This might be something to bring up in Congress, eh? Why are states "broke" and why are middle class workers being targeted to pay more?
In January testimony on behalf of the Business Roundtable, P&G CEO Robert A. McDonald told the House Ways and Means Committee that too-high corporate taxes are costing American jobs and making U.S. companies less competitive in the global marketplace.
Are some large U.S. businesses not paying taxes, as Fudge claims?
To back up her assertion, Fudge’s office cites media reports about particular companies – like General Electric and Bank of America -- that did not pay 2009 taxes as well as a July 2008 report from Congress’ Government Accountability Office that showed it’s relatively common for big companies to pay no taxes.
Between 1998 to 2005, GAO found that about 72 percent of large foreign controlled companies and 55 percent of large U.S. controlled companies reported zero tax liability for at least one year. About 57 percent of foreign controlled large companies and 42 percent of U.S. large companies paid no taxes in two or more years, and a third of the foreign companies and one quarter of their U.S. counterparts paid no taxes for at least four of those years. Just 45 percent of large U.S. companies and 28 percent of foreign companies reported a tax liability for each of the eight years. The report defined large companies as those with at least $250 million in assets, or at least $50 million in receipts.When GAO factored smaller companies into the mix, it found a higher overall proportion who didn’t pay taxes. Throughout the eight years the study examined, the overall percentage of non-tax-paying foreign and U.S. controlled companies never fell beneath 60 percent annually.
The report said that corporations may not pay U.S. income taxes for a variety of reasons, including current-year operating losses, tax credits, and multinational corporations shifting income to lower tax jurisdictions.
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/mar/15/marcia-fudge/rep-marcia-fudge-says-some-largest-corporations-pa/