70% Of Corporations Pay No Taxes--Bullshit!

I'm sure you have heard a few trillion times in your life that more than 70% of corporations pay no taxes. Boo corporate America. The media is constantly harping on that theme, and politicians are forever scoring points by pounding that home. "If I'm elected, I promise I'll make corporations pay their fair share". But is it true, are more than 70% of corporations not paying taxes? Of course not. here's a few things to consider:

...most small businesses are now organized in such a way that many prefer to take their profits as an owner’s salary and pay taxes on the wages. It’s not that they aren’t paying taxes, as the headline incorrectly says, but rather that the money is not flowing to the government through the corporate levy.

In other words, The Mayor is set up as a corporation but puts his profits into his salary and pays taxes on his wages. Technically, I'm not paying a corporate tax, I'm paying a tax on my wages. Either way, taxes are being paid.

Now have a boo at these stats:

American businesses actually produced 31 million new jobs in 2005, driven by on average some 1.5 million firms every quarter that were expanding, and another 370,000 new businesses that were starting up. On the other hand, firms also eliminated nearly 29 million jobs, including an average of nearly 1.5 million businesses that were contracting each quarter and another 325,000 going out of business

In other words, right off the hop 325,000 businesses go kerplunk and therefore pay no taxes. Those 325,000 businesses are massaged into the stats of the 70% of businesses that don't pay corporate taxes.

That leaves the giant corporations. For some reason many people believe that in good times all big business does well yet skirt paying taxes at all. Consider this:

For every 5.8 jobs added by firms with more than 500 employees, other firms that big eliminated 4.9 jobs. Among those hit hard in 2005 was General Motors, which despite $193 billion in revenues wracked up a $10.4 billion loss and cut its workforce.

Many lunatics will claim something to the effect, "Look at GM, they brought in $193 billion but paid no taxes. Thieves!!" That is possibly one of the dumbest things you'll ever hear. Every politician and *journalist* that says that are either bald-faced lying, are idiots of the highest degree, or...well that's it actually. Corporations only pay taxes on profits, not on revenues.

The rest of the article is worth the read, if only for the fact that it's nice to have a little ammo for the next time some grungy, granola eating tree fucker starts spouting off about evil corporation.