Tax Day: Make Them Pay

[Octafish]

Here's an excellent idea from our family at the AFL-CIO:



Make America's tax-dodging corporations pay their fair share.

Tax Day: Make Them Pay

April 18 is the day this year we do our civic duty and pay taxes. But while you and I pay our fair share, some billion-dollar corporations do not.

Case in point: Exxon Mobil, with earnings of more than $45 billion, is the world’s most profitable corporation. Between 1998 and 2008, it spent $5.7 million in campaign contributions and $138 million in lobbying expenditures, as reported by Think Progress. Yet in 2009, it was not liable for any taxes. Even worse: Exxon Mobil, in 2009, received a $156 million tax rebate.

On April 18, thousands of union members, MoveOn members and other allies will gather all over the country outside the offices of corporations not paying their fair share. We’ll deliver tax bills to the biggest corporate tax-dodgers and demand that our elected leaders make them pay. Click here to find a Tax Day: Make Them Pay event near you.

CONTINUED...

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/04/14/join-a-tax-day-make-them-pay-event-april-18/

Here are a few more examples of the numbers involved:

FACT-BASED FISCAL SATIRE:

A Crock Pot Tax-Exempt Idea

A Government Accountability Office analysis showed that almost three-fifths of all American-based corporations pay no federal taxes.

by Walter Brasch

EXCERPT...

Pretending that the international crisis-of-the-week has led to the highest gas prices in years, the oil companies—smirks of greed tucked neatly into their wallets—made record profits, paid no taxes, and even received rebates and refunds from the IRS. Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009, paid no taxes, but received a $156 million rebate. Chevron made $10 billion, paid no taxes, and received a $19 million refund. ConocoPhillips during a three-year period, had a $16 billion profit, paid no taxes, and received a $451 million tax break. Valero Energy had $68 billion in sales, and a $157 million tax refund.

General Electric had a $26 billion profit in five years, and a $4.1 billion refund. Boeing, tucked into bed with a $30 billion Defense Department contract, got a $124 million refund to sleep better.

Even those that received taxpayer-supported bailouts, after being a major cause of the sub-prime housing debacle, made profits, paid seven-figure executive bonuses, and received refunds. Bank of America scammed the people for a $1 trillion bailout, made a $4.4 billion profit, and received a $1.9 billion tax refund.

CitiGroup, with a $2.5 trillion bailout, paid no taxes on a $4 billion profit. Goldman Sachs and Carnival Cruises were model corporate citizens by paying all of 1.1 percent taxes. Goldman Sachs had a $2.3 billion profit on an $800 billion bailout; Carnival, which took passengers and the taxpayers on a cruise, made $11 billion in profit over five years.

CONTINUED...

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2011/041411Brasch.shtml

So, if you're not doing anything Monday, you might want to let someone know that three-fifths of Corporate Amerika pays nothing in taxes and a big chunk of them actually get a rebate from U.S. taxpayers -- perhaps even you.

[Octafish]

1. Kick for the corporate butt-plugs.

And all who serve them.

[WillyT]

2. HUGE K & R !!!

:applause::applause::applause:

:hi:

:kick:

[Octafish]

4. Thanks, WillyT!

If you know someone who has a job or small business -- they likely paid more in taxes than GE and a whole lot more corporations have, some for many years now.

[onethatcares]

8. hey, I'm one of those lucky ones

after paying all year, ms otc and myself get to send another 1K in to fund the war machine.

I guess I'll crap it out of the food fund or maybe the gas bill.

[Octafish]

14. Don't worry, Uncle Sam knows how to spend it wisely.

On connected cronies. Here's an unconnected crony I admire:

'Pentagon's trillion dollar spending spree exceeds general funds of all U.S. states'

...Personally, I prefer my own Ross Plan to all of the cuts suggested above. The Ross Plan would require the Peace Corps and the Pentagon to switch budgets and personnel numbers. Restricted to $400 million a year and 8,600 troops the Pentagon couldn't possibly raise all the hell it does. And with a $1 trillion budget and three million workers, the Peace Corps, (which candidate Obama promised to double from 7,800 to 16,000 by 2011 but, of course, never has might just work wonders.)

Amen. And thank you for caring, onethatcares! Truly appreciate it, my Friend.

[Terra Alta]

3. If corporations are now people

shouldn't they have to pay their share of taxes? :shrug:

[Octafish]

5. That is an existential question, Terra Alta.

And that is why soulless corporations and so many of their owners want to tax the little people -- workers, liberals, progressives, you know, Democrats -- into extinction.

[Norrin Radd]

10. They get to be both people and limited in liability when convenient.

[WillyT]

6. Kick !!!

:kick:

[Octafish]

12. Thanks, again, WillyT!

Very much appreciate that you give a damn.

It's weird, but I thougth this issue would resonate more with Democrats, somehow.

[leftstreet]

7. K&R

[Octafish]

13. Thanks, leftstreet! Tax dodging corporations are a threat to our national and individual security.

US Uncut: Corporate Tax Dodging Unifies Unlikely Allies -- Like Cops and Protesters

For the most part, people agree that rich corporations should pay their share in taxes. "The only people who don’t like it are the bank managers.”

[Norrin Radd]

9. kr

[Octafish]

15. Not only do they get out of paying taxes, many corporations move their cash offshore.

Another major story my noosepaper and tee vee, missed or failed to mention prominently, if at all:

Corporate Profits Take an Offshore Vacation
Analysis by Lucy Komisar

NEW YORK, Feb 23, 2007 (IPS) - Last week, Merck, the pharmaceutical multinational, announced that it will pay 2.3 billion dollars in back taxes, interest and penalties in one of the largest settlements for tax evasion the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ever imposed.

Merck had cooked its tax books by moving ownership of its drug patents to its own Bermuda shell company - an entity that has no real employees and does no real work - and then deducting from U.S. taxes the huge royalties it paid itself. While setting up a shell company is not inherently illegal, it is if tax authorities determine that its only purpose is to evade taxes. Bermuda is a tax haven that has no levy on royalties.

Merck also faces legal action in Canada for 1.8 billion dollars in back taxes and interest.

What Merck did isn't unusual but in fact is becoming common for multinationals in the era of globalisation. It's one of the ploys in a corporate bag of tricks called profit laundering. A company figures out how to move its book profits offshore so it can evade millions and even billions in taxes to the country where it really operates. In an era where much of a company's assets may be intangible intellectual property - patents, logos, manufacturing processes - this strategy can make reported profits and taxes disappear.

People understand that nations' economies are hurt when jobs move overseas. But what happens when intellectual capital, on which the increasingly knowledge-based economy depends, is also moved out?

CONTINUED...

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36710

[Dkc05]

11. 60% seems fair if you make more 100,000

Heck if you make more then 100,000 you need to pay up. The rich are screwing all Americans.

[Octafish]

17. Just heard on CBS Radio that those with more than $100K in 'discretionary income'...

...plan to spend 8-percent more than last year.

Outstanding. For them.

Those of us who have to make do with less than $100K in income, discretionary or otherwise, are pretty much S.O.L.

Oh, well. Tradition!



Most importantly: A hearty welcome to DU, Dkc05! You are a most cogent analyst and I believe you'd make an excellent POTUS.

[Aerows]

16. I would hope this would bring attention to the inequalities

however if anyone expects it to shame a corporation into paying, it won't.

If we all took a day or two off from any consumer spending (or as little as possible), and quit paying OUR taxes, that would be a wake up call for everyone involved.

[Octafish]

18. Overworked IRS, Cash-Laden Lobbyists, Big Corporate Jobs. What could go worng?

Dig what you're saying, Aerows. I've been boycotting just about every big time, name brand -- by choice and by necessity. As for corporate shame, you are correct. It's an alien concept to sociopaths and corporations, but I repeat myself. Something new:

How 12 Multinational Corporations Avoid Paying Taxes

A new report shows how some of the world's biggest companies pay nothing to the IRS through lobbying and loopholes.