Corporations Don’t Pay Taxes – Ever!

[P & H cattle]

Here is a topic maybe we all can agree on.



Corporations Don't Pay Taxes – Ever!

A CNN article reports that many corporations don't pay income taxes, and many more don't pay the 35 percent corporate tax rate. The average tax is around 18 percent. You and I should be thankful that some corporations don't pay any taxes and be upset that the average tax rate is 18 percent.
When a corporation pays taxes, it counts those taxes as an expense. All business expenses are passed on to consumers. That means that they are passed on to you and me. When Congress calls for more taxes on Big Oil, they are actually calling for a tax on us. This is in addition to the taxes we already pay to the state where we buy the gas and the federal government.
Governments bring in more money than the oil companies make in profit without taking any risks. Governments just collect the money. Actually, the gasoline stations collect the money, which also costs them, and sends the state and federal governments a fat check.
Governments are in the business of fomenting class warfare. It's one of the ways they can tax without a groundswell of opposition. There are fewer corporations when compared to individual voters. So by campaigning on a "tax the corporations" platform, politicians can appease and gain the support of tax payers. In the end, however, taxpayers are getting stuck with the higher taxes corporations will pay.
Oil companies are in for major political attacks. Many of the people who argue for higher taxes from Big Oil are invested in mutual funds that are heavily weighted in oil stocks and companies that are dependent on oil companies. Some of the raw materials that are produced from petroleum ("rock oil) are synthetic cloth, plastics, paint, inks, tires, drugs and medicines, cosmetics, and many other products.
Petrochemicals can be changed into a variety of products: plastics, clothes fabrics, paints, laundry detergent, food additives, lawn chemicals, and more than 6,000 other everyday products. The middle vapors result in gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel, as well as jet fuel (a form of kerosene). Next come the fractions that make home heating oil and fuel for ships and factories. The heaviest oil produces lubricating oil and grease, which can also be turned into items such as candle wax. At the very bottom of the distillation tower is the leftover sludge, also called bitumen, which is used in the asphalt that makes roads and roofing.


When the oil companies are taxed, the prices of all these commodities go up. So when we want Congress to tax Big Oil or any other company, we are only calling for a tax on ourselves.
Then there are the myths regarding oil company profits. Consider these facts posted on Exxon Mobil's Perspective Blog : "For every gallon of gasoline, diesel or finished products we manufactured and sold in the United States in the last three months of 2010, we earned a little more than 2 cents per gallon. That's not a typo. Two cents."
Exxon also reported in 2010 that it made less than 8 cents for every dollar of revenue from all their businesses around the world. Compare this gasoline taxes (combined local, state and federal), which range from a low of 26.4 cents per gallon in Alaska to a high of 66.1 cents per gallon in California, averaging 48.1 cents per gallon across all states.
We should also keep in mind that "at the beginning of the twenty-first century, 1.5 million people in the United States were employed in the petroleum industry." Consider that these big companies pay an equal amount of Social Security and Medicare taxes (more than 7 percent) on each employee. Then there healthcare costs.
If a company ever gets to the point that it can't pass on the cost of an increase in taxes it either (1) goes overseas where corporate taxes are low, labor is less expensive (because of lower taxes and regulations), and an absence of unions or (2) they go out of business.
How does taxing corporations help you and me? Do we see any of that money flow into our pockets? No we don't. Politicians use corporations as economic bad guys. The money that's collected from them is used to fund their pet projects. Democrats and Republicans are guilty.

Read more: Corporations Don't Pay Taxes – Ever! | Godfather Politics http://godfatherpolitics....axes-ever/#ixzz1cnchFU3w

 

[cow pollinater]

I must be doing it all wrong. I pay my taxes and all of the input costs for an entire year before my crops are ready to harvest at which time the buyer tells me what they're worth in the current market which doesn't have anything to do with my tax rate or my input costs.

 

[lynnmcmahan]

Great post. I have said the same thing for thirty years and most people don't understand it. My brother has controlled a co-op for thirty years. When he complains about the taxes he pays and I say, you don't pay taxes, you customers pay the taxes. The ultimate consumer pays the taxes. He get fighting mad and it always ends with,"you don't know what you are talking about."

 

[Bigfoot]

I think reagonomics addressed this issue pretty good. I haven't seen any trickle down come my way in a long time.

 

[snake67]

Great post. I have said the same thing for thirty years and most people don't understand it. My brother has controlled a co-op for thirty years. When he complains about the taxes he pays and I say, you don't pay taxes, you customers pay the taxes. The ultimate consumer pays the taxes. He get fighting mad and it always ends with,"you don't know what you are talking about."

So does that mean you do not pay taxes?

After all the people that buy your cows must pay your taxes if I follow your logic - because they are your customer - and I would guess that every dairy farmer would have to say the dairy that buys his milk pays the taxes and so on and so on.

The primary producer therefore pays no taxes - it is his buyers that pay the taxes.

I must tell that to my family member who runs cattle out west - "Brother - you do not pay taxes - it is your buyer that pays them".

I think I know what he might say to me - even if he is my brother.

LOL

Personally I believe that you keep the money you make - be you a person or a business or whatever. You then file through your accountant and pay the tax on the money YOU or the BUSINESS makes.

Have to admit I do like your thought process - I just find it quite flawed - unless I am missing something. But it would seem you do not pay taxes and by default no primary producer pays them either.

Bez

 

[P & H cattle]

Please, this was not meant for political discussion.
It was meant to inform those who can't seem to understand why feed, fertilizer and fuel costs are going up while cattle prices remain low.

Reread this and apply it to yourself even if you are not a corp.
"If a company ever gets to the point that it can't pass on the cost of an increase in taxes it either (1) goes overseas where corporate taxes are low, labor is less expensive (because of lower taxes and regulations), and an absence of unions or (2) they go out of business."

Now which of those two options do you have if you can't pass on your cost of doing business to your customers?

That is why the government has the farm bill. So you can suck on a government teat and stay in business. And in return you give them your vote just to stay in business.
Has the government got it's hook in you and made itself your not so silent partner?

If it does then you have no one to blame but yourself if you are unhappy with your rate of return on your investment.

Now with that said, I have signed up this year for my share of all that free government money because I can no longer compete with my competitors who already are getting free government money.

I simply can't afford to pay full price for everything and stay in business while my neighbor pays half price with the government paying the other half which drives down cattle prices.
I too am now sucking a government teat and will be forced to vote for those who keep the government teat full.

Pete

 

[lynnmcmahan]

Why would you like a flawed thought process?
O.K. Try this, taxes are the same as the light bill, just another expense. Ultimate consumers also pays the light bill
The end

 

[P & H cattle]

And you can add the cost of the fuel surtax on transportation to the cost of doing business also.
Ultimately you, the consumer, pay all the costs of doing business, all taxes included.
If you don't believe it, please tell me where a business gets the money to pay all costs and still make a profit.
Pete

 

[TexasBred]

Sir Loin (I mean Pete) do some checking on insurance company accounting and how they avoid taxes. That will get your goat as well. Good to have you back posting SL.

 

[P & H cattle]

TexasBred

Sorry to bust your bubble but SL is over on GBU doing some psychological demographics.
http://gbu.yuku.com/forums/7/CHITCHAT-A ... EVERYTHING
I'm actually Dover, Ben.

 

[Jogeephus]

If a corporation is run convervatively and wants to build up a nest egg during good years to keep from having to lay people off during a lean year the government will slap hefty tax on this nest egg. To keep from having to pay such a hefty tax on unused profits this money is often given out in the form of dividends or bonuses which weakens the company during a lean time. If a lean time hits after they "dumped" the money then guess who is going to get hurt first - hint - $hit rolls down hill.

 

[tater74]

TexasBred

Sorry to bust your bubble but SL is over on GBU doing some psychological demographics.
http://gbu.yuku.com/forums/7/CHITCHAT-A ... EVERYTHING
I'm actually Dover, Ben.

Cute, Ben Dover With that name and your rants about homosexuals and pedophiles, it makes me wonder.

 

[snake67]

Why would you like a flawed thought process?
O.K. Try this, taxes are the same as the light bill, just another expense. Ultimate consumers also pays the light bill
The end

I like it because it is funny - made me chuckle - but your comment is almost as intelligent as your statement about not paying taxes.

So who pays yours if you do not? After all I suppose it is the consumer that buys your cattle - meaning of course - once again - that you yourself do not pay taxes.

So - I ask you - who pays your taxes?

Bez

 

[greybeard]

Almost correct.
Corps do indeed pay taxes, but are legally able to recoup that expense thru consumers and end user sales.

 

[Jogeephus]

Almost correct.
Corps do indeed pay taxes, but are legally able to recoup that expense thru consumers and end user sales.

If this is true only for corporations then this must mean that all cattle operations are owned by corporations because they too can write off their taxes as an expense.

I'm confused now cause I must be doing something wrong with my payroll. First, I must pay a tax to the city for each employee I hire. Of course maybe this isn't a tax but a fine. Then I have to pay half of the employees bill for their social security, there state tax they owe plus half of their federal tax out of the coporation's money of course this is only 20% of gross payroll. Part of this is given back to the employee in the form a their tax refund at the end of the year but it must be the corporation's money since a corporation doesn't pay taxes. Shouldn't the money be reimbursed to the corp back rather than the employee?

On top of this, the corporation must pay a tax on all its assets. Tractors, equipment and everything else. If this were not enough they are assessed an intangible tax on everything the company has bought, paid taxes on, depreciated but still somehow has some use to it. Only God and a few others high in the government even understands how this number is calculated.

Then I have to pay for unemployment insurance on each employee in the event they decide they don't want to work and would rather sit at the house and draw a check. If enough of them do this then this rate increases. Heck the rate increases asnyway due to the number of corporations that are laying off people and are either shutting their doors or moving to another country because they are not taxed here and they are there. :???: Then there are all the little licenses and fees a corporation must pay for to stay in compliance with the laws and regulations they keep heaping on the mule.

But, as Obama wisely stated, if it weren't for the government we wouldn't have any businesses in this country so we should all be grateful.

 

[greybeard]

A big "IF" Jogeephus. It applies as well to most businesses including agri-business--large and small, but we don't always look at it that way. Even when we try to pencil our expenses for a single AU, we include the property taxes on that acerage, and try to make that expense back up.

 

[TexasBred]

Why would you like a flawed thought process?
O.K. Try this, taxes are the same as the light bill, just another expense. Ultimate consumers also pays the light bill
The end

I like it because it is funny - made me chuckle - but your comment is almost as intelligent as your statement about not paying taxes.

So who pays yours if you do not? After all I suppose it is the consumer that buys your cattle - meaning of course - once again - that you yourself do not pay taxes.

So - I ask you - who pays your taxes?

Bez

Dam Bez, you're sounding more like Inbredredneck et al all the time. Sure she pays taxes...she submits them to IRS per IRA regs and according to her tax return all good taxpapers. How and where she got the money may be another thing altogether, but very likely was collected as a premium on things sold off the farm. OR it coudl have been a gift from dad. She complies with the Tax Law and government gets their pound of flesh.....that's what matters. Probably exactly how you do it as well.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Almost correct.
Corps do indeed pay taxes, but are legally able to recoup that expense thru consumers and end user sales.

They pay after they collect from the consumer.

 

[lavacarancher]

This should not come as a surprise to ANYONE! Corporations have NEVER paid taxes. Any "tax" is a business expense and it is passed on to the customer. You can argue this point to a Dem and the next words out of his mouth is "we should raise the taxes on corporations". What surprises me is this should come up here.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I guess with this kind of logic none of us have ever payed taxes since we all get payed by someone else? So I guess none of us could complain if the government decided to raise it by 50%, eh?