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

[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?