Smile, Suckers, As The Rich Get Richer.
By Kathryn Kranhold
The Center for Public Integrity (4/11/19)
Taxpayers are scrambling to make last-minute payments due to the Internal Revenue Service in just four days, but many of the country’s largest publicly-held corporations are doing better: They’ve reported they owe absolutely nothing on the billions of dollars in profits they earned last year.
At least 60 companies reported that their 2018 federal tax rates amounted to effectively zero, or even less than zero, on income earned on U.S. operations, according to an analysis released today by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The number is more than twice as many as ITEP found roughly, per year, on average in an earlier, multi-year analysis before the new tax law went into effect.
Among them are household names like technology giant Amazon.com Inc. and entertainment streaming service Netflix Inc., in addition to global oil giant Chevron Corp., pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co., and farming and commercial equipment manufacturer Deere & Co.
No fed tax on $79 billion
The identified companies were “able to zero out their federal income taxes on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income,” according to the ITEP report, which was released today. “Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year.” To compile the list, ITEP analyzed the 2018 financial filings of the country’s largest 560 publicly-held companies.
The following is a list of the country’s largest publicly-held profitable corporations that paid no federal income taxes in 2018 on billions in U.S. income, according to ITEP analysis of 560 companies. ITEP reports U.S. income before federal taxes, and takes into consideration paid state and local taxes, which could reduce or increase U.S. income. The report does not look at total tax provision, a number that could include foreign taxes and deferred taxes. All figures, except for tax rate, are in millions. …
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Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos & Warren Buffett Are Wealthier Than Poorest Half Of US
By Rupert Neate
The Guardian (11/8/17)
The three richest people in the US – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett– own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, or 160 million people.
Analysis of the wealth of America’s richest people found that Gates, Bezos and Buffett were sitting on a combined $248.5bn (£190bn) fortune. The Institute for Policy Studies said the growing gap between rich and poor had created a “moral crisis”.
In a report, the Billionaire Bonanza, the thinktank said Donald Trump’s tax change proposals would “exacerbate existing wealth disparities” as 80% of tax benefits would end up going to the wealthiest 1% of households.
“Wealth inequality is on the rise,” said Chuck Collins, an economist and co-author of the report. “Now is the time for actions that reduce inequality, not tax cuts for the very wealthy.”
The study found that the billionaires included in Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in the US were worth a combined $2.68tn – more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of the UK.
“Our wealthiest 400 now have more wealth combined than the bottom 64% of the US population, an estimated 80m households or 204 million people,” the report says. “That’s more people than the population of Canada and Mexico combined.” …
- The Hidden Tax: Average Americans Pay A Tax Of 74% That They Don’t Know About & Isn’t In The Media — In American media, we hear a lot about the taxes that the wealthy want cut: Income taxes, estate taxes, and corporate taxes. What we don’t hear about is the largest tax the American labor force faces. This is the difference between what we produce and what we get paid. Let’s call this the profit tax because it goes to corporate profits. This tax is taken from workers and redistributed to owners and shareholders. As tax day approaches, I wanted to highlight this hidden tax. … Read the Rest
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If you would like one of the new Commoner Call ‘Billionaire’ buttons, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Mark L. Taylor, PO Box 35, Genoa, WI 54632-0035. We have them in black-on-white as well and pay 78 cents per button. Donations gratefully accepted to print up more.
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On Contact: A Tax System Rigged For The Rich With David Cay Johnston
Not only do people like Trump not pay taxes, the government pays them!
[Editor’s Note: This interview came shortly before the 2016 election of Trump. — Mark L. Taylor]
By Chris Hedges
On Contact / RT (10/15/16)
On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges sits down with David Cay Johnson, author of “The Making of Donald Trump” to examine how the Republican presidential nominee and the rich are benefiting from a rigged tax system. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil further explores how the U.S. tax code has been rewritten to benefit the wealthy.
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Watch: Dem Rep. Katie Porter Uses Basic Budget Math To Expose Jamie Dimon On Starvation Wages At JPMorgan Chase
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams (4/11/19)
During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Katie Porter used the financial struggles of one of her constituents to grill JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over the vast worker-executive pay gap and low wages at his bank.
Porter, a Democrat from California, outlined the monthly expenses of her constituent, a single-mother working full-time as a JPMorgan Chase teller for $16.50 an hour.
After paying for rent on her one-bedroom apartment, food, utilities, child care for her daughter, and other basic needs, Porter estimated that her constituent has a $567 budget shortfall each month.
When Porter asked Dimon—who earns $31 million a year—how his employee should manage this shortfall while working 40 hours a week at his bank, the Wall Street CEO had no answer.
“I don’t know, I’d have to think about that,” Dimon said three times after Porter asked whether her constituent should take out a JPMorgan Case credit card and run a deficit or overdraft at the bank.
After Dimon said he would like to be “helpful,” Porter responded, “What I’d like you to do is provide a way for families to make ends meet, so that little kids who are six years old living in a one-bedroom apartment with their mother aren’t going hungry at night because they’re $567 short.”
“Mr. Dimon, you know how to spend $31 million a year in salary, and you can’t figure out how to make up a $567 a month shortfall,” Porter said. “This is is a budget problem you cannot solve.”
In response to Dimon’s suggestion that her math may not be correct, Porter hit back on Twitter.
“Jamie Dimon said he didn’t know if all my numbers were accurate,” the California Democrat wrote. “Here’s the math so he can check.”
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