The Big Companies Pay Low Tax Rate

A newly released government report states that big U.S. companies pay far less in federal income tax than they want the public to know.

Back in 2010, big money corporations paid taxes at a rate of 12.6 on their income. This report was put together by the General Accountability Office. When the GAO office added up the companies, state, local and foreign taxes and they discovered they paid a rate of right around seventeen percent.

In the report the General Accountability Office states that “The average effective tax rates for profitable corporations were well below the federal statutory rate even when foreign and state and local income taxes were included.”

Tax experts say that one of the biggest abusers of tax law loopholes is Apple. Reports on Apple show that the company got away with not paying any taxes again this tax season on their profits from their subsidiaries in Australia.

The new report has fired up the debate on tax reform. “Today’s GAO report provides more stark evidence, if any is needed, that large, profitable U.S. corporations as a whole are not paying their fair share in taxes. When some U.S. corporations use unjustifiable loopholes and offshore gimmicks to avoid paying Uncle Sam, their tax burden is shifted onto hardworking American families and small business. Today’s GAO report quantifies just how much of the corporate tax burden has been shifted onto other taxpayers: America’s large, profitable corporations are now paying a lower tax rate than our teachers and firefighters.” said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan in a press release.