The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Who Doesn’t Pay Taxes?

Oct 17, 2016

Donald Trump may avoid paying taxes, but his tax dodging is small potatoes compared to the big companies. Just one accounting trick, hiding their profits in overseas subsidiaries, let the 500 biggest companies in the country avoid 718 billion dollars in taxes on money they’ve accumulated over the years! To put this in perspective, the U. S. budget deficit for 2016 was 544 billion dollars. And this is just one of the hundreds of accounting tricks these companies use.

Apple alone would owe 65.4 billion dollars in taxes if it brought its money back to this country from the “tax havens” where it stashes its profits.

These tax dodges are no secret. A non-profit organization, Citizens for Tax Justice, carried out the study that produced these numbers. But of course the federal government, including both Democrats and Republicans, already knew all the tricks the corporations carry out to avoid taxes. They wrote the tax laws that these companies–and billionaires like Trump–take advantage of!