Foreign corporations doing business in US getting off easy on their tax bills?

From the Family Economic Self Sufficiency Project of Wider Opportunities for Women.

According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Tuesday, most corporations, including a majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes. During the eight-year period covered by the report, 72 percent of foreign-owned corporations went at least one year without owing taxes; the same was true for 55 percent of domestic corporations. The report covered the period from 1998 through 2005. During that time, corporate income taxes as a share of gross domestic product dipped, from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 1.2 percent in 2003, the lowest share since 1983. But receipts jumped after that, hitting 2.7 percent in 2006 and 2007, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That was the highest share since the late 1970s. Senators Byron Dorgan (D, ND) and Carl Levin (D, MI) requested the report, which may be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08957.pdf. In commenting on the report’s finding, Senator Dorgan said “It’s shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country. The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hardworking Americans who pay their fair share of taxes. We need to plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls.”

Another report shows Arizonans pay less taxes

A new report shows, yet again, that we are a low tax state.

IRS: incomes of wealthiest 1% up, their taxes down

According to the IRS, as published recently in the Wall Street Journal, the top 1% of income earners in America make up a greater share of the nation's earnings than at any point in the past 20 years, while their average tax rate has declined to its lowest level in 20 years.

Rich extremists trying to silence the voters...and let the dead vote

Several wealthy right wingers have put forth a ballot initiative that would require a majority of all registered voters, and not just a majority of those who vote, to pass any initiative that taxes or requires the spending of any money. Had this been in place in the previous decade, the will of the voters would have been thwarted and thousands of children that the voters said deserved health care would not have gotten it, and our perpetually-bottom-of-the-barrel-in-funding schools would not have received the critical boost in funding that voters gave them in 2000. Moreover, since the initiative would mean that any registered voter who does not vote automatically votes "no" on a proposition that costs money, anyone who is dead and hasn't yet been taken off the un-audited rolls would be casting a "no" vote on any future proposals that require spending money. Anne Denogean of the Tucson Citizen hit the nail on the head with her column on this nasty initiative that you should vote against in November. You know, the Tucson Citizen does a better job of covering local news than most papers out there, and I will miss them after they fold, the way most afternoon newspapers have (and increasingly, non-afternoon papers too).

Poll: most blame legislature for budget impasse; McCain's lead in AZ narrow

A Bruce Merrill Channel 8 poll found voters overwhelmingly would find the legislature, and not the Governor, responsible if state government were to shut down next week due to the lack of a budget. The poll also found a narrow 10 point lead for McCain over Obama in Arizona, with a third of voters undecided. However, McCain's lead grows to 15 points if Obama has Clinton on the ticket as VP.