The Real Cause of High Budget Deficits: Corporate Tax Dodgers

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:




The Real Cause of High Budget Deficits: Corporate Tax Dodgers
Protests this Saturday take aim at those who won't pay their fair share

By Chuck Collins


The protests in Wisconsin over workers’ rights and state budget cuts are sparking national action. While not every governor will recklessly attack collective bargaining, all states are facing major budget constraints.

Now is the strategic moment to dramatically juxtapose the pain of local budget cuts with the scandal of corporate tax dodging. While states must close combined budget gaps of over $102 billion, U.S.-based corporate tax dodgers are costing us over $100 billion a year. Every time a politician complains that “there is no money” or “we must make these cuts,” we should be pointing to the corporate tax dodging that could immediately close our budget gaps.

This April 15th Tax Day, let’s make our national focus be on and closing corporate tax loopholes and ending abuse of tax havens.

In England, the movement UK Uncut has galvanized street protests, media investigations and legislative action by calling attention to how billions in tax revenues are lost to overseas tax havens and corporate loopholes, thereby causing wrenching national and local budget cuts. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/real-cause-high-budget-deficits-corporate-tax-dodgers

[Zoeisright]

1. Damn straight.

Tax the rich, tax the corporations, and make outsourcing economically unfeasible. THEN we can talk about cuts.

[Southerner]

2. Certainly something fishy

We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world (2nd only to Japan):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world

But the percentage of corporate tax revenues relative to GDP is not 2nd by any means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP