American corporations unite to demand lower taxes

[Ichingcarpenter]

A group of major American corporations have joined forces to demand an overhaul of the tax system.

RATE, which stands for “Reforming America’s Taxes Equitably,” was started last October when 13 companies came together to protest America’s high corporate tax rate. Led by Republican strategist James Pinkerton and former Bill Clinton aide Elaine Karmack, the RATE Coalition is pushing for what they call “sound and equitable reforms to the U.S. corporate tax code.”

The group’s spokesman, Jim Dyke, told The Daily Caller that RATE “was formed and continues to grow as a means to advocate for reform with lawmakers and the administration while educating the public about the facts surrounding the need for a reduction in the corporate rate.”
The U.S. has one of the highest statutory corporate tax rates in the world, and RATE argues that the burden imposed by those taxes makes America less competitive in the global economy. And their message seems to be catching on with America’s big businesses: as of January, RATE represents 25 corporations that together employ millions of Americans.



According to the press release, RATE’s members include: ”AT&T, Altria Client Services Inc., Association of American Railroads, Boeing, Capital One, Cox Enterprises, CVS Caremark, FedEx, Ford, General Dynamics, Home Depot, Intel, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, Macy’s, National Retail Federation, Nike, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile, UPS, Verizon, Viacom and Walt Disney.”


http://news.yahoo.com/american-corporations-unite-demand-lower-taxes-053210485.html

[JFN1]

1. As long as the 1% pick up the slack...

Yeah, right, that'll happen...

[murielm99]

2. Equitably? WTF are they talking about, reforming America's taxes EQUITABLY?

There is nothing equitable about lower taxes for all these wealthy corporations.

Anyway, if they leave off the equitably part, their acronym will be RAT. That makes better sense.

[99th_Monkey]

3. MegaCorpUSA over-reaching much?

I'd say.

THis makes my blood boil... these shwarmy bastards just don't know when
to quit do they?

Duly noted.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Well, the best recruiters for socialism.......

are the capitalists.

[99th_Monkey]

8. That is good to remember nt

[ellisonz]

4. No. n/t

[Yo_Mama]

5. There's some point to a lot of these arguments

Tax rates in European countries have mostly been dropped. The US and Japan are now the outliers.

But we recognize that in the US by giving all these special tax breaks to companies that spend a lot of money lobbying Congress, so although we have a theoretically high corporate tax rate, a lot of large companies are paying very little in taxes. It is smaller companies, especially startups that are beginning to expand, who bear the brunt of corporate taxation. That is a very stupid way to structure your corporate tax. Those smaller companies are the big job creators, historically.

It would be far more equitable to drop all the special deals and charge a flat tax rate of 25%. I think we would end up collecting considerably more corporate income tax, generating more jobs, and we'd provide an incentive to invest less corporate tax money paying off Congress. That would be a plus for our political system and societal health.

However if we do do this, the law doing it should have prohibitions against adding a bunch of tax breaks, or we'll simply produce a worse situation. For example, We might build in the capacity for Congress to add faster expensing of equipment in times of recession or economic weakness as a stimulus, but it should have an automatic time out of something like two years.

The fact that GE isn't paying any taxes should be a wake-up call to us all. The expansion of the loss carrybacks was a bad move, because it really paid a lot of companies that were responsible for the bubble big dividends.

I'm pissed at our corporate tax system, and every American who doesn't make a living lobbying should be too! For corporate lobbyists, the current situation is great.

[HopeHoops]

6. I'd just love to see one of their corporate headquarters buildings marching with a sign.

They ARE people, you know.

I wonder how many of those companies could survive without the federally-created right of ways for rails and highways.