Monday - and Trump’s taxes hit the news - 1 of 5

Yes, it's just Apple - thankfully.

U.S is becoming a corporatocracy

The power of our corporations is becoming so pervasive that we are becoming a nation, of, by and for big business. Nowhere was this more evident when the big gun lobby won the day in the Senate, defeating background checks for gun control despite overwhelming support of the people.

Holding billions of dollars of America's wealth, paying no taxes.

How'd you like to earn billions of dollars? How would you like to have billions of dollars in holdings - cash on hand to handle emergencies in your family? And how would you like to pay absolutely no taxes on those billions? That's what our corporations, aka "people," are doing in this nation and it means that YOUR taxes have to be higher to pay the nation's bills.

We need tax reform and we have needed it for many years. It's time for the system to be equitable.

Our screwed up tax system

What do we want? Tax reform. When do we want it? NOW!

From Gawker...


Facebook Will Pay No Taxes, Get Huge Refund Instead
from Gawker by Max Rivlin-Nadler

Facebook Will Pay No Taxes, Get Huge Refund Instead

During the year it went public, Facebook made $1.1 billion in profits. But thanks to some nifty accounting, the company won't be paying any federal or state taxes on it - instead, it will actually be receiving a federal tax refund of about $429 million.

Don't buy into Republican arguments

Republicans are arguing against some tax reform and in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy. "If only," they clamor, "the rich had more money they would invest in jobs and businesses."


Rana Foroohar
Time Magazine, 1/24/2013

In any case, the "we would invest in the U.S. if only we had the money" argument doesn't hold water. Given how low interest rates are right now, it's just as easy to borrow to fund capital spending as it would be to pay a 5% tax. As Warren Buffet has said frequently in the past few months, a lack of cash is not hindering job creation. In fact, banks are in need of major corporations to lend to.

History shows what Republican policies REALLY achieve.

Rana Foroohar
Time Magazine, 1/24/2013

Congress enacted a temporary tax holiday on foreign earnings in 2004, and companies did indeed bring about 50% of their foreign cash-some $362 billion at that point-back into the U.S. But the majority of it went not to research or building factories (and certainly not to higher wages) but to the enrichment of investors through stock buybacks and dividend payments.

Rana Foroohar reports on problems with our economy

Rana Foroohar
Time Magazine, 1/24/2013

EVER HEAR OF A DOUBLE IRISH? HOW about a Dutch Sandwich? These aren't cocktails or bar snacks but rather complex financial strategies used by many American companies to transfer profits they earn abroad to countries with the lowest tax rates. Despite the goofy nicknames, these techniques have a serious purpose: to keep money away from the U.S. whenever possible to avoid paying the higher tax rates in effect at home. Ireland, for instance, taxes corporate earnings at 12.5%, compared with the U.S. rate of 35%. Big companies like GE and Apple have gotten very good at this game. By some estimates  U.S. corporations have $1.7 trillion in foreign earnings stashed under mattresses abroad. Now they and others say they would be happy to bring foreign earnings home-repatriating them, in accounting lingo-if only the U.S. would change its laws and make overseas profits tax-free. This is known as a territorial tax system: only income generated inside the home country gets taxed by that country. Amid the fiscal-cliff debate over individual tax rates, hardly anyone has paid attention to a number of reforms being advocated by Republicans that would shift the U.S. to such a system. (In the short term, business lobbyists are looking for a temporary tax holiday allowing repatriation at a 5.25% rate for a year, an idea supported by a number of conservative politicians and some liberals.)

Advocates say it would lift the U.S. economy  companies would put this money to good use by investing at home and creating jobs. But while the plan might well goose the stock market, it won't create more jobs. In fact, it might even do the opposite.

The fantasy world of the unintelligent.

"Those who retreat into fantasy cannot be engaged in rational discussion, for fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem. When their myths are attacked as untrue it triggers not a discussion of facts and evidence but a ferocious emotional backlash." ---Chris Hedges, Truthdig

Speaking of our government

Although Barack Obama is the best bet we have for a sane government at this time, I'm not a big fan. He's let down the middle class and the liberals of this nation repeatedly and it is why I did not work for him nor did I contribute to his last campaign. One of his biggest betrayals of the middle class has been his refusal to punish the bankers, hedge fund managers, and stock brokers who have gambled with our money and lost. They have, and continue, to run our nation into the ground.

There are a few people out there that I DO trust - Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich, Elizabeth Warren - to name a few. Following is a great piece from Bernie Sanders that explains, in plain English, what we are dealing with in our economy.

Source: Crooks and Liars

-----------Senator Bernie Sanders:

When the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street drove this country into the deepest recession since the 1930s, the largest financial institutions in the United States took every advantage of being American. They just loved their country - and the willingness of the American people to provide them with the largest bailout in world history. In 2008, Congress approved a $700 billion gift to Wall Street. Another $16 trillion in virtually zero interest loans and other financial assistance came from the Federal Reserve. America. What a great country.

But just two years later, as soon as these giant financial institutions started making record-breaking profits again, they suddenly lost their love for their native country. At a time when the nation was suffering from a huge deficit, largely created by the recession that Wall Street caused, the major financial institutions did everything they could to avoid paying American taxes by establishing shell corporations in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

In 2010, Bank of America set up more than 200 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands (which has a corporate tax rate of 0.0 percent) to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It worked. Not only did Bank of America pay nothing in federal income taxes, but it received a rebate from the IRS worth $1.9 billion that year. They are not alone. In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens to avoid paying some $4.9 billion in U.S. taxes. That same year Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid an estimated $3.3 billion in U.S. taxes. Citigroup has paid no federal income taxes for the last four years after receiving a total of $2.5 trillion in financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

On and on it goes. Wall Street banks and large companies love America when they need corporate welfare. But when it comes to paying American taxes or American wages, they want nothing to do with this country. That has got to change.

Offshore tax abuse is not just limited to Wall Street. Each and every year corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in U.S. taxes by sheltering their income offshore.

Pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have fought to make it illegal for the American people to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe. But, during tax season, Eli Lilly and Pfizer shift drug patents and profits to the Netherlands and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Apple wants all of the advantages of being an American company, but it doesn't want to pay American taxes or American wages. It creates the iPad, the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes in the United States, but manufactures most of its products in China so it doesn't have to pay American wages. Then it shifts most of its profits to Ireland, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Without such maneuvers, Apple's federal tax bill in the United States would have been $2.4 billion higher in 2011.

Offshore tax schemes have become so absurd that one five-story office building in the Cayman Islands is now the "home" to more than 18,000 corporations.

This tax avoidance does not just reduce the revenue that we need to pay for education, healthcare, roads, and environmental protection, it is also costing us millions of American jobs. Today, companies are using these same tax schemes to lower their tax bills by shipping American jobs and factories abroad. These tax breaks have contributed to the loss of more than 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs and the closure of more than 56,000 factories since 2000. That also has got to change.

At a time when we have a $16.5 trillion national debt; at a time when roughly one-quarter of the largest corporations in America are paying no federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high; it is past time for Wall Street and corporate America to pay their fair share.

That's what the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act (S.250) that I have introduced with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is all about.

This legislation will stop profitable Wall Street banks and corporations from sheltering profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It will also stop rewarding companies that ship jobs and factories overseas with tax breaks. The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated in the past that the provisions in this bill will raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade.

As Congress debates deficit reduction, it is clear that we must raise significant new revenue. At 15.8 percent of GDP, federal revenue is at almost the lowest point in 60 years. Our Republican colleagues want to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children, the veterans and the most vulnerable by making massive cuts. At a time when the middle class already is disappearing, that is not only a grossly immoral position, it is bad economics.

We have a much better idea. Wall Street and the largest corporations in the country must begin to pay their fair share of taxes. They must not be able to continue hiding their profits offshore and shipping American jobs overseas to avoid taxes.

Here's the simple truth. You can't be an American company only when you want a massive bailout from the American people. You have also got to be an American company, and pay your fair share of taxes, as we struggle with the deficit and adequate funding for the needs of the American people. If Wall Street and corporate America don't agree, the next time they need a bailout let them go to the Cayman Islands, let them go to Bermuda, let them go to the Bahamas and let them ask those countries for corporate welfare.

Higher taxes on the wealthy WILL have an impact on jobs!

Republicans - fucking stupid

There are nearly as many Republican "funny" political images as there are liberal ones. I do my best to pass over them, but sometimes you've just GOT to respond.

The American Economy - narrated by Ad Asner

The story of the wealthy and taxes and the mess they have created. This cartoon is VERY good, but it does run about 8 minutes.

Really...

Really - you just can't fix fucking stupid...

Corporations Calling To ‘Fix The Debt’ Want $134 Billion In Tax Breaks

Speaking of tax breaks...

And at last the truth is known - Romeny Taxes

Harry Reid was right:

Bloomberg finally cracked the story...
Using a tax shelter called a CRUT (charitable remainder unitrust) that was held by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Mitt Romney was able to pay zero taxes (legally) every single year from 1996 to 2009. Why did he stop in 2009? Because he would make public his 2010 tax return, that is why.

Source

Mitt Romney and fees

If history is any indicator, the Obama campaign may have figured out how Romney is going to afford his 20% across-the-board tax cut.

 

15 Things Republicans Don't Want You to Know About Taxes and the National Debt.

1. President Obama Cut Taxes for Almost All Working Americans
2. Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt
3. George W. Bush Doubled the National Debt
4. Reagan Raised Debt Ceiling 17 Times, Bush Seven
5. Tax Cuts Don't Pay for Themselves
6. Almost All Working Americans Pay Taxes
7. The GOP's "Job Creators" Don't Create Jobs
8. Low Capital Gains Taxes Fuel Income Inequality...
9. ...But Not Investment
10. The Estate Tax Has Virtually No Impact on Family Farms and Businesses
11. Income Inequality Has Reached an 80 Year High...
12. ...While the Federal Tax Burden Has Hit a 60 Year Low
13. Romney-Ryan Plan Another Massive Tax Cut Windfall for the Wealthy
14. Romney, Ryan Won't Say Which of the $1 Trillion in Tax Breaks GOP Will End
15. Romney-Ryan Will Add More Debt Than President Obama

The proof is in the pudding - but Republicans don't like facts.

Taxes

Will more tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy really create more jobs? Highly suspect claim - they're not likely to build more product of there are so few people left who can afford to buy it.