General Electric filed a 57,000 page tax return

[JollyRoger]

Not necessarily. But if people don't see that as a problem they shouldn't be concerned about GE paying zero corporate tax income.

That is not the only reason GE is paying zero though. There are plenty of tricks not intended by Congress and not benefitting the targets of credits that are helping GE get down to zero.

 

[Antilogic]

My main complaint is that the complexity of the corporate tax code incentivizes businesses to do really inefficient things solely to get out of paying taxes. So not only are they wasting millions of dollars hiring tax accountants, they're wasting billions more on socially inefficient projects in order to claim tax credits.

This is not always true. The MACRS system, for example, shifts the schedule of depreciation for equipment so that companies save money on taxes during the first couple years of operation (as compared to a linear system). This is intended to encourage companies to upgrade their equipment and remain on the cutting edge, and it helps with the balance sheets--during the first years of operation, when the profit margin is not as high due to startup costs, you get an additional tax break.

Of course, the fact that freakin' office furniture is included in the system kind of tells you that it's been abused.

 

[G-Max]

Okay, I know I said I'd be retiring for a few months, but I finally found sauce:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57328339/toomey-deficit-deal-will-be-very-difficult/

Earlier this month, Democrats rejected a Republican plan that would have lowered tax rates for all income levels in exchange for limiting some key deductions, which Republicans say would bring $250-300 billion into the Treasury.

As a concession to Democrats, Republicans would close the corporate jet tax loophole that their members have been pushing to eliminate for months.

Cutlass and Contre lose. I win.



Anyway... see y'all in a few months.

 

[JollyRoger]

Even without a corporate jet loophole, GE would still be at 0 taxes. Most of the deductions proposed to be removed under the GOP proposal were for individual tax returns, not Fortune 500 corporate tax returns.

 

[amadeus]

Rather than having GE pay the same rate as the rest of us, everybody should pay the same rate as GE.

 

[Yeekim]

Ideally we simply wouldn't tax corporate profits; we'd only tax dividends.

That´s what the cool kids are doing!

 

[warpus]

Rather than having GE pay the same rate as the rest of us, everybody should pay the same rate as GE.

And plunge the U.S. into chaos.

As America's hat, Canada is opposed to such craziness. If your boat sinks, its hat does as well.

 

[Ayatollah So]

Ideally we simply wouldn't tax corporate profits; we'd only tax dividends.

As long as they're taxed at the same rate as earned income, good idea.

I wouldn't tax retained earnings at all.

Bad idea. Money is power; let's not create more incentives to concentrate power.

 

[kochman]

GE starts with a 5 page tax form, just like the rest of the big corporate world. The additional pages just represent support for the lines on the 5 pages. There is no good way to solve the corporate tax problem. A significant portion of the profitable Fortune 500 companies paid 0 federal income taxes in 2008-2010, yet when we think of tax deadbeats, we tend to think of the working poor. If you simplify the tax code, the loopholes are fairly big for companies such as GE. As you make it more complex (to close down the loopholes), you eventually get to what I call "smoke and mirrors" where complex provisions of the tax code can be played off against each other in ways that the lawmakers never imagined. Perhaps we move to a gross revenues tax for entities (like the insurance companies are taxed at the state level), though that will hit some companies and industries much harder than others.

Option 1 - Close ALL loopholes, lower overall rate (most likely)

The US Tax Code is something like 70,000+ pages...
That's insanity... and serves mainly to keep the tax attny & acct community afloat, which contributes heavily to both parties...

It's easier to hide things in 57,000 pages than in a code with zero loopholes.

 

[Theige]

This isn't something that only large corporations do

I think it may actually be easier for small businesses since they face much less scrutiny