USA's Largest Corporations Made $170 Billion Yet Paid No Taxes

Let's face it - the USA's tax code is beyond screwed up. As Forbes is reporting, twelve of the nation's largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid NO taxes. That's right, zero! The GOP, of course, would have you believe that businesses are over taxed. While this may be true in some cases for the little guys, the big corporation with in some cases obscene profits are paying little or nothing even as more and more homeowners find themselves wiped out financially. It drives me to distraction to watch as idiots in the Tea Party movement remain blind to the fact that they are being sold down the river by Republicans. Add to the list of fools, the Christianists who are more concerned about stigmatizing gays than looking out for the future of the nation. Here are highlights from the Forbes story:
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Yesterday, I wrote about how the GOP is falsely pushing the argument that America’s corporations are overtaxed. I included some great data courtesy of conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett whose New York Times piece did an extraordinary job of putting the lie to the Republican assertions.
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Today, and not a moment too soon, the non-profit Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) has put out their findings revealing that twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%.

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only have these twelve companies paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, they actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 billion to their bottom lines.
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The companies were chosen by the CTJ . . . include – in alphabetical order – American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo and Yahoo.
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According to the study, not a single one of these companies paid an amount even close to the 35% statutory tax rate. In fact, the tax rate paid by Exxon Mobile, when spread over the full three years, was only 14.2% – a full 60% below the 35% rate that corporations are supposed to be paying. And if we take a look at what Exxon paid over just the past two years, it totals a mere 0.4% on their pre-tax profits of $9.9 billion. And get this – Exxon Mobile paid the most in taxes of any of the twelve companies on the list.
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We, as voters, also have a duty to react when the GOP majority in the House of Representatives tries to tell us we need to reduce this phantom corporate rate from 35% to 25% so that these corporations can pay even less in taxes while they pocket even greater amounts of taxpayer money via corporate subsidies.
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Worse still, Boehner, Ryan and friends have the unmitigated gall to make their pitch while asking the rest of us to give up the social programs that are so essential to most Americans. Seriously, people, do we need an anvil to fall on our heads before we get it?
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This chart from Think Progress tells it all:
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