Tempted to put this in the 'why Obama will win' thread, but do you reckon this little snippet of information might have some bearing on the election, indeed on the marketability of Obamas tax reform policies
:-
Two-thirds of firms avoid US income tax
Two-thirds of US corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.
The study by the Government Accountability Office released on Monday said about 68 per cent of foreign companies doing business in the US avoided corporate taxes over the same period.
Collectively, the companies reported trillions of US dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.
"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, who asked for the GAO study with Democratic Senator Carl Levin.
An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called "S" corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes.
"Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code," Edwards said.
The GAO study did not investigate why corporations weren't paying federal income taxes or corporate taxes and it did not identify any corporations by name. It said companies may escape paying such taxes due to operating losses or because of tax credits.
More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million US companies, or 66.7 per cent of them, paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $US2.5 trillion ($A2.87 trillion) in sales. About 25 per cent of large US corporations - those with at least $US250 million ($A287 million) in assets or $US50 million ($A57 million) in receipts - did not pay corporate taxes.
The GAO said it analysed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the US.
Dorgan and Levin have complained about companies abusing transfer prices - amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities. The GAO did not suggest which companies might be doing this.
"It's time for the big corporations to pay their fair share," Dorgan said. Two-thirds of firms avoid US income tax - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News
What does Mr and Mrs middle America think about this, I wonder?
It seems a strange dichotomy, but the staunchest Republican supporters seem often to be those decent, hard working folk who are actually the ones being most disadvantaged by the Bush admin's tax policies. I wonder why- the racial issue can only be a part of it.