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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCorporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes
Over a four years period from 2008 to 2011, Corning Inc. was one of 26 companies that managed to avoid paying any American income taxes, even though it earned nearly $3 billion during that time. In fact, according to Citizens For Tax Justice, the company received a $4 million refund from 2008 to 2010. That didnt stop Susan Ford, a senior executive at the company, from telling the House Ways and Means Committee this week that Americas high corporate tax rate was putting her company at a disadvantage:
American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.
Ford told the committee that Corning paid an effective tax rate of 36 percent in 2011, but as CTJ notes, she is counting taxes on profits earned overseas that havent yet been paid and wont be unless the company decides to bring the money back to the United States. Cornings actual tax rate in 2011, according to CTJs analysis, was actually negative 0.2 percent.
The territorial system Ford testified in favor of would actually encourage the offshoring of profits earned by American companies, thereby reducing the amount they pay in taxes even more. And rather than helping remove a disadvantage that prevents companies from creating jobs, an economic analysis of such a tax system found that it could actually cost the United States as many as 800,000 jobs.
-snip-
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/20/558931/corporation-that-paid-nothing-in-taxes-for-four-years-tells-congress-it-pays-too-much-in-taxes/
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)shouldn't you have to be paying some taxes to testify about how taxes are harming your company?
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)otherwise, this is perfectly sane.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)wtf was refunded????
Doremus
(7,261 posts)The Corporate Welfare Queens want MORE!
avebury
(10,964 posts)TheFarseer
(9,346 posts)can go back 3 or 5 years (I forget which) and get a refund from what they paid in those years. I forget the exact rules.
CrispyQ
(36,827 posts)And I know too many Americans who will agree with her because after all,
1) Corporations create jobs;
2) If you tax them they will just raise the price of their products & services.
No shit. I hear those two all the time. Like we have a plethora of jobs & prices are stable.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)cstanleytech
(26,495 posts)surrealAmerican
(11,387 posts)She knowingly gave false information in her statement to Congress. Arrest that woman!
elleng
(132,402 posts)NO (sarcasm)
And 'tax accountants' fees are tax-deductible!
System encourages this, so its 'legal.' System should be changed.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)and forced to see her error and admit it. No? No?
bluedigger
(17,108 posts)Does that count?
LuvNewcastle
(16,900 posts)about taxes until workers begin paying for the privilege to work for their companies. Unfortunately, I think the odds of that happening are about 50/50.
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)slampoet
(5,032 posts)It is now common to pay a college for the privilege of working at a business.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)More like co-conspirators.
valerief
(53,235 posts)renumerated well.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Well that is, the knowledgeable ones. Placing personal wealth above humanity, cash over climate change. Only ever strengthening the underpinnings of the current system. Making corporate rule and extreme weather events that bring misery to millions that much more of a reality with every dollar.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)marias23
(379 posts)I bet Mittens paid no taxes some years. I hate to invade anyone's privacy, but when you run for president you give that up, especially wher money is concerned. Repubs - don't you care that he destroyed much of his records as governor (why is that legal) and now is stonewalling on taxes. Why is he hiding so much?
beac
(9,992 posts)Actual people shouldn't get "free stuff" but corporate "people" deserve all the free stuff they can cram into overseas accounts.
A NEGATIVE tax rate? Isn't that what the GOP has been bitching about poor people paying???
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)bulloney
(4,113 posts)This country is so intellectually lazy that they allow bloviating, drug-addled, whore mongering airbags on the radio to do their thinking for them.
Response to Tx4obama (Original post)
LiberalFighter This message was self-deleted by its author.
BumRushDaShow
(132,091 posts)Keep pounding this over and over. Corporations have obfuscated that their so-called "pay too many taxes" is never the reality when the returns are exposed.
Their short-sightedness by going with short-term spite will ultimately lead to their self-destruction, because they have systematically shorted the producers of their products who they seem to forget would also be the consumers of their products.
And thus greed results in products that consumers can no longer afford. And they are doing this world-wide.
LiberalFighter
(52,197 posts)The question that should really be asked is "How much of their net revenue in the USA is taxed?"
On the corporate tax bit I think it is screwed up the way it is set. They go up and down on the rates. It appears the smaller businesses get screwed the worse on this.
15% -- 0 to $50k
25% -- 50k to $75k
34% -- 75k to $100k
39% -- 100k to $335k
34% -- 335k to $10 million
35% -- 10m to $15 million
38% -- 15m to $18,333,333
35% -- over $18,333,333
SunSeeker
(52,218 posts)As Chris Hayes said on Lawrence O'Donnell, "We no longer have the ability in this country to really tax people at the top."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002978955
radhika
(1,008 posts)CrispyQ
(36,827 posts)The corpos are going to suck everything dry. The economy, the planet, our humanity. All for the profit of a few.
Snarkoleptic
(6,003 posts)Cuz, ya know, she's one of the chosen ones...the job creators.
LOLz
Initech
(100,431 posts)aquamarina
(1,865 posts)Corporate executives are SO out of touch it's mind blowing sometimes to listen to them.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)lies? In fact, if one listens to lies repetitively, one may start to believe them.
LiberalFighter
(52,197 posts)But current taxes are what Corning actually pays each year, and Corning has amassed an impressive record of paying nothing, or less than nothing, in current U.S. taxes. CTJ and ITEPs November 2011 corporate tax avoidance report found that between 2008 and 2010, Corning didnt pay a dime in federal corporate income taxes, actually receiving a $4 million refund to add to its $1.9 billion in U.S. profits during this period. And a more recent CTJ report found that in 2011, Corning earned almost $1 billion in U.S. pretax income, and once again didnt pay a dime in federal income tax. These data paint a dramatically different picture from the 36 percent claim made by Corning before Congress today.
[link:http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/07/corning_pays_zero_federal_taxe.php|
Full Response]
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(58,413 posts)I wish I could "retroactively" not have bought that one.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)This is how you drown a functioning democracy in a bathtub, my friends. Pedal to the metal. Hop aboard DC's Bipartisan Express. Next stop, Hooverville.
Do you know about Operation Northwoods?
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Kennah
(14,407 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)for way too long....
Iggy
(1,418 posts)right now, numerous highly rated S&P companies are sitting on well over $1 Trillion in liquid cash.
it's just sitting there doing nothing, not being invested in America. I can almost guarantee you some
of these companies are the ones whining and moaning about "high taxes".
WTF??! why do they need more tax breaks when they are clearly not investing in the U.S.? GE creates _plenty_ of
jobs-- in other nations. should they get a tax break forever?
again, Congress = FAIL.
Iggy
(1,418 posts)A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.
The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.
The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for by the Tax Justice Network.
Tax expert and UK government adviser John Whiting said he was sceptical that the amount hidden was so large.
Mr Whiting, director of the Office of Tax Simplification, said: "There clearly are some significant amounts hidden away, but if it really is that size what is being done with it all?"
Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.
Mr Henry used data from the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments.
His study deals only with financial wealth deposited in bank and investment accounts, and not other assets such as property and yachts.
The report comes amid growing public and political concern about tax avoidance and evasion. Some authorities, including in Germany, have even paid for information on alleged tax evaders stolen from banks.
Just me or is there something very wrong here?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)piperpibroch
(19 posts)It's all relative. When you're used to getting something for free, any amount would be too much.
Hoard hidden from taxman by global elite
Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy
Private banks help wealthiest to move cash into havens
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy?INTCMP=SRCH
rks306
(116 posts)44% of corporations don't pay any income tax. I know what GOP comeback is 47% of people do not pay tax. This would include soldiers. They don't do enough for this country. What does make better since tax people that make little or tax corporations that are making highest profits in history.