You get the tax code you pay for

Two-thirds of corporations operating in the U.S. pay no income tax 2

Here's a little something to keep in mind the next time corporations profess horror at the very idea of a carbon tax:

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress. The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period. Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. Kelii127 Posted 4:47 am
    13 Aug 2008

    Another good reason......why a carbon tax doesn't make any sense. If corporations can duck out of their other tax responsibilities, why should we believe that carbon taxes would be any different?

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  2. nedruod Posted 2:59 pm
    02 Sep 2008

    That number needs more perspectiveI'm not sure of the answer (seems difficult to dig up), but I'd say that number is somewhat meaningless without some idea of the percentage of companies that are actually profitable.  No profits, no income tax seems fair.  And if you're looking at the number in a non-size adjusted count, I expect there are many unprofitable small businesses that either haven't made it yet, or aren't going to.
    But really, don't know, couldn't find out.  I could believe a number as low as 10% and as high as 50% (

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