THE DECLINE OF CORPORATE INCOME TAX REVENUES

Revised October 24, 2003 | Joel Friedman | cbpp.org

PDF 13 pages

Excerpt:

(Summary p. 1) … Deficits over the next decade are now projected to be enormous in size. A joint analysis by
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Concord Coalition, and the Committee for Economic
Development projects deficits totaling $5 trillion through 2013. An analysis by Brookings economists reaches a
very similar conclusion, while Goldman Sachs projects deficits totaling $5.5 trillion.1 Despite the deteriorating
fiscal outlook and the historically low corporate revenue collections we already face, Congress nonetheless
seems poised to shower more tax breaks on corporations that would cause deficits to grow substantially
larger over time (see box on page 2).

• Treasury Department figures show that actual corporate income tax revenues fell to $132 billion in 2003,
down 36 percent from $207 billion in 2000.

• As a result of these low levels, corporate revenues in 2003 represented only 1.2 percent of the Gross
Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the
economy), the lowest level since 1983, the year in which corporate receipts plummeted to levels last seen in
the 1930s.

• Corporate revenues represented only 7.4 percent of all federal tax receipts in 2003. With the exception of
1983, this represents the lowest level on record (these data go back to 1934).

_____________
1 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Committee for Economic Development, and Concord Coalition,
“Mid-term and Long-term Deficit Projections,” September, 29, 2003. Goldman Sachs, “The Federal Deficit: A
$5.5 Trillion Read Elephant,” U.S. Daily Financial Market Comment, September 9, 2003. A Brookings
analysis by William Gale and Peter Orszag projects deficits of $4.6 trillion not counting a prescription drug

By ~gonzodave

April 5, 2011

Within this report is a reality dose of pre-Sep 2008
economic history-before Wall Street openly called
upon the American poor for salvation. This is a report
about federal corporate tax revenues which goes far
to illustrate the trend of US corporate tax legislation.
With a bit of dedicated searching I found the perfect
report. It should make Speaker of the House,
„Weeping Wino-eyed Willie‟ Boehner cry like a child
… :0) His BS lies “We‟re broke. we‟re broke”
regarding the deficit are revealed in this 2003 report.
Additionally, to remind the always forgetful
Republican sock puppets in Washington, the
National Debt after eight years of Bush was less than
$4 trillion. With the two $700 billion TARPS and the
back door dirty dealings of the Fed in collusion with
the Treasury department in 2009, the National Debt

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tripled to slightly less than $15
trillion dollars. A 1:1 ratio to GDP
not seen since the end of WW II.
The Lesson: Unregulated, non-
penalized, financial Wall Street
crooks are twice more destructive
than were the armies of Germany
and Japan combined.
Besides, the UK has a 3:1 debt to
GDP ratio. So, what‟s up with the
cuts to unions and poverty
programs Mr. and Ms. Republican
Congressman and State Governor?
You know nothing of Henry
George, early income tax
progressive structure, nor the
economist Michael Hudson or
Joseph Stiglitz. You guys are junk
economics, dogmatic fanatics. You
neoliberal austerity, SAP sneaks
… you‟re also, hand licking
lapdogs kept for the pleasure of
your equally fanatic, money
masters.
“U.S. corporate profit hit an all-
time high at the end of 2010.”
“The top marginal [personal] tax
rate is now three times less than
in the Eisenhower years [90%
versus 30%]”
“The share of U.S. taxes paid by
corporations has fallen from 30
percent of federal revenue in the
1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.”
- Glenn Greenwald, Billionaire
Self-pity and the Koch brothers
http://www.salon.com/news/opinio
n/glenn_greenwald/2011/03/27/koc
h/index.html
taxation.
 Suspend all tax breaks
and tax subsidies to ALL
politicians on all levels of
appointed and elected
government. (Henry Paulson
did not pay any tax on $450
million dollars of Goldman
Sachs income because of an
Obama executive tax loophole.
It saved him $50 million dollars
or more.)
 Roll back Congres-
sional pay, health insurance,
and all benefits. NO retirement
for elected public servants.
They don‟t pay FICA payroll
taxes nor do they serve the
public.
 Apply Social Security
taxes on ALL public and private
payroll with NO cap. The sky is
the limit.
 Surtax US corporations
and the hyperrich retroactively
to 1950 levels of federal

The great social net welfare programs were
constructed after 1945, after the US incurred a
wartime 1:1 debt to GDP ratio. Rationalize that away
Bonehead Boehner and your Tea Party second class
Republicans you don‟t want to be caught socializing
with because your elite buds would laugh at your
poor golf technique, your taste in wine, and your
choice of friends. Oh and yo, Bernanke, I had a little
bird tell me your great achievement in life was NOT
preventing another Great Depression, but in
preventing another New Deal … you asshole.
You neoliberal masters of the universe forget, as
Percy Shelley wrote, “We are many … they are few”.
Or better still, “Remember, remember that day in
November” when your lying ass was elected. There is
always another November to put your shady dealings
out with the homeless Americans you‟ve created.
Kinda‟ like a cop going to jail … huh?
This will balance the budget quite nicely in very short
order. The hyperrich, ex-politicians, and US
corporations aren‟t going anywhere. The whole world
hates them because of their heartless, neoliberal, IMF
and World Bank money grubbing.
“We the people” hate their double dealing, 2010
sneak attack ass now, too!
Penalties are required in any social agreement. A land
where crime has no penalty is a land infested with
crooks, liars, and frauds. Washington and Wall Street
qualify this definition.
Because of the 2010 Republican Congress, what we
have now is a permanent class war not between
Republican and Democrat (as if anyone is still fool
enough to believe that). But a permanent class war
between a corporate state and the citizenship.

Who did it? And who should suffer the austerity?

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