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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Calibri>"</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman">If these
100 companies had paid the 35% tax designated by U.S. tax law, an additional
$150 billion would have been collected in federal taxes in just one year. This
is approximately equal to the total budget deficits for all 50
states."</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
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<P><A
title="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/08
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/08">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/08</A><BR><BR>
<DIV class=node-header><SPAN class=submitted>Published on Friday, April 8, 2011
by <A href="http://www.commondreams.org/">CommonDreams.org</A> </SPAN>
<DIV class=node-title>
<H2 class=title>The Mindless Mantra of Wall Street: The Corporate Tax Rate Is
Too High </H2></DIV>
<H3 class=subtitle>(A 35% corporate tax rate means zero taxes. So go ahead, cut
it to 25%.) </H3>
<DIV class=author>by <A
title="http://www.commondreams.org/paul-buchheit
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.commondreams.org/paul-buchheit">Paul Buchheit</A> </DIV></DIV>
<P>In 2010 <A
title="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>General Electric made $14 billion and received a $3
billion tax refund</A>. The response by business? The 35% corporate tax rate is
too high. Tax cuts, they continue to say, will spur economic growth and create
jobs, and allow American companies to compete in a global economy.</P>
<P>All very emotional. But the facts can be found in <A
href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=205"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>U.S. Office of Management (OMB) figures</A>, which
show a gradual drop over the years in Corporate Income Tax as a Share of GDP,
from 4% in the 1960s to 2% in the 1990s to 1.3% in 2010. The unweighted global
average in 2005 was 3.4%.</P>
<P>Also coming from the OMB is the percent of Total Tax Revenue derived from
corporate taxes <A
title="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals" rel=nofollow
target=_blank>(OMB Historical Table 2.1)</A>. The corporate share has dropped
from about 20% in the 1960s to under 9% in 2010.</P>
<P>Finally, in a <A
href="http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Documents/07230%20r.pdf"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>U.S. Treasury report of global competitiveness (Table
5.3)</A>, it is revealed that U.S. corporations paid 13.4% of their profits in
taxes between 2000 and 2005, compared to the OECD average of 16.1%. (Although
the <A href="http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/23561.html" rel=nofollow
target=_blank>Tax Foundation</A> notes that tax rates of other nations have
fallen while the U.S. has remained unchanged.)</P>
<P>The Treasury Dept. report is consistent with a <A
href="http://www.payupnow.org/" rel=nofollow target=_blank>PayUpNow.org</A>
analysis of the <A
title="http://payupnow.org/TaxPercents.htm
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://payupnow.org/TaxPercents.htm" rel=nofollow target=_blank>10-K
financial statements of 100 of the largest U.S. companies</A>, which found that
less than 10% of pre-tax profits in 2010 were paid in non-deferred U.S. federal
income taxes.</P>
<P>These 100 companies, with $5.67 trillion in 2010 revenue and almost $600
billion in pre-tax earnings, paid $57 billion, or 9.7%, in federal incomes
taxes. If these 100 companies had paid the 35% tax designated by U.S. tax law,
an additional $150 billion would have been collected in federal taxes in just
one year. This is approximately equal to the total budget deficits for all 50
states.</P>
<P>From 2008 to 2010, Chevron paid less than 5% a year. Merck paid 5%.
Hewlett-Packard 3%. Exxon 2%. IBM 2%. Carnival 1%.</P>
<P>Verizon and Boeing and Dow and DuPont all made profits three years in a row,
but all paid zero taxes over the three-year period.</P>
<P>Banking leaders Citigroup and Bank of America, with a combined $8 billion of
pretax earnings in 2009 and 2010, each paid zero taxes two years in a row.</P>
<P>So go ahead, cut the corporate tax rate to 25%. 25% of zero is the same as
35% of zero.</P>
<P>But if it means anything to the corporate CEOs, the United States is where
you built your companies, utilize the infrastructure and transportation systems,
benefit from years of scientific research, and make most of your sales.</P>
<P>Your tax avoidance may be 'legal,' but it's taking down our country.</P>
<DIV class=author-image><A href="http://www.commondreams.org/paul-buchheit"><IMG
class="imagecache imagecache-author_photo" title="Paul Buchheit"
alt="Paul Buchheit"
src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imagecache/author_photo/buchheit_0.jpg"
width=90 height=90></A> </DIV>
<DIV class=author-brief-article>
<P>Paul Buchheit is a faculty member in the School for New Learning at DePaul
University, author of UsAgainstGreed.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor
of "<A
href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0932863566?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0932863566&adid=0RE58SKP2FG5BJBS7H5F&">American
Wars: Illusions and Realities</A>" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at
paul@UsAgainstGreed.org.</P></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>