Americans flee north to Canada for economic opportunity

LadyJazzer wrote: Here's the info for Canada: (16.5% this year...)

http://www.canadabusinesstax.com/corpor ... tax-rates/


And here's the difference between "Statutory" and REAL U.S. Corporate tax rates.... (Imagine my surprise!) :VeryScared:

The Gap Between Statutory and Real Corporate Tax Rates
Actual taxes paid by consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies now is less than half the statutory rate[/b]

Ostensibly, the U.S. federal tax code requires corporations to pay 35 percent of their profits in income taxes.

But of the 275 Fortune 500 companies that made a profit each year from 2001 to 2003 and for which adequate information to draw conclusions is publicly available, only a small proportion paid federal income taxes anywhere near that statutory 35 percent tax rate. The vast majority paid considerably less.

In fact, in 2002 and 2003, the average effective tax rate for all of these 275 companies was less than half the statutory 35 percent rate. Over the 2001-2003 period, effective tax rates ranged from a low of -59.6 percent for Pepco Holdings to a high of 34.5 percent for CVS.

Over the three-year period, the average effective rate for all 275 companies dropped by a fifth, from 21.4 percent in 2001 to 17.2 percent in 2002-2003.

The statistics are startling:

* Eighty-two of the 275 companies, almost a third of the total, paid zero or less in federal income taxes in at least one year from 2001 to 2003. In the years they paid no income tax, these companies earned $102 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But instead of paying $35.6 billion in income taxes as the statutory 35 percent corporate tax rate seems to require, these companies generated so many excess tax breaks that they received outright tax rebate checks from the U.S. Treasury, totaling $12.6 billion. These companies' "negative tax rates" meant that they made more after taxes than before taxes in those no-tax years.

* Twenty-eight corporations enjoyed negative federal income tax rates over the entire 2001-2003 period. These companies, whose pretax U.S. profits totaled $44.9 billion over the three years, included, among others: Pepco Holdings (-59.6 percent tax rate), Prudential Financial (-46.2 percent), ITT Industries (-22.3 percent), Boeing (-18.8 percent), Unisys (-16.0 percent), Fluor (-9.2 percent) and CSX (-7.5 percent), the company previously headed by current Secretary of the Treasury John Snow.

* In 2003 alone, 46 companies paid zero or less in federal income taxes. These 46 companies told their shareholders they earned U.S. pretax profits in 2003 of $42.6 billion, yet they received tax rebates totaling $5.4 billion. Almost as many companies, 42, paid no tax in 2002, reporting $43.5 billion in pretax profits, yet receiving $4.9 billion in tax rebates. From 2001 to 2003, the number of no-tax companies jumped from 33 to 46, an increase of 40 percent.

* In 2001, the Treasury paid corporations $40 billion in tax refunds, a third more than the 1998-2000 average.

* Then in 2002 and 2003, after the law was changed to expand tax subsidies and make it easier for corporations to carry back excess tax breaks to earlier years, corporate tax refunds skyrocketed to an average of $63 billion a year - more than double the 1998-2000 average.

Corporations are now paying the lowest levels of taxes in the post-World War II era. In fiscal 2002 and 2003, federal corporate incomes taxes dropped to their lowest sustained level as a share of the economy since World War II. Only a single year during the early Reagan administration was lower.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan fully abandoned his earlier policy of showering tax breaks on corporations. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 closed tens of billions of dollars in corporate loopholes, so that by 1988, the overall effective corporate tax rate for large corporations was up to 26.5 percent. That improvement occurred even though the statutory corporate tax rate was cut from 46 percent to 34 percent as part of the 1986 reforms.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_w ... lummet.php

Republicans Love Tax Cuts... Unless Obama Proposes One

Maybe Obama should talk to his buddy Jeff Immelt about how GE ducked their taxes. Ya, if we want more corporations to do business in the US we should raise the corp rate to 50% since it makes no difference....logical.

Facts are such persistent things....

WayneLeeH wrote: At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427

Since I'm not that math impaired - how does 20% equal 55%, please? (not you, Wayne. The others stating that "fact".)

It's the New Math LH.

<crickets chirping from the right>

LadyJazzer wrote: Wow... Do "real conservatives" approve universal health care, and marriage equality?...Who knew?

Two queers getting married, 65% effective tax rate, and universal health care..... sounds like a perfect set up for failure...it's a good thing Canada is exporting a huge amount of oil (maybe we should take note) to the US and China...otherwise, it would be a weak looney and they couldn't afford to eat in Canada.

But here's the real truth about Canada and unemployment...

Canadian employment figures were released this morning with some less than stellar results, showing that 5,500 jobs were lost during the previous month, versus expectations of a 25K rise. The unemployment rate also rose one tick to 7.3%, showing that Canada is not immune to the troubles plaguing our neighbour to the south. Housing starts also came in under expectations to complete the data docket for Canada, showing that housing has hit a bit of a soft patch as well. The Loonie has sold off on the news and is trading back in the 0.99 region once again, although a run at parity seems out of the question for now. With USDCAD having only traded above parity a handful of times this year, it will take a huge shift in sentiment to push us over the line, as there is so much selling interest gathered around the parity level, helping to build huge resistance near par. This is both a technical and psychological phenomenon that can’t be ignored, as it dictates price action, even if the data might suggest we should be trading over par.

FYI.. the Chinese are buying up Vancouver. They are willing to pay up to $ 850 per square foot for housing. Yikes! The funny thing is you barely see any of them in Vancouver. That America money is pouring back into Canada via China.

Don't let your mind wander, RT. Its too little to be let out alone.