Tax Time? Not for major corporations

[Skybird]

Capitalism is the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/n...4-a27f59d70de5

BURLINGTON, Vt., March 27 - While hard working Americans fill out their income tax returns this tax season, General Electric and other giant profitable corporations are avoiding U.S. taxes altogether.

With Congress returning to Capitol Hill on Monday to debate steep spending cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations must do their share to help bring down our record-breaking deficit.

Sanders renewed his call for shared sacrifice after it was reported that General Electric and other major corporations paid no U.S. taxes after posting huge profits. Sanders said it is grossly unfair for congressional Republicans to propose major cuts to Head Start, Pell Grants, the Social Security Administration, nutrition grants for pregnant low-income women and the Environmental Protection Agency while ignoring the reality that some of the most profitable corporations pay nothing or almost nothing in federal income taxes.

Sanders compiled a list of some of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil's 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. (Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of $-19 million)

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. . (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company's 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company's 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here)

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here)

Sanders has called for closing corporate tax loopholes and eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies. He also introduced legislation to impose a 5.4 percent surtax on millionaires that would yield up to $50 billion a year. The senator has said that spending cuts must be paired with new revenue so the federal budget is not balanced solely on the backs of working families.

"We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed," Sanders said, "but it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute. We've got to talk about shared sacrifice."

Socialism or capitalism - to me both ideologies do not work. Maybe they could work - but only in communal dimensions much much smaller than the societies we live in today. Not talking of dozens and hundreds of millions, but a few thousand at best.

We are multiple times too many on this small planet.

That must be what they call "Free Trade".

It's what I call Corruption.

[Blood_splat]

[AdeptCharge]

Not talking of dozens and hundreds of millions, but a few thousand at best.

We are multiple times too many on this small planet.[/QUOTE]No you are not talking, and please specify the quantity of your figures with precision.

[vienna]

But, we can't possibly tax these big businesses! As the Republican, business-fed Right points out they are the "job creators". Look at how many jobs they have created overseas (call centers, outsourcing, etc.) and how the have enriched off-shore banks! Granted, a "few" American jobs were lost in the process, but, hey, we really, really need these guys! What are you, some sort of socialist commie? We all know "What's good for General Motors, is good for the U.S.A." I may have to report you to the FBI or whatever passes for the House Un-American Activities Commitee nowadays...

[Respenus]

Originally Posted by AdeptCharge

No you are not talking, and please specify the quantity of your figures with precision.

I've spent the last 15 minutes trying to make the Spiegel archives cough up the interview with the man that came up with the number many years ago. If not for that, then the perfect storm 2030 as it has been called should be enough of a warning. According to the mode, the world population with grow from 6 to 8bn (a 33% increase), the demand of food will rise by 50%, for energy by 50% and for water by 30%. Now, do I need to remind anyone that the billions in east and south Asia, as well as in other parts of the world covet the standard of living that we have now in the "developed" world? Skybird is right and I've been inclined to agree with him for some time now.

I would also like to recommend the BBC Horizon documentary, called "How many people can live on planet Earth". It should be easy to find online and does offer rich and interesting figures.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by AdeptCharge

Not talking of dozens and hundreds of millions, but a few thousand at best.

We are multiple times too many on this small planet.

No you are not talking, and please specify the quantity of your figures with precision.[/QUOTE]

Not sure to understand what you complain about, but anyway, I am not so much about obvious things like loss of fertile soil, desertification and food production problems due to damaging exploitation, but about the inability to control and make transparent communities that exceed certain sizes.

Ypou want a number. I use to say a maximum for global population of around 1 billion, 1.5 billion at max. This I base on feedback from many diffrent things and fields I use to read: poltiics, historxy, geography, sciences.

Also, this old post:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=159065

And here especially section 2b, 2c , 3a, 3b, 3c

Forum software once again has corrupted the text with many "----8211" and so forth, I am not responsible for that, and back then the text showed up correctly.

@Neal,
many old postings seem to suffer from this problem, also all quotes I insert from Word, or websites in the present. For example the tankforum text on how to make SBP run in WWII fashion - I noticed some days ago that it is messed up, too:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...3&postcount=53
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...5&postcount=54
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...6&postcount=55
Edit: P.S. It does not even correctly connect anymore.