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Corporate taxes falling in the US |
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Written by Nick Reina
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Friday, 26 September 2008 |
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Vineland Daily Journal September 24, 2008 Sen. John McCain repeatedly promises to lower business taxes, which he says are the second highest in the world. The truth is that our tax code is full of loopholes and subsidies. Here are some examples: The Government Accounting Office did a survey between 1998 and 2005 of 1.3 million U.S. and 39,000 foreign companies and found that 68 percent paid no income taxes despite having a combined $2.3 trillion in revenue. Companies list their headquarters in offshore mailboxes so they can avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Oil and gas companies receive billions of dollars in subsidies for exploration incentives while paying no royalties for many drilling sites. A partisan Congress has regularly rejected attempts to penalize companies for shipping jobs overseas and rewarding companies for creating jobs at home. Finally, according to Making Sense 2008, the U.S. has collected an average of 2.4 percent of its GDP in the last seven years in corporate taxes -- less than the average 3.4 percent collected by other industrialized nations. Corporate taxes have gone from one quarter of total revenues in the 1950s to the current one-tenth. Maybe its time to try "trickle up" economics and elect someone who will close the corporate loopholes andgive the lion's share of the tax cuts to middle income workers.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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