Abolish The Income Tax: You Won’t Believe Who Is Getting Away With Paying Zero Taxes While The Middle Class Gets Hammered

[CuteOldGuy]

I thought the rich were supposed to pay "their fair share"?

From the article:

The federal income tax is a bad joke and it needs to be abolished. All over the nation, hard working American families are being absolutely crushed by oppressive levels of taxation, and our politicians are constantly coming up with new ways to extract money from all of us every single year. Meanwhile, many ultra-wealthy Americans and many of the most profitable corporations in the country pay little to nothing in taxes. In fact, as you will see below, there are dozens of very prominent corporations that make billions of dollars in profits and yet don't pay a dime in taxes. Tax avoidance has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Those that have the resources to "play the game" use shell companies, offshore tax havens and the thousands of loopholes in our tax code to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of us get absolutely hammered. This is fundamentally unfair. The federal income tax system is irreversibly broken at this point, and it is time to abolish it. If you think that the federal income tax system can be "fixed", then you probably have never studied it. Our tax code is nearly 4 million words long and it is absolutely riddled with thousands of loopholes that favor big corporations and the ultra-wealthy. We should come up with a better, fairer way to fund the government. The United States once prospered greatly without a federal income tax, and it could do so again.

Many people simply do not believe that it is possible for corporations inside the United States to make billions of dollars in profits each year and not pay a dime in income taxes.

Well, according to a report put out by Public Campaign, that is exactly what is happening. Posted below are numbers that come directly from their report. 30 large corporations are listed, and 29 of them had a tax burden for 2008 through 2010 that was less than zero even though they all made enormous profits. And all 30 of them spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes.

The numbers that you are about to see are for 2008, 2009 and 2010 combined. For "taxes paid", please note that for 29 of the corporations a negative number is given. That means that the net tax liability for 2008 through 2010 was actually less than zero.

After seeing these numbers, is there anyone out there that is still willing to claim that our tax system is "fair"?...

For the list, click here: http://www.freedominfonetwork.org/pr...1BDLM.facebook

[jbravo_123]

I don't think this idea that the ultra wealthy don't pay anything near a tax rate that the middle class does is anything new?

I mean, we just went through an entire election where the Obama campaign hammered that message out.

Again sadly, since those guys / corporations are in charge these days, there's not going to be any meaningful change to the tax code.

[acp5762]

First of all the ultra rich contribute to political campaigns. The Middle class are always the ones taking up the slack, and the poor don't contribute anything. but instead fall for all the political schemes that generate votes. At the end of any four year term The rich are just as rich, the middle class are exhausted and the poor are still poor.

[JCM800]

Originally Posted by acp5762

and the poor are still poor.

unless they hit the powerball...

[acp5762]

Originally Posted by JCM800

unless they hit the powerball...

They'll buy a bunch of crap for their family and friends and in a few short years be poor again.

[Jackie S]

My Business is a Corporation. I am part owner of the business, so I am part owner of a Corporation. The Corporation does not pay taxes.

The Corporation's Customers pay those taxes.

The same can be said for Wal Mart. Wal Mart does not pay Taxes. The people that shop at Wal Mart pay those taxes.

[CuteOldGuy]

That is true, Jackie. But the customers of these corporations are paying no tax through the corporation. As you know, I'd scrap the income tax in a heartbeat, but as long as the law is the way it is, you can see who has the real influence in Washington by how much tax they pay.

[Yssup Rider]

Bump?

[JD Barleycorn]

FOBs Friends of Barack

[UB9IB6]

Ive seen many instances of COGs' acronym being turned around for fun....
But I think this one is best and may stick for a while. FOB....I like it.

[joe bloe]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

That is true, Jackie. But the customers of these corporations are paying no tax through the corporation. As you know, I'd scrap the income tax in a heartbeat, but as long as the law is the way it is, you can see who has the real influence in Washington by how much tax they pay.

One way of looking at corporate political contributions is that it's a form of extortion, with the government being the extortionist.

The corporations are forced to hire lobbyists to influence legislation, otherwise the federal government would regulate them out of business. The politicians essentially tell businesses they need to contribute to their campaign or their business might burn down.

Microsoft made the mistake of not making sufficient political contributions, or payoffs, back in the nineties in the Clinton administration and damn near got crucified by the Justice Department as a consequence.

[CuteOldGuy]

So we have a government run by the highest bidder, is that what you are saying, Joe? If it is, you are dead on right.

[joe bloe]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

So we have a government run by the highest bidder, is that what you are saying, Joe? If it is, you are dead on right.

Some of the political contributions, delivered by lobbiests, result in laws and regulations that are detrimental to the country, but not all of them. The NRA lobbies for second ammendment rights. The oil and gas industry lobbies for sensible EPA regulations that won't put them out of businsess. The coal industry is currently using lobbiests to try and avoid being completely shut down.

My point was that political contributions are not all good or all bad. The ideal solution is to downsize the federal government and get rid of the federal income tax, so that the federal government doesn't have their hands on every aspect of our life. That's the most effective way of dealing with the corrupting influence of money in politics.

[jbravo_123]

Yeah those poor poor corporations and their billions of dollars in cash they're sitting on right now. CEO's clearly make too little as well and they could probably use a bigger bonus for all the hard work they do.