Two-Thirds of Corporations Pay No Income Taxes

A running mantra of John McCain's campaign is that we should cut corporate tax rates so as to spur job growth. If only we lessened the weighty government burden on corporations like Exxon-Mobil, the thinking goes, then we'd see a miraculous turnaround in our nation's economic health. Well, it turns out that in order to do so, the federal government will have to find a number less than zero for the majority of corporations in America. Why? Because due to loopholes and write-offs in the tax code, they aren't currently paying any income taxes at all. Via the AP:

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

So before you go crying in your Budweiser about the raw deal the corporate world is getting in these United States, you might consider what, exactly, they've been getting away with all this time. And for further viewing on just how it is that such a large percentage of companies skirt paying taxes by filing as individuals, check out the award-winning film The Corporation.