How many pages make up our Federal tax laws and regulations today? Not even to mention state, county and city tax laws and regulations.
If ignorance of the law is no excuse then we are all a pack of idiots.
Posted on 07/30/2017 1:08:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The fix is in. Did you know, corporations like General Electric Co. (GE) spend more money on lobbyists than they pay in taxes?
The federal government currently taxes corporations at 35 percent. While many argue the rate is too high, you don’t hear companies like GE complaining about it. That’s because they aren’t paying it.
Over the past 15 years, GE’s federal income tax rate averaged only 5.2 percent. General Electric paid no federal taxes in 2010, despite earning $5.1 billion in U.S. profits. Instead, the company claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.
Meanwhile, GE executives awarded themselves more than $75 million in compensation and paid lobbyists a total of $39 million that same year- all while laying off their own employees.
How was this possible? It was an inside job. General Electric’s tax planning team includes former employees from the Treasury, IRS, and congressional tax-writing committees. GE doesn’t have a tax compliance team, it has a tax defiance team.
This is how the revolving door of power works in Washington. Entry-level staffers move to our nation’s capital and work as “public servants” for a few years. They learn the rules of the game, then cash out in the private sector to help lobbying firms and corporations like General Electric manipulate the system.
And the door spins ‘round and ‘round ...
No wonder Fortune 500 companies are so quiet on the sidelines while grassroots America fights to reform the tax code. They’ve already cut a deal behind closed doors.
With a Republican-led Congress and White House, there is a serious opportunity for tax and welfare reform in 2018. It’s time to finally level the playing field. Any serious GOP entitlement reform effort must begin with corporate welfare reform.
Everyday families can’t afford entire teams of lawyers and lobbyists dedicated to avoiding taxes. We work hard, and play by the rules. Political insiders and corporate America should do the same.
The American people aren’t being heard by government because the game is rigged. Washington isn’t broken. It’s “fixed.”
A universal flat tax, no deductions, exclusions, exemptions or credits is what is needed. Besides being more fair it would get the federal government out of the social engineering, economic engineering business, via taxation, and would get companies making decisions based on natural best financial case arguments and not merely to better mine the tax benefits - which there would not be with respect to which decisions the company made.
They certainly abided by the rules that they helped to create for themselves.
No one is saying they didn’t ‘abide by the rules’ They’re saying the rules are RIGGED - for corporate & political benefit - not the good of the American people.
Corporations don’t pay taxes - ALL of their taxes are passed on to their customers/consumers.
Ah. The beauty of crony capitalism.
You totally miss the point of the article. Our supposed elected representatives pass arcane & idiotic laws that give special benefits to the few at the expense of the many. I don’t blame those who RECEIVE those benefits. I blame those who write the stupid & criminal laws.
Are you sure you’re on the right website?
More class envy.
I believe there should be no corporate income tax as those taxes are passed onto the consumer in the form of higher costs.
How many pages make up our Federal tax laws and regulations today? Not even to mention state, county and city tax laws and regulations.
If ignorance of the law is no excuse then we are all a pack of idiots.
Once again...the idiotic rules put in place by our (not)representatives encourage businesses to invest in lobbyists to get more benefits at the expense of we, the taxpayers. If they didn’t think they could get more they wouldn’t waste money on it. Bill Gates didn’t waste money on lobbyists until gov’t agents started going after him to bilk him out of money. Then he started hiring lobbyists & giving money to politi-rats to protect himself.
If we had LIMITED gov’t there would be no need to hire lobbyists or pay off the Rats. Freedom Works is dedicated to making people aware of the rigging of the system & hopefully encourage them to fight this kind of nonsense.
I am not Bill Gates. I’m sure you aren’t either. Every day we’re faced with abiding by the crappy rules that are passed without the means to fight back. That’s not a straw man argument. That’s the simple truth.
And YES, I want the entire tax code reformed. Giving a tiny benefit to an individual for buying the ‘government approved’ appliance or vehicle is silly. Let the market decide what will be produced & purchased. It isn’t gov’t’s business to manipulate us through the tax code.
thank you.
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