Bipartisan support builds for slicing corporate tax rate

[Better Believe It]

Bipartisan support builds for slicing corporate tax rate
Backers of a proposed cut argue it would make U.S. businesses more competitive. Yet corporations have been paying an increasingly smaller share of federal taxes over the past half century.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
April 20, 2011

U.S. corporations have enjoyed a two-year bull run on Wall Street. They are sitting on a record amount of cash and are back to paying bonuses that are the envy of executives around the world.

And the icing on the cake for many of them might be just around the corner: a tax cut that has bipartisan support in Congress.

As part of their budget plan passed last week, House Republicans want to cut the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35%. The Obama administration and many Democrats also are looking to slice the current rate, but not as much.

Nearly a third of all federal taxes came from corporations in 1952. Last year, they paid just 8.9%, according to government figures. Loopholes, credits and the ability to shelter earnings abroad have helped many of the country's biggest companies pay far less than the corporate tax rate set into U.S. law.

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-corporate-tax-20110420,0,6293894,full.story

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. The UNIPARTY is right!

These assholes simply do not care and they believe that they will either be long gone when the shit hits the fan or insulated from the social unrest that will be triggered from their rapacious greed. Our government has now been completely "acquired" by corporate interests.

[keopeli]

2. They must think we're stupid.

They (Obama, Repugs, Dems, et al) tell us that our finances are so bad, we must tolerate painful cuts to all programs, especially Medicare and Medicaid. They give lip service to raising taxes on the uber-wealthy, though when push comes to shove they either leave them at a record low level or cut them.

Now, there appears to be bi-partisan support for ANOTHER tax CUT, this time for CORPORATIONS!

If I am not making enough money to pay my bills, it would be stupid for me to go to my boss and ask her/him to lower my wages!

They really do think we're stupid. How does this question sound for a Presidential Debate in 2012: President Obama, you have gone to great lengths to emphasize that the US is spending more money than we are taking in, thus providing a rationale for major cuts in government spending across the board. How do you rationalize giving yet another tax cut to US Corporations who are already paying a record low tax rate, down from 33% in 1950 to under 10% today?

What am I saying, the MSM would never ask such a question during one of these privately sponsored and highly staged dog and pony acts that we call Presidential Debates.

[taught_me_patience]

3. It would be good to cut the rate to 25% if loopholes were closed

Most big corps would end up paying more. However, I bet that the loopholes will remain.

[Better Believe It]

7. The plan is to cut tax "loopholes" that benefit working people such as the mortgage interest .....

deduction so that they can cut the top corporate tax rate and personal income tax rates for the rich.

They have already spelled this out in detail.

The administration is now following the lead of Obama's deficit commission and labeling such tax deductions "tax expenditures".

[W_HAMILTON]

4. If they want to pay less income taxes, hire more workers.

The wages they pay their workers are essentially a 100% shelter against income taxes: every dollar paid to workers reduces a corporation's taxable income.

Japan has even higher corporate income taxes, and it's unemployment rate is below 5%.

Corporate income taxes aren't the problem.

[gratuitous]

5. The big corporations aren't paying anything now

In fact, they're getting fat tax credits for future years, so firms like GE actually have a negative tax rate. But the support for an even lower rate is bipartisan, so it must be good. Like Smucker's.

[gkhouston]

6. Bipartisan = both Fox and CNN are pushing it. n/t