Another example of the United States’ screwed up tax system.
The tax rate paid by these companies has plunged – from 23.6 percent in 2009 to 19.9 percent in 2010 and 16 percent in 2011. The hypothetical top corporate tax rate of 35 percent is almost entirely a fiction.
The tax rate paid by Apple, the world’s most valuable company with a stock valuation that passed $500 billion in March 2012, has dropped even more dramatically. With profits soaring past $34 billion last year, the company’s tax rate fell from 24.8 percent in 2009 to 14.7 percent in 2010 and 9.8 percent in 2011. Apple’s tax rate over the last three years was less than that of middle-income Americans with average household incomes of $64,500 per year; its 2011 tax rate was lower than that of American households making an average of $42,500 per year. LinkYes, Apple, the most valuable company in the world, paid a lower tax rate than me, you, and most middle-income Americans. The Democrats would like to make Apple pay its fair share. The Republicans want to give Apple a tax cut while simultaneously cutting the food stamp program that allows poor families, including children, to eat.
That’s seriously f—d up.
5 comments:
I don’t think it makes sense to compare corporate tax rates with individual tax rates.
Why not? How do you think they should compare?
Corporations use far more resources than individuals do.
In any event, tax rates for individual wealthy folk follow the same pattern.
Corporations are not individuals. I don’t think they should compare; that’s my point.
Do you think corporations should be taxed? If so, how much?
I don’t know what the tax rate for corporations should be. If someone has reasons why they should be raised (or lowered), I’m willing to listen, but fairness is just too vague and subjective to be a useful criterion.
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