Michael Moore / Reader Supported News & Credo Action & USA Action / True Majority – 2011-04-17 23:14:21
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/5616-this-tax-day-make-them-pay
(April 15, 2011) — Do you wonder (like I do) what the tax accountants and executives are doing over at GE this weekend? Frantically rushing to fill out their IRS returns like the rest of us?
Hardly. They’re taking the weekend off to throw themselves a big party and have a hearty laugh at all of us. It must really crack them up to see us like suckers scurrying around to make sure we report everything to Uncle Sam — and even send him a check, if necessary.
The joke’s on us, folks. GE and tons of other corporations will have a tax bill for 2010 of ZERO. GE had $14.2 billion in profits in 2010. Yet they will contribute NOTHING to the federal government while every last dime is soaked from us.
In the latest budget deal, our politicians could have tackled the deficit by stopping the flow of these ill-gotten billions to corporations. Instead they cut billions from “wasteful” programs that do “wasteful” things, like create new jobs, drive economic growth, and help the needy and our nation’s children. It’s Democracy in reverse and it sickens me.
GE spends $20 million a year to lobby Congress to throw themselves this party. But do you know what speaks louder than $20 million? 20 million votes! 20 million people, and more, standing together and taking to the streets. That starts now, with you.
This coming Monday, April 18th is Tax Day — and that’s the day when “we the people” will demand our country back from these corporations in events all across the country. You can find the nearest event to you here.
MoveOn members — along with union, community, and environmental allies — will gather outside the headquarters and local offices of the biggest corporate tax dodgers to deliver tax bills from the American people. And we’ll demand that our leaders make these corporate deadbeats pay.
We’re doing this because we don’t buy into the Big Lie: that greedy teachers caused the crash on Wall Street! That the selfish firefighters sent millions of jobs overseas! That pregnant woman, infants, and children are sending us into deficit!
No, it was the big corporations that did this. It was the CEOs and the top 1% of the country. THEY brought on the mortgage crisis. THEY made off with trillions of dollars from our economy. THEY are systematically destroying the middle class. And THEY have bought and sold the very people elected to represent us!
On Monday, we will have something to say to Exxon, Chevron, and the big banks that crashed our economy and got billions in bailouts, like Citigroup and Bank of America, who pay little or no federal income tax. In fact, the IRS will likely give them a tax REBATE. If that doesn’t boggle your mind then nothing will.
The Tax Day events are about sending this message: We are coming after you, we are stopping you and we are going to return the money, jobs, and homes you stole from the people. This is your tipping point, Corporate America. And I, for one, am glad it’s going to happen this Monday.
If you’ve never been to an event like this before, this is the time. And don’t go alone, because none of us can win this fight by ourselves. Plus, it’s more fun and exciting to go along with friends and family to be part of real democracy in action — not the store-bought kind Big Business gets on Capitol Hill.
I really hope you can make it. This is our chance, my friends. Take the time on Monday to make your voice heard. I can guarantee you I will. Please join me.
P.S. In case you missed this story in yesterday’s NY Times: “In Financial Crisis, No Prosecution of Top Figures.” It exposes how the leaders in both parties made sure no one on Wall Street was going to jail after the collapse of 2008.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
ACTION ALERT:
Rally for Tax Justice:
Make the Corporations Pay!
Tell General Electric: Pay Your Taxes
Credo Action / Working Assets
If you want to know why we’re facing vicious budget cuts across the country, look no further than General Electric, America’s largest corporation.
According to a shocking exposé just published by the the New York Times, GE made over $26 billion in profit in the United States during the last five years, but paid nothing in federal income tax. Zero. In fact, it claimed a $4.1 billion net tax benefit from the IRS during that time.1
Meanwhile, lack of revenue is causing brutal cutbacks of vital services at all levels of government.
We shouldn’t be firing teachers and taking health care away from children because GE is shirking on its responsibility to pay income tax.
Tell GE: Pay your taxes.
GE is the poster child for what’s wrong with our corporate tax system. GE’s tax schemes alone have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.
In fact, it was GE’s tax avoidance in the 1980’s that prompted Ronald Reagan of all people to push to eliminate loopholes in the corporate tax code.
Of course the company line is that they’re just following the law. But we cannot treat them as mere bystanders.
As the Times article reported, General Electric has 975 employees in its tax department who are charged with spending half their time complying with the law and half their time “looking to exploit opportunities to reduce tax.”
And they are not only eager to exploit the loopholes that exist in the tax law (loopholes that might never have been contemplated by the lawmakers who created them), they also spend tens of millions of dollars a year to lobby Congress for more corporate welfare and more tax exemptions.
The end result is a corporate giant like GE extracting obscene profits from our country, while sticking the rest of us with the bill.
Tell GE: Pay your taxes.
NOTE
(1) “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether,” David Kocieniewski, New York Times, March 24, 2011.
Join a Demo on Tax Day
Matt Lockshin / CREDA Action
(April 15, 2011) — The pain of the economic crisis we’re in has fallen mainly on poor and middle-class Americans, while billions in tax breaks, loopholes, and handouts for corporations remain untouched.
And the looming fights over the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget will only make this dynamic worse unless Congress and President Obama see a broad and vocal movement to hold corporations accountable.
So, on Tax Day — Monday, April 18 — there will be hundreds of events across the country to call out the corporate tax deadbeats.
CREDO is inviting you to join with a coalition of progressives led by MoveOn, and gather outside the headquarters and local offices of corporations not paying their fair share. For instance, activists will target corporations like General Electric, which made $14.2 billion in profits last year — but paid NO federal income tax. (1)
Attend an event near you join with fellow progressives to deliver tax bills to the biggest corporate tax dodgers and demand that our elected leaders make them pay.
We hope you’ll take action. You can find the rally closest to you by clicking here.
Matt Lockshin is the Campaign Manager at CREDO Action from Working Assets
Tax Day: Make Them Pay
USA Action / True Majority
The right wing is on the attack: slashing public services, eliminating workers’ rights, and destroying jobs. Their excuse? “America is broke”—and yet big corporations and the wealthy are raking it in, and continue to get tax break after tax break. Something doesn’t add up.
America is not broke. The right-wing wants to convince us we’re broke so that they can push through their radical agenda. And well-connected corporations continue to use their political power to dodge their taxes. In 2009, after helping crash the American economy, Bank of America paid $0 in taxes.
GE had a tax bill of $0 in 2010. Republicans want to give a $50 billion tax bailout to big oil companies—and at the same time take away food aid to hungry pregnant women and children. This is immoral and un-American.
Enough is enough! On Tax Day, April 18, as millions of Americans patriotically pay their taxes, we will call on corporations and millionaires to pay their fair share.
At hundreds of events from coast to coast, we’ll present tax bills to corporate tax dodgers for the billions of dollars their legions of lobbyists helped them avoid. We’ll organize a peaceful, dignified, and powerful day of action to call on corporations to pay their fair share. And we’ll demand that our elected leaders make them pay.
It’s time to demand that everyone pays their fair share to rebuild the American Dream. We invite frustrated taxpayers, underwater homeowners, vilified public servants, job-hunting students, and unemployed veterans — everyone facing cuts or cutbacks, a pink slip or a shrinking paycheck — to join in.
Host your own Tax Day: Make Them Pay event or sign up for an event near you.
Make Corporations Pay Their
Fair Share this Tax Day
Matt Holland / USAction/TrueMajority
Millions of Americans are sending tax checks to the government this weekend. So why aren’t some of the biggest and most profitable corporations in America? (1)
Fifty years ago, corporate taxes accounted for 55 percent of federal tax revenues. Today, corporate taxes account for just 9 percent. (2)
So we’re partnering with US Uncut and others to organize over 100 tax-weekend events across the nation demanding that corporations pay their taxes, just like the rest of us. It’s one of the largest days of taxpayer action EVER in American history. And we want you to join in.
Check the list to see which event is closest to you, and join in. Congress needs to hear from all of us.
Congress is talking about gutting important programs like Medicare and Medicaid to save money. But the truth is, we don’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem. If corporate tax dodgers just paid their fair share, we wouldn’t HAVE a deficit.
If we’re serious about fixing our budget and economy, we cannot afford to give corporations a free ride. On tax day, they should be writing checks just like you and me. Help us send a message by attending one of these events.
REFERENCES
1 — http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/business/13tax.html?_r=2
2 — http://www.ourfiscalsecurity.org/taxes-matter/2011/4/12/loophole-land-time-to-reform-corporate-taxes.html
