Senator Bernie Sanders, VT, and some common sense on corporate taxes

I'll admit it, Common Sense is a fan of Senator Bernie Sanders and his, well, common sense approach to government.  Here's an interesting fact sheet from Bernie that should be required reading in the next act of the Congressional Follies.


Corporations Must Pay Their Fair Share

 Today corporate profits are at an all-time high, while corporate income tax
revenue as a percentage of GDP is near a record low.

 In 1952, 32% of all of the revenue generated in this country came from large
corporations. Today, just 9% of federal revenue comes from corporate
America.

 At 1.6%, corporate revenue as a percentage of GDP is lower than any other
major country in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development) including Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Norway,
Australia, South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Ireland, Poland, and
Iceland.

 In 2011, corporations paid just 12 percent of their profits in taxes, the lowest
since 1972.

 In 2005, 1 out of 4 large corporations paid no income taxes at all even
though they collected $1.1 trillion in revenue over that one year period.

 Large corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in
taxes every year by setting up offshore tax shelters in places like the Cayman
Islands, Bermuda and the Bahamas.

 In 2009, Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits. Not only did they not pay
any federal income taxes, they actually received a $157 million rebate from
the IRS.

 In 2010, Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS,
even though it made $4.4 billion in profits. Bank of America operated 371
subsidiaries in offshore tax havens in 2010. 204 of these subsidiaries are
incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which has a corporate tax rate of 0%.

 At 15.7%, revenue as a percentage of GDP is at or near the lowest level in
sixty years.



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