Friday, August 3, 2012

Many Fortune 500 firms pay less in income taxes than you

"A recent study examined 280 of the largest companies in America and the taxes they paid in 2008, 2009, and 2010. All were Fortune 500 companies. And all were profitable. In fact, their pre-tax profit over that period totaled $1.4 trillion.

Yet a whopping 25% of them paid federal taxes at a rate of less than 10% (compared to the standard 35% corporate tax rate). And 30 of these companies paid absolutely no income tax on their profits between 2008 and 2010.

The 78 companies that enjoyed at least one year of paying no income tax had profits equaling $156 billion.

Yet instead of the $55 billion in tax revenue you'd assume the government would have received (at the 35% corporate rate), these companies (all of which -- again -- were profitable) received refund checks from the government totaling $21.8 billion.

We're talking corporate giants ranging from Duke Energy and Eli Lilly to ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs.

Eliminate these tax breaks, and the U.S. Treasury would be $473 billion richer today.

Even worse, 134 of the 280 companies examined were content paying foreign taxes at a rate one-third higher than they paid in America."
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