Taxes Seem High? Blame The New Entitlement Mentality Sweeping The Country

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If regular working class people really want to know why taxes and fees are taking a bigger bite out of our paychecks and are expected to get worse - don't blame education, public employees, government services or tax rates. Look toward the multitude of loopholes, exemptions, zone tax credits, "jobs" tax credits, taxpayer funded forgivable loans and tax revenue withholding caches like TIF District slush fund gimmicks, all lobbied for and legislated by crony capitalists to favor the rich and powerful few. It's a matter of simple subtraction.

You think when GOPer's like Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan say that rich people don't have to pay taxes, they are joking? Hah, think again. Somebody will have to make up for the difference in lost revenue.

Despite an already increasing tax burden in Wisconsin under Scott Walker, we have yet to see the real effects of the tax shift take place under his massive wealth redistribution plan. But don't worry. The motherlode is on the way.

The Northwestern Excerpt:
(Titled: Walker's tax credits give away the farm)

In fact, under Walker's tax credit, after 2015 a farm or factory owning couple could earn up to about $625,000 a year before owing a single dime in state taxes. And they could earn about $796,000 before they owe that same $1,425 that you have to pay on your measly $50,000 – because with the tax credit, they'll owe only an additional $5 on each extra $600 in agricultural or manufacturing income they earn. more>>>

When you throw in all the other special tax credits, exemptions and artificially low property tax assessments for developers on the state side alone, we will be getting hammered!

The tax hell is only for the little people.

Lobbying and Campaign Donations Pay Off Big For The One percent

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Meet the 0.01 Percent: War Profiteers



Rob from the poor, Give to the Rich

Care 2 Excerpt:
The list of tax avoiders and subsidy recipients includes a lot of familiar names, such as Boeing, Yahoo, Yum Brands, Marathon Oil, FedEx, Hewlett Packard, American Express, and Time Warner. Corporations point out they are doing nothing illegal paring their taxes to nothing and receiving rebates. They are merely abiding by tax laws. However, as the report points out, “The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support.”

Halliburton CEO
- $29.4 million compensation. Halliburton enjoyed a NEGATIVE tax rate of 5.3% during 2008 - 2010.

Hewlett-Packard CEO
- $34 million compensation. Hewlett-Packard received $2.7 billion in tax subsidies during 2008 - 2010.

Proctor & Gamble CEO - $25.6 million compensation. Proctor & Gamble collected $3.2 billion in tax subsidies during 2008 - 2010.

Citizens For Tax Justice - Corporate Taxpayers and Tax Dodgers (2008 - 2010 Full Report)

Buffett: Stop Coddling The Super-Rich

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Reuters Excerpt:
Billionaire Warren Buffett urged U.S. lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice," The 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" wrote in an opinion article in The New York Times.

"I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone - not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 - shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain," -- Warren Buffett

Forbes tries to downplay Buffett's editorial by claiming he left out the effect of Berkshire Hathaway corporate taxes. Buffett was clear that he was addressing his individual income and payroll tax.

Video: Corporations Are The Luckiest People In The World

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Romney: Corporations Are People. What about Unions?

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Watching this video of Mitt Romney shilling for corporations offers the chance to see if his statement can hold up to rhetorical substitution.

Romney: Corporations are People



Why not substitute government for corporation? Government is people! Of course it is. Everything government spends ultimately goes to people. Where do you think it goes? In whose pockets? Government of the people, for the people and by the people. People’s pockets! There you go.

When somebody says they want to redefine what government is and does, they really mean that they want to redefine what people are and do.

What about unions? Unions are people! Of course they are. Everything unions do and spend ultimately goes to people. Where do you think it goes? In whose pockets? People’s pockets! Unions are people too.

If corporations are defined as people as per Romney's explanation or even the Citizens United ruling - then so are labor unions and political parties. Scott Walker then discriminated against union people and people's rights with his class war budget bill.

This "corporations are people" comment by the well-oiled mitt is growing legs. Sarah Palin agrees with Romney and Rand Paul takes it into Galt's Gulch with We are all corporations!!

Walker Can't Game The System Without Budget Crisis

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Capital times Excerpt:
To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.

The Fiscal Bureau memo -- which readers can access here -- makes it clear that Walker did not inherit a budget that required a repair bill.

The facts are not debatable.

Because of the painful choices made by the previous Legislature, Wisconsin is in better shape fiscally than most states.

Wisconsin has lower unemployment than most states.

Wisconsin has better prospects for maintaining great schools, great public services and a great quality of life than most states, even in turbulent economic times.

Unfortunately, Walker has a political agenda that relies on the fantasy that Wisconsin is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Walker is not interested in balanced budgets, efficient government or meaningful job creation.

Walker is interested in gaming the system to benefit his political allies and campaign contributors.

To put the $140 million Walker and his partisan henchmen spent into proper perspective, it would have paid for over 20 years of the operational expenses for the train he said we couldn't afford. Just to payback his cronies, he turns down an $810 million capital injection into the state. Let's not even think about the added intangible economic activity that the train would have carried into the state.

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Scott Walker's Manufactured Crisis

The Wisconsin budget is $3.6 billion in deficit according to Governor Scott Walker. We are in crisis! 200,000 children will be kicked off of Badger Care and 6,000 employees will be laid off! Call the National Guard! Dissolve the unions!

But are we really in that severe of a financial crisis? Check out what Wisconsin State Rep. Mark Pocan has to say about that.

Related: Walker Inflates Budget Deficit To $3.6 Billion

Sales Tax Collections On Track To Plump Mercury Marine Dividends

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FDL Reporter Excerpt:
Early numbers on revenue generated by the new county sales tax — about $500,000 in May alone — appear on track to pay financing for Fond du Lac County government's loan to Mercury Marine.

The half-percent county sales tax was instituted to pay for the financing of the county's $50 million loan to Mercury Marine. As reported, Fond du Lac County has provided $30 million to Mercury Marine of its $50 million committment. Additional $10 million payments will be made in September of this year and March of 2011.

As of 12PM today.
BRUNSWICK CORP (BC:New York)
LAST $13.08 USD CHANGE TODAY +0.64 5.14% VOLUME 1.4M

Out of context? Think again.

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Harley Warns Again: Cut labor costs or we’ll move; earnings triple

Harley-Davidson Inc. has again warned that production costs must be cut at its Wisconsin operations or the work will be moved elsewhere.

JS Online Excerpt:
The company said Tuesday that second-quarter net income more than tripled to $71.2 million, or 30 cents a share, from $19.8 million, or 8 cents, a year ago... It earned 59 cents a share, excluding discontinued operations, for the three months ended June 27. Shares rose as much as 15% after the earnings announcement.

Shareholders rule. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses or we'll leave!

IWF's H-D Report: Combined Reporting Not An Issue

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Despite pleas from Harley-Davidson not to politicize state tax policy (combined reporting) in their efforts to extract concessions from its labor union, local Republican candidates continue to denigrate and waste Wisconsin's business climate in their misleading tax campaign against Democrats.

IWF Excerpt:
(Titled - Harley-Davidson: No reason to re-open corporate tax loopholes
Combined reporting is designed to ensure tax fairness. Because some large corporations were able to use legal techniques to eliminate their Wisconsin tax liability, other firms — all other taxpayers, in fact — were required to pay more to make up the difference. It was a slanted playing field favoring the largest companies willing to be the most aggressive in their tax-avoidance tactics.

Those who continue to use Harley-Davidson to attack Wisconsin revenue policies, and those who argue that combined reporting damages a state’s job totals, are all making spurious claims unsupported by the facts. -- IWF

Read the full Institute For Wisconsin's Future (IWF) report here.

Related Harley Davidson Sure making A Lot Of Noise

Top Illinois Attraction: Corporate Welfare

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Excerpt from a Janesville Gazette article in today's edition about local lobbyist (Forward Janesville) efforts to foist a $1.5 billion interstate expansion and other business "incentives" onto the tax payers, titled "Local leaders plot roadmap to future."

JG Excerpt: (Link unavailable)
ABC Supply's Diane Hendricks said that's what she's facing with one of the companies she and her late husband, Ken, started in Beloit. Hendricks has charged the company's management with growing the company as efficiently as possible, and the result will likely mean a move to Illinois, which offers more appealing incentives. "Wisconsin just doesn't compete," Hendricks said.

"It tears my guts to see the company move to Illinois, but I have to let it grow."

Apparently, wealthy businesses can't grow without government help, so the roadmap for Rock County's future leads to Illinois.

Imagine the struggles of the average small business start-up, too proud and principled to accept government aid, trying to compete against the Hendricks' of the world. As of February 2010, Illinois' unemployment stands at 11.4%. Wisconsin's 8.7%.

Corporations Should File Individual 1040 Tax Returns

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Outrageous: Many U.S. corporations paid No Income Tax in 2009

Alternet Excerpt:
Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS.

But since the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that corporations have the same rights as individuals, shouldn't they be filing IRS form 1040A instead of loopholing and offshoring themselves out of paying corporate taxes loaded with all of those business tax breaks?

Wisconsin Hemorrhaging And Refusing Aid?

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You've got to check out the choropleth maps over at Flowing Data.com. On this page, you can view unemployment trends for the past five years in one snapshot, or zoom in and around the country state-by-state. Very cool.

Yet, judging by these maps, Wisconsin is nowhere near the top ten bloodiest states for unemployment. Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan...ugh, are in a far worse state of affairs. The entire southeast including Florida, and California, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada all make Wisconsin look pretty in pink. Oddly, Texas appears to be closest to Wisconsin's coloration proportionally speaking.

Unfortunately, Rock County is one of only several counties in the state that has hemorrhaged jobs equal to that of some of worst counties in the country. It's not a pretty picture. View Wisconsin county by county here.

Also, according to News With Numbers, Wisconsin is ranked dead last in federal stimulus dollars! Why are we trying to compete in a world market by attempting to bankroll corporations like Mercury Marine or GM with meager state tax dollars when billions in federal funds remain untouched? Is this a problem emanating from Washington or are locals (cities and counties) or the state legislature dropping the ball? Or are we just slow starters?

Wisconsin GOP: Tax Cuts For Wealthy And Deregulation

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Wisconsin state republicans unveiled their "jobs" agenda on Thursday. Here are the main points.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Jobs Tax Credit NOW (Williams)
Assembly Republicans would give employers a financial incentive to hire employees, through the Jobs Tax Credit, in 2009.

– what’s wrong with that picture? Lets ignore the fact that Republicans are the first to swear that “guv’mint doesn’t create jobs,” and look more closely at the actual premise behind the “give employers a financial incentive to hire employees” idea. Whatever happened to the time when businesses hired more employees because demand for their services or products picked up – you know, the free markets. Instead we have government helping create an illusion of false hope for the unemployed while stuffing the pockets of the wealthiest among us.

In addition, Wisconsin legislators are willing to offer a refundable tax credit — meaning it’s payable even if the business owes no taxes. State Democrats go along with this charade.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Recruit & Retain Jobs NOW (Budget Motion & LRB-3431; Rhoades)
Assembly Republicans would require Wisconsin’s Department of Commerce to submit a report to the Joint Finance Committee detailing its business retention methods, a plan identifying businesses seeking to expand or relocate, and develop a Rapid Response Team for relocation or expansion prospects.

More of the same big government influence applied to change the course of the free markets. This solution sets the stage for even more of the same cash give-aways, tax credits and deregulation. You don’t honestly think “retention methods” are simply a nice conversation over a cup of hot chocolate discussing how much better Wisconsin workers are – do you? Again, many democrats have bought into the anti-free market government intervention process.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Banning Secret Tax Increases (Zipperer)
Assembly Republicans would restore legislative accountability and protect families and employers from this bureaucratic overreach by banning this practice all together.

That is one I could actually agree with providing the state legislature stops writing tax laws that intentionally leaves room for mis-interpretation.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Small Business Expense Flexibility NOW (AB 184; Roth)
Assembly Republicans would increase the expense deduction limit to $50,000 (up from the current $25,000) to more closely mirror the federal tax code. Putting more money in the hands of small business employers in a quicker manner will allow them the ability to hire more employees.

How often do we see republicans promoting federal tax code? Only when it puts more money in the pockets of their masters I suppose. But this one is my personal favorite. Lets expand the business expense deduction so maybe now employers can finally afford to buy the Chinese-built Romby-the-robot “worker” machine they’ve always dreamed about when they need a few extra bodies on the job. Fewer employees with no benefits means increased profits.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Wisconsin Jobs Investment Act NOW (AB 38; Strachota)
Assembly Republicans would give individual employers and shareholders a financial incentive to reinvest their assets in a Wisconsin business, through the Wisconsin Investment Act, in 2009. These individuals would be eligible for a capital gains exclusion of up to $10 million for long-term reinvestment in a Wisconsin business, under certain circumstances, NOW.

Folks collecting $10 million in capital gains need an incentive to invest and earn even more!! This one speaks for itself.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Health Insurance Flexibility NOW (Vukmir)
Assembly Republicans would allow Wisconsin’s employers to purchase health insurance plans from out-of-state insurers, which would facilitate some competition among all health insurance providers.

I had no idea Republicans wanted to facilitate competition in the health insurance industry. It’s never too late to support the public option.

Republican Jobs Agenda Excerpt:
Sunset Phone Line Tax, Cap Gains Tax Increase & Combined Reporting
Assembly Republicans would sunset these new taxes and tax increases in 2011.

Halt everything!! Except tax cuts to millionaires and deregulation of course.

Does anyone really think corporations and small businesses alike should be coerced by government into hiring more workers when demand dictates otherwise? And when demand picks up if it ever does, shouldn't businesses be rewarded by the profits they gain and not by the taxes they fought to avoid? What about the rest of us?

Forget about the free market Republicans - there are none. Where are the free market Democrats?

Billionaires For Wealth Care

Mercury Marine: Never Waste A Crisis

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No question this has been going on for years. But I've rarely seen such a blatantly direct approach to extort funds from the government.

Examiner Excerpt:
July 27,2009 -- "The State of Wisconsin cannot afford stand by while a major corporation commits an act of economic extortion in its own backyard," said IAM Business Representative Russell Krings. "Mercury Marine has benefited for decades from state and local tax incentives and public support. They cannot be allowed to use the current economic crisis to pit one small community against another for the privilege of their presence."

Took the words right out of my mouth. But...

FDLReporter Excerpt:
Aug.30,2009 -- If Mercury Marine accepts local government's incentive package to keep its headquarters in Fond du Lac, a county sales tax would likely be imposed for the first time to help pay the costs.

Ahhhh...free enterprise at its best.

Big Oil Will Likely Pass Tax To Customers

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WSJ Excerpt:
Allowing oil companies to pass along the new 2 percent tax to consumers at the pump removes any questions about its legality, said Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse. Shilling, who sponsored the change, said oil companies could choose to absorb the tax or pass it along up to 4 cents per gallon.

Absorb the tax? Not likely.

Before it could have its day in court, Wisconsin Democrats caved in to Big Business interests on the tax of gross receipts from oil revenues. The failure to implement the no-pass-through provision proved what many have come to know and fear - that big business and corporations pay zero to very little taxes in the state of Wisconsin. And if you try to make them pay - they'll sue.

Business Will Challenge Tax That Can't Be passed Down?

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Saturday's Janesville Gazette contained the newspaper's expected WMC and WEDA collaborated editorial rant supporting the misguided "anti-business" publicity campaign against the state of Wisconsin. This partisan driven editorial was apparently also the paper's attempt to muster public support in favor of government sponsored capital hand-outs and bidding procedures to 'woo' business development.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Two local Democrats, Sen. Judy Robson of Beloit and Rep. Mike Sheridan of Janesville, earn credit for the DOZ proposal. But they are part of the Democratic majority in Madison that is backing billions in new taxes. Many of these target businesses and won't help Wisconsin's economy thrive.

A tax targeting business? That's constitutionally impossible according to Stan Milam's column on the very same page titled "Will Democrats take stand against oil company tax?" In it, Milam repeatedly parrots the notion that a provision in Wisconsin's oil tax proposal prohibiting companies from passing along the cost (of the tax) onto the consumer is unconstitutional.

JG Excerpt: (Milam)
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, says he's not sure the tax and the prohibition on passing along the costs is constitutional. Mind you, this is after Pocan's committee approved the provision.

Milam's column creates a revolving contradiction with the editorial perception that businesses pay taxes and are now targeted to pay more. But he does re-enforce the notion that most taxes meant for business are rarely challenged by business in the courts because companies are free (constitutional?) to bury the cost burden in punitive price hikes on consumers or wage and benefit cuts on workers. So, are businesses truly taxed if they pass the cost down to the next in line?

So the argument that businesses are targeted or pay too much state tax doesn't hold water. But Doyle and the Democrats may have actually stumbled upon some tax language that may work as it is intended. Otherwise, why bother to challenge it?

I'm not trying to pretend I know the legal structure on which the proposed oil tax is founded. But judging from Milam's subjective reactions to it, it appears the oil tax - unlike all other taxes - will work as intended. If not, let the courts decide. It's definitely worth the effort and a challenge may open up the right doors to make it work. How will we know if we don't try.

Republicans and their supporters can't have it both ways. They can't say Wisconsin businesses are overburdened with taxes, yet are willing to go to court the moment it occurs they are expected to actually pay one of them.

NOTE: Milam's column is not available on the open Web.

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It is my belief that the federal government, acting as the premier equalizer, should prohibit states, counties and local jurisdictions from using cash, legislated tax credits, rebates or any other creatively inspired capital derivative as a bargaining weapon against each other in the quest for private venture economic development. We should stand together as a united country with each state and region participating in a cooperative economic meritocracy based on the people's ability to improvise and innovate, available resources along with transportation, housing and education, to land private business start-ups and expansions - not to be decided by the wealth of participants in a capital-based bidding process.

Of course, the current practice involving capital bartering for economic development under governmental ordinance and oversight is nothing new. It has been going on for decades. It is the status quo. And those encouraging and advocating for these short-term solutions to our deep and long-term problems are only fueling the status quo continuum. Once it takes root it is like a train rolling downhill with no brakes. Those jumping onboard are not slowing it, their weight is only increasing the power of the virtual impact that awaits. It is a defacto morality that works in tandem with campaign finances, government corruption and corporate cronyism.

We must not allow cities or regions, big or small, to suffer economically merely because they were unable to muster a capital hand-out to the wealthiest entities among us. It should be a crime. The cash hand-outs and tax credit derivatives legalized in our state houses under the guise of an economic incentive package should anger each and every one of us.

I realize many will think these statements are from an impossibly hopeless idealist, but I call it the only way forward to a sustainable and prosperous future. Nothing is impossible.

Janesville Company Expands Into Europe

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Packaging News Excerpt:
Construction has started on custom medical thermoform packaging manufacturer Prent Thermoforming's first European base in Holbaek, Denmark.

Prent Excerpt:
“The development of Prent-Denmark—like our other global expansion initiatives—has been through organic growth, not acquisition growth,” he points out. “This growth has been generated entirely within our own organization. Consequently we have a very defined effort when we open new facilities.

JG Excerpt:
In the 10 years or so that Prent has operated global facilities, employment in Janesville has increased, he said. More than half of the company's worldwide payroll of 1,000-plus work in Janesville at either Prent or GOEX, a Prent subsidiary that makes and extrudes plastic sheet products.

This is good news! With any luck, it’ll keep the workers in Janesville busy and who knows – maybe they’ll expand here again from the larger global customer base.

But I have to ask. What incentive does Malaysia, China or Denmark offer to attract businesses like Prent? A forgivable loan? A tax credit or rebate? A TIF District perhaps? None of the articles reported on any of those details. Or do businesses like Prent build and expand because their business and customer base demand it - as the articles say - if we can believe it. Who knows? If it's true, this could be a radical new business model by Prent. Imagine, prosperous and capable businesses pulling themselves up by their own boot-straps, re-investing their own profits to expand their wealth instead of raising our taxes by running to government for an economic development hand-out. What a pioneering if not unique idea! Of course, I could be speaking too soon here.

Actually, I shouldn’t be the one asking. Janesville city administrative officials and state legislators should be asking these questions of themselves.

Taxes - An Investment In Our Country

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The GOP News Channels along with the traditional media have been making a big deal over Obama’s “Spreading the Wealth Around” comment he made to Joe the plumber. So it only figures I was asked by my favorite Republican neighbor about what I thought about Obama’s comment. This is basically what I said except with better sequence:

Think about what's happened over the past eight years. Americans have gone through the greatest re-distribution of wealth the country has ever seen. Under Republican policies beginning in the eighties with Ronald Reagan and shifting into second gear with the “Contract with America,” and culminating with the George W. Bush tax cuts, the wealthiest have gone into over-drive confiscating more wealth than ever before, the poor have gotten poorer, while the wages of the middle have remained flat during a time when costs for commodities such as health care and energy have gone through the roof. The fact is, the income gap between the rich and the poor is wider now than ever before. More people live in poverty. This is not success.

In addition to the obvious, the Bush tax cuts coupled with GOP-led spending, legislative loopholes and deregulation have shortchanged our Treasury tremendously, causing the nation’s debt to double over a period of just eight years, for what previously took 225 years to accumulate. To top it off, the majority of American corporations pay no taxes. Something here tells me we need to reverse direction.

Our wage scales are upside down when workers performing the hardest labor over long hours with few benefits are paid the least. So in my view, a successful national economic stimulus plan should be an anti-poverty policy first and foremost, creating jobs from the bottom up. I also think any legislative action or policy that can reverse the top heavy wealth distribution trends of the past twenty years will go a long way to restoring the great American promise of equal opportunity and prosperity for all people including Joe the Plumber. Others can call Obama’s “spread the wealth around” tax policy comment a re-distribution of wealth and a step towards Socialism if they must, I call it an investment in our country.

American Carol Humor For Sarah

Corporate Taxes Still Too High At Zero

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Majority Corporations Pay No Taxes

Sort of echos' what I've been saying here all along, except I've said American corporations generally pay the same federal tax rate. Little did I know that meant most pay no federal taxes AT ALL - NOT AT ALL. YES - they all pay the same - ZERO! Those that do pay tax.....are able to recoup the tax from a embedded mark-up in the price for their product.

Once upon a time, America had the finest income tax system in the world, until Congress gerrymandered it with loopholes, tax credits and exemptions. Based on sliding-scale brackets of annual income, it used to be those who acquire the greatest percentage of annual wealth also paid the greatest percentage in taxes. Not any more. Consumers and property owners pay the majority of ALL the taxes - regardless of their income.

Excerpt:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined samples of corporate tax returns filed between 1998 and 2005. In that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000 foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes - despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue.

According to the GOP, the complexity of our tax code needlessly burdens American businesses into paying NO taxes!!.....looks like another corporate tax cut is in order....or another loophole....a tax credit....or a TIF District....or some other taxpayer funded hand-out. SOMETHING!! I mean - how will we compete??

Oh, this is charming.
McCain says "cut corporate taxes." How do you cut something from nothing? But wait. Republicans propose that if we lower the tax rate on corporations from a percentage they don't pay anyways, suddenly corporations will start paying. This suggestion must come from the same talking-points memo passed around by GOP Club For Growthers to prove, counter-intuitively I might add, that tax cuts generate more government spending revenue.

Hasn't the redistribution of wealth ushered in by the Bush tax cuts widened the rich/poor gap enough? Nooooooo. They want more.

Tomorrow, there will probably be a report stating the opposite - that American corporations pay the most taxes - it never fails.

Offshore Tax Loopholes Defended By GOP

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As we enter the final days to file our tax returns, you may think you’re paying off the tax obligations for just your household. But you'd be wrong. You're also footing the bill for American companies that are legally dodging billions of dollars in taxes thanks largely to the Republican tax policy.

Parade Magazine
Corporate Tax Cheats Excerpt:
A 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that 61% of American corporations, including 39% of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000. Last year, corporations shouldered just 14.4% of the total U.S. tax burden, compared with about 50% in 1940.

While companies are getting off easy, thanks to loopholes, ordinary wage earners are getting stuck with the tab.

Rep. Paul Ryan voted NO on a bill that would have closed offshore tax loopholes to pay for AMT relief. (Dec 2007)

In addition, the three corporatists from Wisconsin, Ryan, Petri and Sensenbrenner voted against HR5351. This bill included a tax package that would rescind a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and use the revenue to boost incentives for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency.

"This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base." – George W. Bush

Wisconsin Corporations Shift Tax Climate

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Every time a new tax or increase on corporate profits is proposed in Wisconsin - Republicans, conservatives and their media enablers are the first ones to oppose it primarily on the claim that the tax will hurt consumers, seniors or the poor. Our local newspapers, chambers of commerce and republican politicians repeat this over and over again, they should know.

Wisconsin Falls In Business Rank:
Wisconsin fell three places, to No. 39, in the annual ranking of state business tax climates published Tuesday by a conservative Washington policy research organization.

I don’t know what methodology the WTA or the Tax Foundation use to separate or define portions of corporate tax paid to the state collected from corporations embedding their tax burden into the price of goods or services they provide. I don’t believe the formulae exists. They all pay the same Federal taxes. In other words, corporations don’t pay state taxes – AT ALL. Their customers pay it. That’s why Wisconsin is consistently ranked in the top ten worst for individual tax burden. While each state has different taxing mechanisms to lift the burden off of individuals, corporations for the most part use the same tactics to unload their burden. But consumers aren’t the only ones who pay the taxes for corporations, their workers also take a hit with lower wages. Wisconsin is not known for high wages.

Now, some may say this is a perfect reason why corporate taxes should be abolished or lowered, but that's not the issue. Some states with a much lower corporate tax burden on the books actually have poor economies. The issue is the state needs money to operate without increasing the tax burden on individuals. So how can the state collect a fair tax on corporate profits without the corporation shifting the burden to their customer?

Tax Foundation Excerpt:
If taxes take a larger portion of profits, that cost is passed along to either consumers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages or fewer jobs), or shareholders (through lower dividends or share value).

For one thing and you better believe it, corporations will not allow a cut in profits because of a state tax. It just won’t happen – not now or ever if they can help it. But I don’t believe the last part (about dividends) of their statement. Over the years, this problem has gotten worse primarily because businesses are no longer beholden to their employees (revolving door) or customers (when was the last time you heard a customer is always right). The CEO’s and their officers are judged ultimately by the return of dividends paid to the shareholders. In large corporations, workers are fully expendable, and believe it or not, so are customers if there is a large enough population.

Wisconsin residents should be outraged when politicians defend corporations. Legislators should be working night and day creating policies defending income taxpayers, property owners and consumers from tactics employed by these "shifty" corporations.

If the WTA or the Tax Foundation have a system which accurately measures the state tax burden on corporate profits like their charts and graphs portray, exclusive from receipts charged to customers - Gov. Doyle should look into it.

No - the whole world should look into it.

But if their business ranking report lacks this minor detail - they should file the entire 64 page report under the letter "G" and start over.