(Original Post)
Glenn Wright, Political Buzz Examiner
November 3, 2011
A new study of tax payments made by 280 of the biggest corporations in the USA, shows that large numbers of these companies, even while generating large profits, pay little or no income tax. Thirty-five percent (97) of the 280 companies, responsible for over half a trillion dollars in profits, paid 10% or less in income taxes.
Some of the largest corporations, such as General Electric and Wells Fargo, generated negative tax bills that resulted in almost $22 billion in tax rebates being paid by the US government to profitable companies for the three years covered in the study, 2008-2010.
The reason for the low or negative effective tax burden for the companies is the large number of tax loopholes offered to US corporations. While technically paying a corporate tax rate of 35% on profits, many companies escape that rate by using legal tax breaks.
The average effective tax rate for the 280 companies (which made $1.35 trillion in total profits) covered in the study was just over half the 35% rate, at 18.5%.
Meanwhile, more data indicates that the ranks of the poorest Americans continue to grow in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The Brookings Institution reported that "concentrated poverty", i.e. neighborhoods with large numbers of the poorest Americans (40% living below the poverty line), increased by ? during the last decade.
Republicans, who consistently reject raising taxes on the richest Americans or corporations, have argued that for the sake of "fairness", even the poorest working Americans, many of whom pay little or no income taxes (but who do pay payroll and other taxes), should be required to pay some income tax.