Report co-author Lorena Roque said using legal loopholes, corporations avoided paying $74 billion into the nation’s coffers in 2018 alone.
“When we get our paychecks every two weeks, we see how much is deducted in taxes,” she said, “and so when we hear news that corporations are paying zero, we kind of question, ‘Why am I being taxed more than these companies that are worth millions of dollars?’ “
Roque said corporate tax cuts and loopholes have been enacted by Congresses and presidents of both major parties for the past two decades. Champions of the new tax code argued that lowering corporate rates would lead to increased investments and higher wages, and would increase federal revenues by removing tax shelters.
Outside of a few one-time bonuses, said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the institute, wages for most workers have not gone up, and most companies used the extra cash to buy back stocks, not open new factories. If the nation’s largest corporations continue to avoid paying their fair share, he said, there could be across-the-board cuts in public investments.
“Making our highways passable, making our health-care system better, making our education system better, all of these things are things that we value,” Gardner said, “and they’re things that will be unfundable if we continue to allow the corporate income tax to be drained.”
The new tax law lowered the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, but researchers found the average tax rate actually paid by companies was just 11%. Tax rates for 56 companies were between zero and 5% in 2018. Corporate tax revenues are near historic lows as a share of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, at just 1%.
The report is online at itep.org.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2020.
And let’s not forget about the ma$$ive amount of property taxes that us homeowners are having to fork over thanks to thief Budish!!!
It’s time to start voting NO on all these ma$$ive tax levies and renewals at every single election cycle!!! And while we’re at it, we need to recall crooks like Taxin Jackson and thief Budish out of office now!!!
^Can you read? This is at a Federal Level due to Trump once again siding with corporations and the 1% giving hands outs. Classic GOP move here, along with voter suppression, gerrymandering, and running up the deficit. lol.
^Can you read? The article clearly states these cuts and loopholes have been enacted by both parties for decades.
People not realizing both parties are pretty much the same is the real root of our problems.
Both parties are not the same. One is worse.
74 billion left on the table. And yet, we’ll keep hearing that there just isn’t enough money for things like student loan forgiveness, welfare programs like SNAP and Medicaid, improving our rapidly disintegrating infrastructure, and paying people an actual living wage.
The sad thing is, there are dummies out there who will continue to believe it. You can also bet that 74 billion isn’t the actual figure, it’s likely much, much more.
Go get that gofundme ready for your next operation. So long as huge corporations are allowed to get away with paying less income tax than someone making 20k per year, nothing is going to change. Both parties are guilty, but it’s not equal, it’s not even close.
Only an uneducated moron believes that these two parties are the same, it’s much simpler and requires so much less reading than actually doing the work required to have an informed opinion.