10 GIANT CORPORATIONS THAT DONÕT PAY
TAXES November 3, 2014 SOURCE: HANG THE BANKERS
In recent years, giant corporations have started a trend when it comes
to paying taxes:
the greater the profit, the lower the taxes they pay. http://worldtraining.net/NOW.htm and http://worldtraining.net/NAU.htm Dissatisfaction has come from citizens, but also from public
figures like senator Bernie Sanders
and public advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice. The nonprofit group conducted a report
and found out that between 2008 and 2012 no less than 288 American companies
paid an average of 19.4 percent in taxes, while the statutory tax rate is 35
percent, RT reports. In February 2014, Dave Camp,
United States House Ways and Means Committee Chairman introduced a tax reform
proposal which would reduce the maximum federal effective tax rate to 25
percent, the same source adds.
Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) concluded that 288 companies totaled $364
billion in tax subsidiaries, money which could have
benefited the country. However, targeted companies accuse CTJ for not taking
into consideration state and local taxes, RT states. CTJ also revealed
that two thirds of the 288 analyzed companies Òpaid higher corporate tax ratesÓ
to governments outside the US where subsidiaries operate than the amount they
paid to the American government.
The advocacy group completed its report by stating that one in 11
companies of the total of 288 paid a zero percent effective federal income tax
rate and 93 of them paid a tax rate below ten percent, RT reports. In a Senate speech, Senator
Sanders stated that taxes should be paid not only by Òworking families,
low-income people, the children, the sick, the elderlyÓ
but also by large oil companies like Exxon-Mobil and others, LiveScience stated. The same source offered examples
like GE and Bank of America, enterprises which did not paid U.S. taxes in 2010,
despite a profit worth billions of dollars. Tax breaks and loopholes allowed
giant corporations to keep their profits intact.
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 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) General Electric made $26 billion
in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever
use of loopholes, paid no taxes.(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: 2009 Chevron annual report here.
Note 15 on page FS-46 of report shows U.S. federal tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer
$147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $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, received a $134
million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source:
the companyÕs 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
.)