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
Apr 4, 2005
A recent study showed that between 2001 and 2003, some of the richest corporations in the U.S. paid NOTHING in taxes. The tax breaks can be carried over to other years to reduce the taxes corporations pay as well.
9.4 billion
4.6 billion
4.6 billion
4.5 billion
4.2 billion
These figures and many more examples can be found on the web site of Citizens for Tax Justice.
In addition to tax breaks, the tax code is so favorable to corporations that it sends them tax refund checks. In 2001, the Treasury returned 40 billion dollars in tax refunds to corporations. In 2002 and 2003, the checks sent out totaled 63 billion dollars each year.
But tax avoidance and money back to the corporations didn’t begin under Bush. The government’s General Accounting Office found that from 1996 to 2000, under the Clinton administration, three of every five corporations paid NO taxes.
No wonder the share of federal taxes paid by corporations is only $7 for every $100 collected by the IRS today, compared with $28 per $100 in taxes paid by corporations in the 1950s.
This is government of the capitalists, by the capitalists, for the capitalists.