ONTD Political

Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes

1:48 pm - 07/21/2012
Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes

Over a four years period from 2008 to 2011, Corning Inc. was one of 26 companies that managed to avoid paying any American income taxes, even though it earned nearly $3 billion during that time. In fact, according to Citizens For Tax Justice, the company received a $4 million refund from 2008 to 2010. That didn’t stop Susan Ford, a senior executive at the company, from telling the House Ways and Means Committee this week that America’s high corporate tax rate was putting her company at a disadvantage:

American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.

Ford told the committee that Corning paid an effective tax rate of 36 percent in 2011, but as CTJ notes, she is counting taxes on profits earned overseas that haven’t yet been paid and won’t be unless the company decides to bring the money back to the United States. Corning’s actual tax rate in 2011, according to CTJ’s analysis, was actually negative 0.2 percent.

The territorial system Ford testified in favor of would actually encourage the offshoring of profits earned by American companies, thereby reducing the amount they pay in taxes even more. And rather than helping remove a disadvantage that prevents companies from creating jobs, an economic analysis of such a tax system found that it could actually cost the United States as many as 800,000 jobs.

The United States does, indeed, have one of the highest marginal corporate tax rates in the world. In reality, however, few corporations pay it, and the nation’s effective tax rate is far lower than the rate in other developed countries.

Source

OP: How much lower of a tax can you go when you already have a "negative" tax rate? ?_? Ah, yeah Mod's... *looks around, whistles* I did go a little overboard with the tags. Sorry. XD
its_anya 21st-Jul-2012 08:52 pm (UTC)
Does anyone know why not many corporations pay their corporate tax?
mollywobbles867 21st-Jul-2012 09:05 pm (UTC)
All I know is that there are too many loopholes.
specialmei 21st-Jul-2012 09:39 pm (UTC)
aside from lobbying like this, corporations will help fund campaigns in exchange for the promise of special privileges and tax exemptions... I remember my teacher in AP history explaining that most bills are about the size of a manuscript, often including loopholes for the representative's funders, and other representatives have to pass the bills or else their bills will not be passed. And all those little loopholes add up. The whole system is really corrupt but as long as running for office is expensive and Citizens United remains, it's unlikely to change.
emofordino 22nd-Jul-2012 12:38 am (UTC)
bingo. and then when the people who take advantage of the loopholes get called out on it, they throw the blame back to the people who wrote the bills, saying that it's congress' job to write the laws and they'd be stupid to not take advantage of it.
lone_concertina 21st-Jul-2012 11:48 pm (UTC)
"Ford told the committee that Corning paid an effective tax rate of 36 percent in 2011, but as CTJ notes, she is counting taxes on profits earned overseas that haven’t yet been paid and won’t be unless the company decides to bring the money back to the United States."
sweetwaterpink 21st-Jul-2012 11:15 pm (UTC)
Congress really need to fix these loopholes that allow the corporations not to pay any taxes. While they're at it, they need make it less of an tax incentive to outsource jobs.
emofordino 22nd-Jul-2012 12:40 am (UTC)
it's true! unfortunately, with the congress we have now, that will never happen because the majority of the congressmen/senators reap too many benefits from those loopholes to want to close them. this is why we need to kick them all out and start all over again.
sweetwaterpink 22nd-Jul-2012 11:07 pm (UTC)
I'm all for your idea. We need a fresh start.
sankaku_atama 22nd-Jul-2012 01:14 am (UTC)
Never gonna happen, because congress would then be cutting themselves off from their biggest source of income.
qable 21st-Jul-2012 11:31 pm (UTC)
I wouldn't mind the corporate tax rate decreasing a little if the corporations would actually pay their damn taxes like they're supposed to. If corporations are people, and if people face legal repercussions for tax evasion, then corporations need to face those legal repercussions.
moonshaz 22nd-Jul-2012 12:39 am (UTC)
To Corning Inc.:

STFD.
STFU.
GTFO.

FUCK OFF.
romp 22nd-Jul-2012 05:35 am (UTC)
But keeping corporations happy and allowing them to do what they want is the only way we can have a healthy economy.
*eyeroll*
jessyryan 22nd-Jul-2012 05:58 am (UTC)
LMAO, I can't with this country.
kyra_neko_rei 22nd-Jul-2012 06:09 pm (UTC)
Overboard with tags? You forgot "not the onion."

This is why we need publicly funded elections. And why we'll probably never get them.
furrygreen 22nd-Jul-2012 06:56 pm (UTC)
Ah, but you didn't see all the tags I put on it before the mod's posted it. There were like ... 50 tags. I swim through the tags and can't help myself. They all look good. XD I was staring at the 'gun control' tag for minutes thinking this could probably fit since people might become mad and bring out their guns. Ahaha!
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