US lawmaker lashes out at foreign firms for avoiding tax

[Judi Lynn]

US lawmaker lashes out at foreign firms for avoiding tax
<07 Apr 2004>
WASHINGTON (AFP)


A US lawmaker lashed out at foreign firms operating in the United States after a watchdog found 71 percent of them paid no tax here at all from 1996 to the end of 2000.

But the same report by the Congressional investigative arm, the General Accounting Office (GAO), found American firms not far behind, with 61 percent of them also paying zero tax in the five-year period.

Individual Americans were queuing up to file their tax returns before an April 15 deadline, said Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the top Democrat on a foreign commerce panel.

"They understand an obligation in this country to pay taxes," said Dorgan.

But 71 percent of the foreign corporations doing business in the United States paid no taxes, he said.
(snip/...)

http://servihoo.com/channels/kinews/v3news_details.php?id=38173&CategoryID=47

[displacedtexan]

1. Dorgan says, "Shame on them."

About bloody time, Byron!

more from the article:


"There is something fundamentally wrong with that," he told the Senate. "Once again, it demonstrates the gaping holes in our tax system ... shame on them."

[Judi Lynn]

2. Many companies avoided taxes as profits soared in boom

Many companies avoided taxes as profits soared in boom


By JOHN D. MCKINNON
The Associated Press
4/6/04 2:32 PM


The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- More than 60 percent of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared, the investigative arm of Congress reported.

The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign. Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured. By 2003, they had fallen to just 7.4 percent of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934, federal budget officials say.

The GAO analysis of Internal Revenue Service data comes as tax avoidance by both U.S. and foreign companies also is drawing increased scrutiny from the IRS and Congress. But more so than similar previous reports, the analysis suggests that dodging taxes, both legally and otherwise, has become deeply rooted in U.S. corporate culture. The analysis found that even more foreign-owned companies doing business in the U.S. -- about 70 percent of them -- reported that they didn't owe any U.S. federal taxes during the late 1990s.

"Too many corporations are finagling ways to dodge paying Uncle Sam, despite the benefits they receive from this country," said Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who requested the study along with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.). "Thwarting corporate tax dodgers will take tax reform and stronger enforcement." A 1999 GAO study on corporate tax payments reached similar results.
(snip/...)

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?f0161_BC_WSJ--CorporateTaxes&&news&newsflash-financial

[Voltaire99]

3. Thank the DLC and Bill Clinton for this

As the boom years of the 90s are inspected in closer detail, we can see them not as a period of greatness but one of social and economic derangement.

Consider:

--Massive downsizing and displacement of US workers by companies enjoying record profits.

--The abandonment of the social contract as government ripped the bottom out of welfare.

--Systemic dishonesty and deception in the accounting and investment industries.

--And now more documentation that businesses used loopholes provided by Democrat and Republican alike to skirt their tax obligations.

Is this what we really want, as Democrats and progressives? Do we really want a party by, of and for corporations? And if not, how are we going to change it?