One Chart That Shows Just How Screwed Up Our Tax System Really Is

[PumpkinAle]

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87823/one-chart-that-shows-just-how-screwed-up-our-tax-system-really-is

[surrealAmerican]

1. thanks

great chart!

[Squinch]

2. That is an awesome chart of a horrible situation.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. The way to look at that chart is "Return on Investment"

GE invested $129.6 million in buying congress, and got back $23.55 for each dollar invested.

PG&E - $14.06 per dollar invested
Verizon - $6.42 per dollar invested
Duke Energy - $9.63 per dollar invested

I really wish I could get in on these deals with my IRA.

[Bortman33]

4. Speech that is one

Sided is nothing more then a propagandist diatribe. Free speech would be a conversation where any cwhorepRATe monies spent to propagate a position, by law, should be required to equally fund opposing views, after all, any cwhorepoRATe entity serves people who hold differing views from cwhoreoRATion.

[hfojvt]

5. more of a table than a chart

you expect people to read numbers instead of looking at a graph?

It's actually pretty small potatoes though as far as "the tax system"

I mean $27 billion is a lot of profit for four years, but the personal income tax takes in about $1,000 billion every year.

In fact, just because that is the kind of guy I am, let me look up actual figures (numbers in billions)

2008 - 1,145.7
2009 - 915.3
2010 - 898.5
2011 (estimate) - 956

Figure that 2012 is another 900 billion.

Total for 2008-2012
$4,815.5

Now total profit of those 25 companies for 2008-2012 = $165.67 billion
total subsidy of those 25 for 2008-2012 = $8.6 billion.

Let's eliminate the subsidies and tax the profit at 50%.

Total gain of revenue = $91.4 billion.

A lot of money, no doubt, but as a percentage of personal income tax revenue for 2008-2012 it equals just 1.9%.

Not really a significant part of "our tax system".

Now our corporation taxes did bring in a total of

2008 - 304.3
2009 - 138.2
2010 - 191.4
2011 - 198.4 (estimate)

estimate $180 for 2012, and our corporate tax system, for all its flaws, brought in $1,011.6 billion from 2008-2012.

It would be nice to have more complete statistics, like I do with the personal income tax, but this table DOES show why I, myself, do not freak out when Obama proposes, for the corporate tax system - to close loopholes AND lower rates.

Sheesh am I long-winded. Is anybody still reading?