[onlooker]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/ ... llars.html
Here is a story that epitomizes the irresponsible and corrupt nature of the business world in the US. Corporations never cease to amaze how low they can get.

[Cog]

Hmm nothing in the article suggesting that corporations are doing anything illegal here as the thread title implies. As a stockholder, I would expect a corporation to avoid paying any tax by using legal methods. Which is apparently what the corporations are doing.

A corporation is not a charity and is not designed for your taxing pleasure. It is designed to maximize profits for the stockholders. The OP can certainly set up his own corporation and give away to government as much money as he can. Tell me how that works out for you.

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ig Companies Pay about a Third of their Required State Taxes

[Cog]

If the local governments believe there is illegality going on, then they are free to sue the corporations involved for tax avoidance. But as long as the corporations are staying within the law, I fail to see the problem. The governments involved wrote those various loopholes into the tax law that seem to enrage the OP. Your argument is with the politicians you put into office.

The OP is not alone in believing that corporations are some sort of bank at which they are free to withdraw money to fund their progressive schemes. Sorry, it simply doesn't work that way.

Your bias is you dislike rich people for some reason. Jealousy? Don't really know.

Start a charity or contribute to one if you want to help poor people. A for profit corporation has a fiduciary responsibility to the stock holders not to waste their profits paying taxes when they don't have to.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I')f the local governments believe there is illegality going on, then they are free to sue the corporations involved for tax avoidance. But as long as the corporations are staying within the law, I fail to see the problem. The governments involved wrote those various loopholes into the tax law that seem to enrage the OP.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I')f the local governments believe there is illegality going on, then they are free to sue the corporations involved for tax avoidance. But as long as the corporations are staying within the law, I fail to see the problem. The governments involved wrote those various loopholes into the tax law that seem to enrage the OP.

[vtsnowedin]

A couple of things:
First school taxes are usually paid as property taxes and at somewhere around two percent of the value of the property. A corporation has to pay property taxes even if they are losing money that year on that property. That is a deductible expense that reduces profits and the amount of tax on profits.
Second school enrollments are going down nationwide and per pupil expenditures are going up not down in most states.
The problem is in the tax code and it is time for a complete rewrite of it.
And while we are rewriting it we need to take a hard look at all the Grubbers from K street that are writing sections of the new code and see who's ox is being gored by each section and which politicians have been bought off to vote for each loop hole.

[evilgenius]

There seems, actually, to be a bit of confusion here as to the purpose of a corporation. Like any business, they exist to provide goods or services in order to supply a perceived need or want. They are not in business to 'make money'. That's not so much a lie as a misconception.

As for the problem with taxes, what is the issue other than greed? There are two types of expenses that a business has to concern itself with along these lines, fees and taxes. Fees, being set at a certain price, are easily overcome in their gravity by the application of economies of scale. Taxes, seeing as how they are usually set as a percentage of profit, will not respond to economies of scale. Since economies of scale are the most useful tool for establishing market share against all comers public and private any business would like to believe that their investment in the creation of them might extend also toward such issues as taxes. To the extent that the public accepts tax relief for big corporations, like say tax cuts for Walmart or some big tech company to come to town, they are saying how much they agree that economies of scale somehow improve the social context enough to make it good in the balance to issue a reduction.

Tax breaks are always traceable to the people. Most of us blame politicians when we discover them. Few of us are willing to point the finger at our common fears, that ma and pa hardware isn't really as good as Walmart or that our community doesn't have a genius working in his garage that can provide me with that same level of quality as the mass produced product at anywhere near the MSRP I can look up readily. The trouble begins when ma and pa hardware can, or there really is a genius. Then, those tax breaks may prevent such local talent from succeeding. Nationally, they may create barriers to entry into a business which are too onerous for start ups or smaller firms to overcome.

Eventually a business that is protected from competition by courting tax breaks may find itself suddenly unable to compete, in much the same way that many businesses cannot survive sea changes to their business models, because the competition has all along been working like bacteria to overcome the advantages that the big corporation relies upon. When this happens the public often finds that, in the face of such promising new alternatives, they are not so afraid anymore.

If you want Google to pay taxes, then you have to address the public's fear that they will have to go back to using Alta Vista. If you want Apple to pay taxes, then you have to address the public's fear that they will see the same cell phone in the hands of everyone else as they see in their own(that they won't feel special because of their own selection).

[Cog]

I wonder where Evil genius got his MBA. A corporation provides goods and services to obtain a profit. I pray to God you never tried to run a business.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') wonder where Evil genius got his MBA. A corporation provides goods and services to obtain a profit. I pray to God you never tried to run a business.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ig Companies Pay about a Third of their Required State Taxes

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') wonder where Evil genius got his MBA. A corporation provides goods and services to obtain a profit. I pray to God you never tried to run a business.

[Lore]

I guess you never heard of NPOs?

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') wonder where Evil genius got his MBA. A corporation provides goods and services to obtain a profit. I pray to God you never tried to run a business.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', 'I') guess you never heard of NPOs?

[Lore]

You're confusing legal NPOs and Charities. Different classifications.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') nonprofit organization (NPO, also known as a non-business entity) is an organization that uses its surplus revenues to further achieve its purpose or mission, rather than distributing its surplus income to the organization's directors (or equivalents) as profit or dividends.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') wonder where Evil genius got his MBA. A corporation provides goods and services to obtain a profit. I pray to God you never tried to run a business.

[onlooker]

Nothing wrong with making profit but just pay your fair share upon that profit.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'N')othing wrong with making profit but just pay your fair share upon that profit.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'N')othing wrong with making profit but just pay your fair share upon that profit.