From the article:
Remember the old Steve Martin routine on how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes: "First, make a million dollars. ... Second, don't pay taxes." Turns out Martin's joke is standard operating procedure for corporations in the United States -- only, in comparison, Martin was a piker.
Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study on taxes paid by corporations. In what Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., mildly called "a shocking indictment of the current tax system," the GAO found that about two-thirds of corporations operating in the United States did not pay taxes annually from 1998 to 2005.
Now, most corporations in America are start-ups or small, mom-and-pop operations that have adopted a corporate form to lower their tax rates. And a greater percentage of large corporations do pay some taxes. But in 2005, with corporate profits reaching new heights as a percentage of national income, the GAO found that more than one-fourth -- 28 percent of large corporations -- paid no taxes. (It defined large corporations as those with assets of at least $250 million or gross receipts of at least $50 million.) They can tell you how to make $50 million and not pay taxes.http://www.alternet.org/workplace/94985/the_great_corporate_tax_heist/and...
Enron Avoided Income Taxes In 4 of 5 YearsFrom the article:
Enron paid no income taxes in four of the last five years, using almost 900 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries and other techniques, an analysis of its financial reports to shareholders shows. It was also eligible for $382 million in tax refunds.
The company used strategies common among businesses to avoid taxes. It also used some unusual methods, among them the creation of 881 subsidiaries abroad, including 692 in the Cayman Islands, 119 in the Turks and Caicos, 43 in Mauritius and 8 in Bermuda.
Two Enron subsidiaries have been accused by a group of insurers of engaging in sham transactions in a tax haven, according to papers in federal bankruptcy court in New York.
Enron is by no means alone in not paying income taxes. A small but growing percentage of large companies pay no income taxes, a study by Citizens for Tax Justice showed in October 2000. The study of half the Fortune 500 companies found that 24 owed no tax in 1998, up from 13 in 1997 and 16 in 1996.
While it is common for American companies to create subsidiaries in tax havens abroad, Enron had far more than most other companies, tax experts said. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E7D91138F934A25752C0A9649C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/F/FinancesThere is great crying and gnashing of teeth over welfare fraud, which is illegal and should be dealt with, and social benefits to illegal immigrants, which are illegal, also, but these corporate crooks can, and have, stolen more money than a combined army of welfare cheats and illegal immigrants could ever dream of. Notice how little airtime that gets.
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