Wednesday, March 20, 2013

64 Major U.S. Corporations Paid 8.1% in Taxes

U.S. companies are making record profits; and more and more of their money is staying offshore --- and barely being taxed. A recent Wall Street Journal analysis of 60 big U.S. companies found that, together, they parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year in 2012 --- and they shielded more than 40% of their annual profits from U.S. taxes. These 60 companies were chosen for the Wall Street Journal analysis because each of them had held at least $5 billion offshore in 2011.

Further on in this post is a list of 64 companies that, on average over the past 5 years, collectively only paid an average of 8.1% in actual U.S. corporate taxes to the U.S. Treasury --- and 40% of their profits aren't being taxed by the IRS at all. (The financial data is from the SEC at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml)

The total profits held offshore (as "permanently reinvested")
by 60 big U.S. companies grew 15% in 2012 - WSJ (Source: SEC)

It's not that 64 major U.S. corporations (listed in a chart further below) pay "the highest tax rate in the world", because they don't...at least, not to the U.S. Treasury. It's foreign taxes on foreign profits that these 64 major U.S. companies mostly pay to the treasuries of foreign countries. So essentially, because the U.S. government collects so little as a percent, these U.S. corporations are essentially paying more (and a greater percentage) for the operations of foreign governments than they are for our own.

The Top Offenders are as Follows (The Full List is Further Below)

All these companies, after using our infrastructure, technology, research facilities, higher education and national defense to build incomparably successful businesses, are now doing everything in their power to avoid paying anything back. Instead they have been using a carefully manipulated set of “legal” business write-offs, exemptions and loopholes to cut their tax bills to almost nothing --- and all the while they rant about the unfairness of the U.S. tax code (and then complain about President Obama, like the co-founder of Home Depot).

The real madness is that real American people are suffering because of the tax games these corporations play...thanks to our Congress, who go on TV to complain about the tax loopholes --- but they write the tax loopholes!

It's no wonder we have a deficit and the CEOs and executive board members are earning 380 limes more than their average employee. I wonder how many of these CEOs and executive board members (like Mitt Romney) also use off-shore tax havens to avoid paying taxes on their personal wealth. And how many of these CEOs and executive board members pay the lower capital gains tax rate (like Mitt Romney). And how many of these CEOs and executive board members have $100 million stashed in an IRA retirement account (like Mitt Romney).

Capitalism has become, not pulling oneself up by their bootstraps to become successful, but more like the ruthless and obscene pursuit of excessive wealth with "Greed Gone Wild".

The Big 64 U.S. Tax Cheaters from 2008-2012 - The Financial Data is from the SEC and is listed in order of the least % of U.S. tax paid (in millions) SOURCE: http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

*** I'll let you contact me to give me an average of what percent they paid as taxes to foreign governments...then we should make that the statutory (and mandatory and effective) tax rate they should all pay to the U.S. Treasury.

More Corporate Tax Avoidance Rankings from www.payupnow.org

* As of this post the website http://www.contractormisconduct.org/ was down for maintenance.

* This article was also posted at the Daily Kos

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