Whenever I see the same chart trotted out on multiple MSM sites, my bullshit meter sounds alarm bells. Below is a chart I’ve seen multiple times in the last few months. The first thing you have to realize is the MSM consists of about 6 to 10 mega-corporations who don’t like to pay taxes. No one likes to pay taxes, but not all of us have lobbyists, think tanks, and bought off politicians inserting deductions, credits and exemptions into the tax code to benefit us. Mega-corporations have armies of tax accountants and lawyers looking for every loophole and way to avoid paying taxes. Only us working class peasants and small business owners trying to scrape by are pillaged on a regular basis by our bloodsucking government.
This chart is designed to make you think American mega-corporations are overtaxed and need an immediate tax cut. It’s funny that corporate profits are at all-time highs, after taxes. How can that be? According to the propaganda being spewed on CNBC and the rest of the talking head MSM, these poor mega-corps are being devastated by this unbearable tax burden.
It seems the chart is just another piece of propaganda that has no meaning whatsoever in the real world. The 39.1% is the maximum Federal and State tax rate a corporation could theoretically pay. It is complete and utter bullshit. No mega-corp pays this rate. None. Nada.
The GAO, which is about the only semi-reliable government organization, did a little audit of what our beloved mega-corporations actually pay in taxes. Here is a link to the report:
http://gao.gov/products/GAO-13-520
The corporate titans who control the puppet strings in this country aren’t fond of facts or truth. They prefer storylines, propaganda and lies. It helps them reap bigger bonuses. Here are the key findings of GAO report:
- U.S. corporations paid an average Federal tax rate of 13%, versus the 35% maximum rate in the chart.
- U.S. corporations paid an average total tax rate of 17% versus the 39.1% shown in the chart.
- Nearly 55% of all large U.S.-controlled corporations reported no federal tax liability in at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
This paints an entirely different picture than the propaganda being regurgitated by the corporate MSM mouthpieces for the oligarchs. The other countries in the chart do not allow their corporations anywhere near the level of deductions, exemptions, credits and miscellaneous bullshit that U.S. corporations bribe politicians to put into our tax code. I wonder when we’ll see a chart showing the effective tax rate actually paid by corporations in every country. We won’t see it because it doesn’t fit the agenda of our keepers.
I know these threads usually get llpoh worked up into a lather, but I’m not talking about small corporations like his. He doesn’t benefit from these loopholes. He probably pays a much higher rate than Proctor & Gamble or GE. I would favor lower rates for everyone if they stripped away all of the special exemptions, deductions and credits. That will not happen. The system is rotten to the core and will never be fixed by those in control.
So it goes.
Exactly. What this chart shows is how the megacos in collusion with their pet politicians have fucked the Mom and Pop/small businesses nearly out of existence using tax policy.
@TC – My wife has been looking into starting a small business. Last night she was venting to me about how just trying to start a production based small business in this country was completely fucked.
We ended up having a very depressing 20 minute conversation about how the rules are designed with the mega-corporations in mind, but then those same corp turn around and get waivers/dodges so that none of the rules really apply.
Instead of raising the quality of life for the people of this country, the legislation has created a massive bureaucratic barrier of entry that will completely consume a small business owner.
The rules discourage entrepreneurship, and drive us all towards jobs with the few massive companies that can afford lobbyists.
For example: I technically work for a small business, though over the last 3-4 years that line has blurred pretty heavily. While we cannot afford to bribe officials at every turn, we have enough income that we can at least maintain a presence. What really helps us out is that we are affiliated with Cargill, the largest privately held company in the USA.
We wanted to transition to a larger company, but without some help with all the regulatory crap, we never would be able to. Cargill supplies that help.
Just the paperwork for this stuff causes entire departments to appear over night.
In short, we are well and truly fucked.
Charts put out by Government or Big Business …. I no longer read them, or even glance at them. I swear to God, I skip right past them. I learned to do that reading Admin’s analysis of BLS “data” … and also the earnings bullshit put out by business, which he also eviscerates. So fuckit, I simply don’t read it … even when he posts them in an article, for the most part.
Speaking of charts, here is proof that ex-girlfriends/wives LIE!!
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Shit.
Well … to the right of “In Love” is “After Breakup” and the answer is, of course, “Very Small”.
While looking for the penis-size-chart I found this by Charles Hugh Smith …. and it seems pretty helpful …
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OTOH, I do understand and enjoy anti-Obama charts.
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Once, long ago, I sat on a “Profit Sharing Committee,” in a factory I worked in. I was going to school to become an accountant, and was opinionated (shocking, no?), and not afraid to stand up to the brass (I long ago learned that lesson), so my peers volunteered me. Ah well, it meant an hour a month in the offices, instead of the floor, and a catered “snack,” plus I got paid. Suh-weet.
I soon learned that if management took the time to create and print full color charts (which was a BIG deal back then, remember, faxes were still somewhat unheard of in many businesses), the size of the “profit” to be shared was substantially smaller than without the charts.
Yep, almost anything can be gussied up into a 30-seconds to read chart. The real shame is that no matter how much they spend to create them, bullshit in still equals bullshit out. Chart that.
llpoh is a small business and is, imo, not able to take advantage of the tax loopholes. I dont blame him for being angry about his tax rate. In fact this is probably why so many small businesses are being decimated by such big box stores.