsFrom the article: Enron paid no income taxes in four of the last five years, using almost 900 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries and other techniques, an analysis of its financial reports to shareholders shows. It was also eligible for $382 million in tax refunds.
The company used strategies common among businesses to avoid taxes. It also used some unusual methods, among them the creation of 881 subsidiaries abroad, including 692 in the Cayman Islands, 119 in the Turks and Caicos, 43 in Mauritius and 8 in Bermuda.
Two Enron subsidiaries have been accused by a group of insurers of engaging in sham transactions in a tax haven, according to papers in federal bankruptcy court in New York.
Enron is by no means alone in not paying income taxes. A small but growing percentage of large companies pay no income taxes, a study by Citizens for Tax Justice showed in October 2000. The study of half the Fortune 500 companies found that 24 owed no tax in 1998, up from 13 in 1997 and 16 in 1996.
While it is common for American companies to create subsidiaries in tax havens abroad, Enron had far more than most other companies, tax experts said. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E7D91138F934A25752C0A9649C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/F/FinancesThere is great crying and gnashing of teeth over welfare fraud, which is illegal and should be dealt with, and social benefits to illegal immigrants, which are illegal, also, but these corporate crooks can, and have, stolen more money than a combined army of welfare cheats and illegal immigrants could ever dream of. Notice how little airtime that gets.
|
Tandalayo_Scheisskopf
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 03:07 PM
Response to Original message |
|
One metric Giga-Shitload of CEO's or CFO's go to jail for this, and their corporate and personal properties(amount calculated from time of first known offense) seized, or this nation never, ever puts another person in jail or takes their property ever again, for non-payment or evasion. Period.
This "havin' it both ways and shit rolls downhill" crap has gotta end.
|
Brewman_Jax
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 03:35 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
2. China actually executed 4 of their corporate crooks |
|
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3870/is_14_20/ai_n6359591Maybe if the USA's corporate crooks knew that some REAL punishment was awaiting them, and the legislature could make some laws with some REAL punishment, not just write a big check and sit in some minimum security federal prison for only 2-5 years, there may some real change.
|
elehhhhna
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Sat Aug-16-08 02:21 PM
Response to Reply #2 |
7. PootiePoot had the head of thier oilco sentenced to HARD LABOR!!!! |
|
Imagine that creep from Exxon busting rocks outside for 20 years.
|
Jackpine Radical
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 04:50 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
4. Oh, TS, you're so cute when you're mad-- |
|
What makes you think there is a chance in hell of anything like this happening?
This %$$#@ country needs a *^%$#@ revolution, I'm thinking.
|
Tandalayo_Scheisskopf
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 07:19 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
5. Needs? Perhaps, but not the optimal answer. |
|
On the road to one? The signs point to "yes". Of course, roads tend to have turnoffs.
|
Jackpine Radical
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #5 |
6. Not all revolutions are violent. |
|
I'm thinking that the coming Perfect Storm of economic meltdown & global warming may have the same effect on the corporations as that asteroid did on the dinosaurs, and us little mammals are at last gonna maybe get our chance.
|
Trillo
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Aug-15-08 04:06 PM
Response to Original message |
3. It always amazes me that corporations can "marry" so many other corps |
|
and by so doing achieve beneficial tax status, but humans, if they're lucky, are generally only allowed to marry one other for legal sharing of property, income, and expenses.
|
DU
AdBot (1000+ posts) |
Tue Apr 30th 2024, 09:35 AM
Response to Original message |