The Hill News

If you listen to GOP members of Congress and Obama administration officials, you’d think corporations can’t possibly afford to pay more in taxes to help solve our deficit problem. The evidence, however, tells the opposite story.
 
Last Fall, the Treasury Department reported that corporate income tax payments were down to historic lows as a share of the economy. About the same time, Citizens for Tax Justice issued a study of 280 of the nation’s biggest and most profitable corporations. Our report found that, on average, these companies paid only about half the 35 percent official U.S. federal tax rate on their $1.4 trillion in U.S. profits from 2008 through 2010.
 
Now the Congressional Budget Office has chimed in. Its latest budget report repeats the figures that Treasury reported last year. This shocking “news” has surprised many. As the Wall Street Journal put it on Feb. 3, “U.S. companies are booking higher profits than ever. But the n! umber crunchers in Washington are puzzling over a phenomenon that has just come into view: Corporate tax receipts as a share of profits are at their lowest level in at least 40 years.”

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