How Everyone Else Pays for Big Business's Tax Breaks
Families and small businesses pick up the tab for egregious tax loopholes exploited by corporations
April 5, 2012 RSS Feed PrintJoseph Rotella is founder and president of Spencer Organ Company, Inc. in Waltham, Mass. Dennis Van Roekel is a math teacher and president of the National Education Association.
Some politicians might believe that "corporations are people," as former Gov. Mitt Romney declared last year.
At tax time, however, corporations enjoy better treatment than ordinary folks. While millions of individual Americans file last-minute income tax returns this month, some major corporations won't pay a dime despite reaping record profits.
From 2008 to 2010, the 280 most profitable U.S. corporations sheltered half of their profits from taxes, thanks to tax subsidies totaling nearly $224 billion, according to a 2011 analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice. A dozen large companies, including Exxon-Mobil, Boeing, and General Electric, reaped