Interesting.  And, just what did the top richest corporations pay?  I'll start it off:  GE, one of the richest corporations in America raking in record profits, got a refund.

Here is where the MONEY comes from for our Federal Government

In 2015, total federal revenues in fiscal year 2015 are expected to be $3.18 trillion. These revenues come from three major sources

1. Income taxes paid by individuals   $1.48 trillion or 47% of all tax revenues. 
2. Payroll taxes paid jointly by workers and employers  $1.07 trillion or 34% of all tax revenues. 
3. Corporate Income taxes paid by businesses 341.7 billion or 11% of all tax revenues. 

Most corporations (like individuals) look for favorable treatment for their tax purposes. True, the corporate tax laws could use a major overhaul, but do NOT expect even on the best day that it will be the major contributor. And as we can see corporations do wind up paying about 17% (half of line 2) in what is predominatenly THEIR portion of SS and Medicare taxes (those who own a business and have themselves or others as employees already have this as a burden just for the fact of employing anyone). 

I guess my point it is easy to expolit the big companies for using the tax system, but we as indivuduals also take every tax break that we can get as well (as noted that almost half of Americans pay NO Federal Income tax). 
 

Last edited by tennyson (4/18/2016 3:43 pm)

Just Fred wrote:

.......almost half of Americans pay NO Federal Income tax. 

One of the best arguments I've heard so far for raising the minimum wage.
 

On the surface that 45% would seem that most Americans do not make enough to justify paying taxes but that is not really the case. Of the 45% that pay no taxes approximately half of those who pay no taxes are because their deductions (ie-mortgage, etc) offset their earnings to the point that they do not pay taxes. Of the remainder you have to account for the people who are retired who now live on social security, etc. So that number really starts to shrink dramatically. That is not to argue totally against having a better living wage, but to note that sometime numbers are NOT what they seem. 

In terms of tax breaks (individuals vs corporations), here is an excellent article that details the tax break costs by type and right at the top of the list is one for individuals for employer sponsored health care that is not taxed. Its cost is about $200 billion per year. When you think of all the people that do not have the benefit of employer health care and have to pay for it out of their taxable earnings it is a huge deal. Here is the article that details the tax breaks in total. It is an excellent article. 

Note: you can click on any of the breaks on the left and it shows on the right who benefits and which of the benefits are for the top 1% wage earners. It also shows on the right how the benefit changed in terms of dollars year over year. 

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxbreaks/2014/visualization/

I really dislike that when it comes to taxes, many isolate the federal government versus every other taxing authority as if the federal government is the only entity that can tax you.

Here are the various levels of government that I pay something to.....

Federal gov
State Gov
County Gov
Township Gov
School District
And let's not forget the various fees that most pay throughout the year such as vehicle registrations and fishing licenses.

My point is not to complain. I want nice streets and a safe neighborhood, and trout streams stocked every spring.

But just because 47% of Americans might miss the federal tax man, that doesn't mean they are missing all of those other levels of government taxation. And put together, that adds up to quite a bit.