Thursday, April 7, 2011

Pay your fair shre

Well, it looks like the tax issue is finally getting a fair discussion. For too long, large corporations and super-rich individuals have paid little or no taxes. They do it quietly and legally by following the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. They use lobbyist to bend the rules to fit their own circumstance. Now many of the tactics are coming to light.

The New York Times reported that GE paid no taxes. Here. An Joseph Stigliz reported that the top 400 richest people in the US have an effective tax rate of 17%. Here.

These abuses have a common theme of doing whatever they can get away with. Of the rugged individual beating the "system" against the odds. Of David beating Goliath. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The little guy is actually the IRS, who collects money for the government to pay for teachers, pensions, healthcare and military spending. And Goliath is the 975 person tax department of GE. Or the slew of tax lawyers and tax accounants available to the rich.

Luckily, news websites are running stories about tax abuse by the wealthy.

There are also people fighting for tax justice such as the "Tax Justice Network". Here.

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