Pink Spider
06-03-2004, 05:44 PM
"CORPORATE TAX EVADERS"
By Jim Hightower
http://www.jimhightower.com/
You might remember way back in ancient history – back in 2002 – when George W was posing as a corporate reformer. He puffed out his chest, focused his beady eyes right into the TV camera, and said that he was sending "a clear message to every dishonest corporate leader: You will be exposed and you will be punished."
Strong words. But as happens so often with W, he talks big... but wilts when it comes to action. For example, one specific promise he's made repeatedly is that he'll get tough with corporate tax cheats. But an independent analysis of IRS data by experts at Syracuse University finds that there has been a sharp decline of such tax enforcement under Bush, with fewer audits, fewer prosecutions, and fewer penalties. During the last decade, IRS audits of the largest corporations have fallen almost by half, and the agency's enforcement focus in Bush's tenure has shifted from corporations and wealthy investors to you-know-who – us ordinary working stiffs.
This comes at a time when corporate sharpies have created all sorts of new tax dodges, allowing these scofflaws to shrink their tax payments to historically low levels. The General Accounting Office reports that in the four years prior to Bush's term, 60 percent of large corporations paid no income taxes – zero.
Since then, George has steadily whacked a the corporate tax rate, while also gouging new tax loopholes into the law at the behest of corporate lobbyists. His latest boondoggle is a special-interest tax bill that slashes corporate taxes by another $170 billion – including special loopholes for TV and movie producers, liquor distillers, drug companies and even Oldsmobile dealers.
Every dollar of taxes that they dodge is a dollar that we you-know-whos have to make up – either by paying higher taxes or receiving less in essential public services. These wealthy elite are shirking their responsibility to help maintain the society that makes their wealth possible.
By Jim Hightower
http://www.jimhightower.com/
You might remember way back in ancient history – back in 2002 – when George W was posing as a corporate reformer. He puffed out his chest, focused his beady eyes right into the TV camera, and said that he was sending "a clear message to every dishonest corporate leader: You will be exposed and you will be punished."
Strong words. But as happens so often with W, he talks big... but wilts when it comes to action. For example, one specific promise he's made repeatedly is that he'll get tough with corporate tax cheats. But an independent analysis of IRS data by experts at Syracuse University finds that there has been a sharp decline of such tax enforcement under Bush, with fewer audits, fewer prosecutions, and fewer penalties. During the last decade, IRS audits of the largest corporations have fallen almost by half, and the agency's enforcement focus in Bush's tenure has shifted from corporations and wealthy investors to you-know-who – us ordinary working stiffs.
This comes at a time when corporate sharpies have created all sorts of new tax dodges, allowing these scofflaws to shrink their tax payments to historically low levels. The General Accounting Office reports that in the four years prior to Bush's term, 60 percent of large corporations paid no income taxes – zero.
Since then, George has steadily whacked a the corporate tax rate, while also gouging new tax loopholes into the law at the behest of corporate lobbyists. His latest boondoggle is a special-interest tax bill that slashes corporate taxes by another $170 billion – including special loopholes for TV and movie producers, liquor distillers, drug companies and even Oldsmobile dealers.
Every dollar of taxes that they dodge is a dollar that we you-know-whos have to make up – either by paying higher taxes or receiving less in essential public services. These wealthy elite are shirking their responsibility to help maintain the society that makes their wealth possible.