Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Many Firms Avoided Taxes in Boom (60% pay no federal tax)
CNNmoney ^ | April 6, 2004

Posted on 04/09/2004 7:06:41 PM PDT by gd124

Edited on 04/29/2004 2:04:11 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

WASHINGTON - More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported, citing the investigative arm of Congress.

The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign. Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured. By 2003, they had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934, federal budget officials say.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corporations; federaltax; gao; irs; tax; taxavoidance; taxes; taxevasion
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 04/09/2004 7:06:41 PM PDT by gd124
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: gd124
So the economy booms when people don't pay taxes?
2 posted on 04/09/2004 7:10:45 PM PDT by explodingspleen (When life gets complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
1996-2000 were peak years in the decade of greed and corruption known as "THE CLINTOON ERA".
3 posted on 04/09/2004 7:11:06 PM PDT by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
none of the bubble startup tech companies ever made any money, so they paid no taxes. their founders/executives/employees paid taxes on the value of their stock options, California collected huge revenues and spent it as fast as they could, so when the bubble burst, they went into fiscal shock from the loss of revenues.
4 posted on 04/09/2004 7:11:31 PM PDT by oceanview
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
More proof of Clinton's false economy.
5 posted on 04/09/2004 7:11:31 PM PDT by oolatec
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000.

Sorry -- my bullsh** detector just went off. This is Jason Blair type reporting.

I know these companies paid millions (or hundreds of millions) in FICA taxes, even if they didn't pay much in income taxes. So the premise of the no-tax story is just some liberal dream -- just stupid.

6 posted on 04/09/2004 7:13:24 PM PDT by 68skylark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
If I'm not mistaken, Bill Clinton was president then and he gave the American taxpayer a retroactive tax increase and it was a fairly large one too..... Balancing the books on the back of the middle class.
7 posted on 04/09/2004 7:21:14 PM PDT by b4its2late (Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
Corporations NEVER pay taxes. Stockholders and customers pay taxes.
8 posted on 04/09/2004 7:22:30 PM PDT by CMailBag
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
It's obviously Bush's fault. His tax cuts did this. Retroactively. (He's got a time machine) [/sarcasm]
9 posted on 04/09/2004 7:27:03 PM PDT by syriacus (Never forget. The Daschle-Schumer Gang obstructed organization of GWB's Administration --->9/11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CMailBag
Ha, you beat my to it.
10 posted on 04/09/2004 7:29:22 PM PDT by xrp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: gd124
What "boom" ...

Thought the dnc told us we were in depression ...

Worst since the 1930's, wasn't it?
11 posted on 04/09/2004 7:33:10 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only support FR by donating monthly, but ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
Yes, but they're all very patriotic and outsource just as many jobs as they can. You can tell they're patriots - they wear American flags on their 'italian' suit lapels.
12 posted on 04/09/2004 7:33:13 PM PDT by familyofman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Robert A. Cook, PE
From John Dean website and yes I agree with them that the corporate tax burden has shrunk in the last 50 years

_____________________________

 

 

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:5_rfQJKW_BkJ:econ4dean.typepad.com/
econ4dean/2003/10/corporate_tax_b.html+corporate+tax+burden&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

10-16-03tax-f1.jpg

 

13 posted on 04/09/2004 7:42:11 PM PDT by dennisw (“We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” - Toby Keith)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
 

From John Dean website and yes I agree with them that the corporate tax burden has shrunk in the last 50 years

_____________________________

 

 

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:5_rfQJKW_BkJ:econ4dean.typepad.com/
econ4dean/2003/10/corporate_tax_b.html+corporate+tax+burden&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

10-16-03tax-f1.jpg

 

Oct 18, 2003

Corporate Tax Burden Shrinking

In his economics speech a few days ago, Dean actually understated the degree to which the corporate tax burden has fallen in recent decades:

 

Consider this — from the 1930s through the 1960s, corporations paid 30 to 40 percent of the taxes, and the rest of us paid 60-70. Today, corporations pay about 13 percent of taxes. It’s time to move the balance back and take some of the burden off the individual taxpayer who’s trying to make ends meet.

 

In fact, a new report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the corporate share of federal tax revenues was just 7.4 percent in 2003. Let's see if Tim Russert and The New York Times go after Dean on this discrepancy. Corporate taxes have fallen by about $75 billion over the last 3 years --almost enough to cover our most recent Iraq bill.

Dean is right on about the long-term trend, however, as the chart below shows.

10-16-03tax-f1.jpg

Contrast this with the payroll tax which used to account for about 10 percent of federal revenue in 1952 but is now about 40 percent. For those of you who don't know, the payroll tax (which is actually regressive) is conveniently omitted as an "income" tax when conservatives talk about who bears the burden of income taxes.

The report points out that while the weak economy has played a role in the recent trend, a substantial amount of this decline is due to tax avoidance strategies and tax law changes enacted since 2000.

 

14 posted on 04/09/2004 7:43:20 PM PDT by dennisw (“We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” - Toby Keith)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: gd124
So? I'm with explodingspleen on this. Lower taxes= booming economy no matter who does/doesn't pay them.

That said, there was much blatant corporation corruption in the Clinton years that authorities turned a blind eye to. With the massive tax increase & to save his own skin Clinton had to keep the numbers up.
15 posted on 04/09/2004 7:48:19 PM PDT by Lakeside
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gd124
Sounds pretty shocking until you realize that for the same period of time, the NASDAQ 100 leading tech stocks, taken together, earned exactly zero profit. Cosidering what was happening to their share prices during that period, the tired phrases "internet bubble" and "tech bubble" start to take on some real meaning.
16 posted on 04/09/2004 7:50:33 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
But the "drop" in taxes cited follows DIRECTLY from the lower profits of 2000-2003, not from the (implied) greater "tax cheating" that Dean wants people to believe happended.

The increase in tax-write-offs happened UNDER CLINTON, not Bush.
17 posted on 04/09/2004 7:53:22 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only support FR by donating monthly, but ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
John Dean? Since when is he being rehabilitated by the media apparatchiks?

Did the old sociopath happen to mention that even with the reductions, US corporations still pay among the highest taxes of any corporations in the western world?

Didn't think so.
18 posted on 04/09/2004 7:55:06 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: gd124
So totally misleading I don't know where to start. What is a corporation? Any self-employed person who chooses that form of business organization, as well as the 8,000 or so publicly traded corporations. I think that there are more than 5 million "U.S. corporations." Is it surprising that 60% don't pay taxes because they aren't profitable? As a small corporation, you take your profits out as compensation expense to avoid double taxation of dividend income. Notice that this article says NOTHING about the amount of taxes paid. Also, remember that "corporations" don't pay taxes; shareholders pay "corporate" taxes and then pay taxes again on their dividends. If you own any stocks or mutual funds, YOU pay "corporate taxes." </rant off>
19 posted on 04/09/2004 8:00:18 PM PDT by rebel_yell2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hinckley buzzard; Robert A. Cook, PE
All I know is the posted chart shows a lower corporate Federal tax burden with the slack being taken up by the non-corporate taxpayers. Of all kinds including other businesses, plus rich and poor taxpayers.
20 posted on 04/09/2004 8:09:27 PM PDT by dennisw (“We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” - Toby Keith)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson