What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
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- kevman459, on 08/13/2008, -40/+277Yes, but they need more tax cuts. It's called trickle down economics. To paraphrase Rob Corddry, when the rich get sick of having so much money, they'll pass the savings on to the consumers.
- inactive, on 08/13/2008, -35/+241Stop taxing corporations completely, take away their "personhood," and make our national taxes based on wealth instead of income. Corporations shouldn't have rights, they aren't people.
- alapoet, on 08/12/2008, -40/+239Welcome to the Corporatocracy.
- zgoos, on 08/13/2008, -12/+173RTFA! It says that 57% of companies paid no in come tax FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR between 1998 and 2005. That is completely different from "Most Corporations pay no US income taxes" to quote the idiot poster. If you're not turning a profit, you can't pay taxes on your profits. Buried as inaccurate and just plain stupid.
- inactive, on 08/13/2008, -8/+109"corporate personhood" is an evil we've grown too accustomed to. Time for all of us to study up on the history of "corporate personhood", why it was initiated, how to get rid of it. Thanks chico.
- Elite1789, on 08/13/2008, -11/+100"he Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005."
"The report did not name any companies. The GAO said corporations escaped paying federal income taxes for a variety of reasons including operating losses, tax credits and an ability to use transactions within the company to shift income to low tax countries."
Between 1998 and 2005 we had a recession in this country (tech bubble), followed by the recession in the housing and mortgage markets. If you were an individual, and you had no job, the government would not make you pay income taxes, and in the same way a significant fraction of those companies were spared from paying taxes because they had no actual income. No investment banks are going to have to pay income taxes this year, as most of them are operating at a loss.
If we made GM or Ford pay income taxes, they would go bankrupt!
In fact, the largest tax paying corporations are all oil companies now--some are paying upwards of 30 billion dollars.
So its not greed, its a matter of having income to tax. Now I would suspect that some companies are finding tax shelters, but it is misleading to suggest that they all are--that is simply not true. - vexingmodstwo, on 08/13/2008, -9/+60Am I the only one who thinks the headline of the article doesn't match up with the content of the article?
- spamly, on 08/13/2008, -5/+51You have options.
If you want the business to operate as a separate legal entity, incorporate. Then (with a couple of exceptions) you will and should be double-taxed. You are taxed based on employee income (standard income tax) and based on the income of the separate legal entity, the business. In exchange for this double-taxation, you won't lose your own assets (house, car) if your company is sued.
Don't want the double-taxation? Fine. Have a proprietorship. You won't get taxed as much, but there is not the distinction between your company's assets and your own in the event of a lawsuit.
The "extra" tax is, more or less, a fee associated with the extra legal protection. - inactive, on 08/13/2008, -3/+43Corporations never pay taxes. They simply pass on the expense to the consumer.
Wake the ***** up folks. When Exxon pays $30 billion to the govt, THAT CAME FROM YOUR $4.25 GAS. - roodammy44, on 08/13/2008, -4/+43Arguments like this are why we need to have a mandatory /sarcasm tag.
- TheUngod, on 08/13/2008, -6/+43Even if you're taxed at 35%, you make many times more money than Joe Schmoe. 35% to you isn't going to affect your ability to live well, while 15% may affect Joe's ability to afford his basic needs. Consider yourself lucky.
- scamper22, on 08/13/2008, -9/+45and why should a corporation pay income taxes?
Company makes money.
Company pays costs (employees...). Employees pay income taxes.
Company pays investors. Investors pay taxes (capital gains, dividend taxes...)
A company is not a person, so it doesn't just get rich. Only people get rich. People pay taxes.
Countries like Sweden have long figured this out. You should have as low corporate taxes as possible (in my view... none)... and then tax people appropriately.
I'd be happy with 0% corporate tax, and higher income tax on the wealthy.
yes companies do find loopholes. Many of them give out stock options as loop holes, but then the people who cash in the stock options then have to pay tax on it. Relax... the money doesn't just go to the bad word 'corporation'. The government still gets its cut one way or another. - SteveSgt, on 08/13/2008, -5/+37I have a more fundamental question: Why are there such things as corporations? What greater good does such an entity do for the people? A corporation is a sociopathic entity with the rights of an individual but NOT the responsibilities. Has a corporation ever faced the death penalty for causing the death of an individual? Has a corporation ever been incarcerated for years without any opportunity for income?
- SteveSgt, on 08/13/2008, -4/+36Sarcasm and irony do not Digg well.
- AbsurdParadox, on 08/13/2008, -24/+55Personally, I think the only people who SHOULD be paying any sort of income tax are Corporations (and I mean, actual Corporations registered with the state). They've registered with the state for legal protections, so one can make a legitimate claim that taxes are paid in exchange for this protection.
Taxation that one has not agreed to is simply theft. - mkoenecke, on 08/13/2008, -4/+33Yep. What a misleading study. The vast, vast majority of corporations (or LLCs taxed as corporations) are small companies who pay out all of their profits in salary and bonuses to the actual owners of the companies. So they have no net income, and hence no income tax. In that situation, it's stupid to retain profits in the corporation to be taxed at a 35% rate, after which individuals (the same people who are running the company and doing the work) have to again pay individual income tax on the dividends.
- spamly, on 08/13/2008, -2/+28If only health insurance was a tax deductible expense for businesses.
Oh wait... - n1eb, on 08/13/2008, -34/+59That's because most "Corporations" are owned by individuals and have maybe one or two employees. Let's say I'm a freelance graphic artist and I decide to incorporate my company to protect myself, guess what, now I'm a Corporation, so you want me to pay corporate income tax? I already pay taxes on all the money that I bring in via income tax. You can keep your greedy hands out of my pockets thank you very much.
- hugehead83, on 08/13/2008, -8/+32Most of the corporations in the US are Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs). I have my own corporation--not that hard to do. You anti-capitalist people need to consider the consequences of your actions. For example, who pays the taxes for big oil companies? We do at the pump. There's no non-communist way to stop that.
- vexingmodstwo, on 08/13/2008, -2/+26Yeah, I went back and read the article FIVE times and the content doesn't match the headline. This could be the single worst piece of financial journalism I've ever seen.
- inactive, on 08/13/2008, -3/+27Actually Warren Buffet pays less in tax as a percentage of his annual earnings than his RECEPTIONIST!!! The reason? Capital Gains from sale of stock is taxed at a lower rate than their actual income from salaries.
- vexingmodstwo, on 08/13/2008, -4/+27Okay... it wasn't just me.
- aiken, on 08/13/2008, -2/+25What idiots, both Reuters and the submitter. Companies aren't taxed on sales, they are taxed on profits. 57% of companies not paying tax -- that is, not being profitable -- for "at least one year" does not mean that "most companies don't pay tax." Even ignoring those things and figuring that every company is profitable, the wildly optimistic tax of $2.5T is $2.5T * 10% margins * 30% tax rate = $75B, or slightly more than twice the tax that Exxon paid last year.
Buried as stupid, inaccurate, misleading, and deceptive. - MWeather, on 08/13/2008, -7/+30"And where would the money for this nationalized health insurance industry come from?"
Moderate cuts in defense spending. - minorthreat, on 08/13/2008, -6/+29actually its called corporatism, people are oblivious to it, but look how much things have changed since the mid 80's(when I was a kid). Us as adults, have a different view than the new generation of kids. Imagine being born into a society that has such deceitful ads and it's the norm to go out and buy the new hip phone that you see everyone raving about on TV. They create these false reality's such as MTV and then they have every kid believing they must have what everyone on MTV is flashing around or else they will be shunned from society and have loser stamped on your forehead.
- Metasquares, on 08/13/2008, -0/+21If you want to avoid double taxation and you're not the only person running the thing, the structure you are looking for is an LLC. If you are, then, as spamly said, you'd want to consider a proprietorship.
- ngwright, on 08/13/2008, -4/+25Who can forget that Jon Stewart's description of the trickle down effect: they're actually saying "we're pissing on you"
I saw it on Just for Laughs, a couple years ago. It was so funny and so sad at the same time. - commernie, on 08/13/2008, -1/+21Nice documentary about that:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214 ... - zgoos, on 08/13/2008, -1/+21Actually, I might owe the poster an apology. The title is direct from the article, so it's Donna Smith from Reuters who is the idiot, apparently. Odd how the title is directly contradicted by the text of the article. I should expect better from Reuters, but from today's media, I shouldn't be surprised.
- Pittance, on 08/13/2008, -3/+22Because the company can make money in profits, but not shell them to you. The company can then buy "necessities" for you like a private jet, cars, houses, all "for work". The company would pay sales and such taxes on those things, but no income tax on the original money. Then, if you need spending money, you could use a company credit card. But that money has never been hit with income tax as of yet. You can use a company you control to buy things and call them "writeoffs" or "expenses" if they in any way help the company (drove your Ferrari to work once, an expense). The company acts essentially like a human analog. That way you tax it's profits, but if it goes belly up, people can only claim money from it, and not you. I ~think~ that's about how it is supposed to work.
- sgiffy, on 08/13/2008, -18/+36I would rather see the number of profitable companies that pay no taxes. I would also rather see a tax code that does not reward excessive compensation in favor of profits.
- arbiterxero, on 08/13/2008, -4/+21Please read Article....
"The study showed about 28 percent of large foreign corporations, those with more than $250 million in assets, doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes in 2005 despite $372 billion in gross receipts"
not many freelance graphic designers are pulling in that kind of money... - daimposter, on 08/13/2008, -13/+30does this news really surprise anyone?
- thebaron2, on 08/13/2008, -10/+27It's hilarious listening to the uproar when it's obvious that the VAST majority of diggers here have not operated a business and have no idea how corporate taxation (payroll taxes, etc...) actually work.
To pay income taxes you need INCOME. See Elite's post down below for a good explanation.
Banks will NOT be paying income tax this year, as most are operating at a loss. Oil companies will pay ***** of taxes this year, as they're making record profits.
If you look at an 8 year period where the economy was ***** - internet bubble burst followed by housing bubble burst - then of COURSE you're going to see many companies operating at a loss or breaking even as opposed to posting profits. If you don't have any net income, then there's nothing to tax!
I'm positive that some profitable companies evaded their taxes, and that's wrong, but everyone is really getting mad over nothing. Again, see Elite's post down below, he explains it more eloquently than I. - AWBoy666, on 08/13/2008, -5/+22Thank you both for stating the obvious, despite the fact that most readers here won't get it.
- cobophers, on 08/13/2008, -3/+19Not to be incredibly political...but when someone runs for office and chooses to implement taxes. Does that just mean we'll start enforcing the taxes we have already?
BTW, My favorite ruling of the supreme court was saying corporations are equivalent to one person. But in this case if one person didn't pay taxes the IRS would hang them...so I'm waiting for a lynching? Nah. We have terrible leaders that choose soullessness rather than fairness. - ouorama, on 08/13/2008, -7/+23Digg is full of leftists that love this *****. All you gotta do is read the comments that get dugg up. I'm surprised you didn't get dugg down.
- bruce86, on 08/13/2008, -2/+18Actually it is fair. Its called law of diminishing marginal utility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_marginal_ ...
The more money you have the less its worth to you. Hence why you get taxed more. - AWBoy666, on 08/13/2008, -7/+23Ok.....50% of all US companies did not pay taxes one year out of seven. How often is it that a company even makes a profit seven years in a row? And you only pay taxes on profits.
Despite this article being on Reuters (which I normally enjoy), it's still a heaping misrepresentation of what is actually happening. Buried since all of the liberal nutjobs on here will say, "See! They are stealing our money!" - inactive, on 08/13/2008, -20/+35***** that. Nationalize the health insurance industry like every other civilized nation on Earth.
- keithwired, on 08/13/2008, -1/+16buried as inaccurate
"RTFA! It says that 57% of companies paid no in come tax FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR between 1998 and 2005. That is completely different from "Most Corporations pay no US income taxes" to quote the idiot poster. If you're not turning a profit, you can't pay taxes on your profits. Buried as inaccurate and just plain stupid." - DaDrake, on 08/13/2008, -4/+19This is stupid --- there is three entities paying taxes within a corporation; the employees, the management, and the investors. If corporations make huge sums of money, they would just be re-investing it back into the economy, providing more jobs (or higher pay) for the US government to receive its cut on.
Either way, there are a lot of corporations who aren't making money right now.... you can't tax corporations that report 2-3 billion dollar quarterly lost. And this does not talk about small business owner. - JohnnyRad, on 08/13/2008, -11/+25holy ***** digg comments that actually add value
id double dog digg you if i could.
...ironic that my comment adds nothing. - nbcaffeine, on 08/13/2008, -0/+14No, it's not, because mine don't. It sucks, actually.
- malex, on 08/13/2008, -4/+17Alternatively, Metasquares, we could make the corporations pay their income taxes.
- hipnerd, on 08/13/2008, -5/+18Nationalized health care costs less. We pay more than any other country on Earth for our health care and we fail to cover 45 million citizens. Health insurance agencies are a huge drain on our economy. Eliminating them saves money.
- Blandyman, on 08/13/2008, -0/+13Um, I hate to say this, but I'm 17 and I get taxed 15% easily from mental math.
I used to work at Burger King, and, in a week where I made $470, I took home $390. $20 was some random tax I can't remember and about $7 was Medicare tax, and another $50 was federal tax. That's a little more than 15%, almost 20% I believe.
I'm too lazy to do the math now, but trust me, my co-workers couldn't make enough money to pay their rent most of the time (and these were people working 40 hours a week and some even had second jobs.)
@chrispix:
That's also why Steve Jobs has a $1 salary but makes his real money from dividends on the stock he owns. - Elranzer, on 08/13/2008, -1/+14"Welcome to the Corporatocracy."
It's just "fascism." Mussolini (who pretty much invented fascism) even said that true fascism was the merger or corporation and state. - bacchante, on 08/13/2008, -1/+14@Pittance : Or gee, maybe you shouldn't make millions because you fell down in a store. But then we'd actually have to start addressing the problems instead of the symptoms.
- altgeeky1, on 08/13/2008, -2/+15You're speaking about corporations as if they are all General Electric, with tens of thousands on the payroll.
What about corporations that don't have employees, or where the employees are owners?
Most real estate investment is done this way.
As a shareholder, you can elect to pay yourself in deferred equity. I understand this allows you to get your money as capital gains not "income" which is taxed differently. Or you can allow the corporation to "lease" everything and then provide it to you. In this way the 'employee' bypasses income tax, AND the corporation gets a huge writeoff.
Stupid tax loopholes are the reason you'd see so many H1 and H2 vehicles on the road... tax CREDITS for these things once ran up to $100,000 credit. This was free money for the rich, port for GM, an insult to the tiny tax credit just awarded to Prius owners (which has since expired). When I think of "lobbyists writing US law" I think of the Humvee tax credit... the lobbyist who snuck that rule in probably wrote the law in Arabic.
Rant aside, this is one "liberal" who'd rather see "income taxes" replaced with consumption taxes. The income tax is regressive to the middle class, and punishes US citizens. There are too many people now part of the US economy who simply pay zero income tax, and then claim services. Sales taxes would eliminate the bloated IRS, and also help the US savings rate (which is like -3% income per capita now). -
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