Posted on 04/13/2015 11:18:38 AM PDT by Enlightened1
At least 15 Fortune 500 companies, many of them worth north of a $1 billion, paid zero income taxes in 2014, says a report out last week from the Citizens for Tax Justice.
According to the report, household names like CBS, General Electric and Mattel all successfully manipulated the U.S. tax code to avoid paying taxes on their massive profits.
Even more shocking: some of them even received tax rebates in the tens or even hundreds of millions
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ve been wondering what that funny feeling was in my pocket...
Well, you don’t get taxed on your worth.
“That will help the most efficient corporations prosper and grow, and punish the inefficient and corrupt corporations.”
Or just bankrupt everyone in businesses with tight margins.
I am all for reducing or eliminating income taxation on ALL corporations, and eliminating ALL special breaks for connected companies.
But the game is not just about tax avoidance, but using government to create major advantages over competitors. Many of the listed corporations spend enormous effort and money corrupting government into creating narrowly defined special tax breaks, that few if any other businesses can qualify for. Competing companies have to pay their taxes, almost guaranteeing that the big boys will stay the big boys. Since vast amounts of campaign donations, etc., come from selling the tax breaks, the odds of stopping this are about nil.
Did you notice your cable bill go down because Time Warner doesn't have to pay any taxes?
Another reason why mass democracy is an overrated concept. Something our Founding Fathers were very war of. Which is why as the beginning of our limited government republic, voting in federal elections was limited only to property owners. I now see the wisdom of that. And...we ALREADY have someone like Liz Warren CURRENTLY occupying the WH. Don’t you think if BHO was still in the US Senate his voting record would be nearly identical to Warren’s?
I have Time Warner cable btw. No, I have not noticed my cable bill ever going down. But if you ever increased Time Warner’s taxes there is no doubt in my mind that they would pass that down to me.
I wouldn’t bother asking Moonbeam for the time of day much less anything else. And even if I did I would get nothing but a pile of BS from him anyways.
Sorry. My last comment to you was meant for someone else.
Nah, I stole it from poor people................
It does not matter how fast the merchandise turns over, because every transaction is supposed to include a profit. But I see your point where very low net profit sellers would be at disadvantage.
Startup companies do not pay any taxes anyway. Because like you said, it takes some time to establish a profitable business. So startups could be given a reasonable period of tax exemption. That would actually encourage efficient business startups.
If there is a corporation out there which seldom makes a 5% profit on gross sales, they have no business being in business. In essence, they are receiving tax breaks from the more efficient businesses, dragging down the whole economy.
Why would you want to do all that activity and make no profit? Capitalism’s basic principle is to provide goods or services which are IN DEMAND IN THE MARKET PLACE. If you are running a chronically money losing business, you deserve to be replaced by someone who knows what they are doing.
Why would anyone want to keep running a business which seldom makes a profit?
They would just game the ‘reasonable time’ taken to get profitable. And what bureaucrat is competent to tell you what is a reasonable time?
Do it like we do it now, with tax-loss carry forwards.
Taxing the top line is a terrible idea. Think of grocery stores with a large gross but only making a few cents on the dollar, which is a typical margin for them. They’d be paying a higher effective rate on profits than, say, General Dynamics.
If contractor’s can do your work cheaper, you should be doing it in the first place. ALl that proves you are not a good manager and your contractors are. It is better that your employees be working at the contractor than your in-efficient business.
First of all, the tax rate on top line would be miniscule. Current corporate tax rate is what 35%? Tax rate on gross sales would be about 1/10th of that.
Your point about difference between grocery store and General Dynamics is quite valid. However my grocery store, Winco, has 10% cheaper prices on most items compared to Safeway. Which means profit margins are not that small even on grocery items. Safeway is unionized and Winco is employee owned.
“If there is a corporation out there which seldom makes a 5% profit on gross sales, they have no business being in business.”
Who gets to decide this? You?
Not me, common sense and basic economics and capitalism gets to decide.
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