April 18, 2021: Did You Pay More in Taxes than Netflix?

 

4/18/21: Imagine that you could pay your federal income tax today and give only 1% of your earnings for the year (legally) to IRS. Would you be pleased? Would you be getting a fat refund? 

Imagine that you are single and earned $52,000 for the year. Your bill from Uncle Sam would normally be $4,617.50, plus 22% of income over $40,125. So 22% of $11,875, or another $2,612.50. 

You would normally pay $7,230.

This is mean after a hard day of yard work.
I paid more in taxes than Netflix/

 

Unless you were a giant corporation with white shoes lawyers! For example, you could stash cash in the Cayman Islands and pay zero dollars. Or you could be a little more aboveboard and incorporate in Lichtenstein, where the corporate tax rate is so alluring that there are (on paper) more corporations than people. 

That would mean Corporation-R-You might fork over as little as one percent of profits. Wouldn’t that be great! 

Then the taxpayer earning $52,000 would cough up $520.

 

When President Biden talked about being tired of seeing ordinary Americans “fleeced” at tax time, this is what he meant. 

You. Yes, you. You undoubtedly paid more in taxes to the federal government this year than, for example, Nike. In 2018, the first full year under the new Trump Tax Cuts, we know Nike managed to avoid all federal income taxes. Amazon had $11.2 billion in profits and paid 0. Amazon paid that same amount in 2017: 

0. 

A few other big names in Big Business also joining the Zeros Club in 2018: 

Chevron: 0. 

Delta Airlines: 0. 

General Motors: 0 

Netflix: 0. 

“I’m not trying to punish anybody,” Mr. Biden said, in defense of his plan to raise corporate taxes. “But damn it, maybe it’s because I come from a middle-class neighborhood, I’m sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced.”

 

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IN RELATED, nutty right-wing news, Pearson Sharp, a correspondent for One America News (sometimes referred to as “Trump TV”) opines, “There’s still serious doubts about who’s actually president.” True. Fools who fall for all the ridiculous right-wing propaganda still have their doubts. 

Yet, there he is in the White House. 

Joe Biden. 

More than two months after the inauguration – which the network refused to air live – the folks at OAN still refer to President Biden only as “Biden,” or “Joe Biden.” Former President Trump, or Rejected-President Trump, as we like to call him here, is still “President Trump” in terms of One America reporting. 

In fact, on OAN, the perpetrators of the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill are still described as Antifa types, spurred on by Democratic voices. 

This is proof that the people who report for OAN are lazy ignoramuses, unwilling to dig for facts. (See: 6/22/21.) 

 

POSTSCRIPT: When reporters from The New York Times talked to eighteen former OAN employees, sixteen said the channel had broadcast reports that they considered misleading, inaccurate, or untrue.