Corporations Don't Pay Income Taxes

Think your taxes are high? That is because many corporations are skipping out on paying income taxes that they owe.

The Government Accountability Office is set to release a report that says most U.S. corporations pay no federal income taxes.

And most foreign companies that do business in the United States aren't paying corporate taxes.

The study says about two-thirds of American corporations paid zero income taxes to Uncle Sam between 1998 and 2005.

An even higher percentage of foreign corporations avoided federal corporate taxes. At the same time, said the GAO, the firms had trillions of dollars in sales.

The study was requested by Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," Dorgan said.

Corporations are heavy users of our nation's infrastructure. Semi trucks clog our interstate highway systems. Companies use telephone and broadband lines to do business. Many of our courts are filled with cases brought by corporations. When corporations don't pay for this infrastructure, you and I are forced to pick up the tab. It is time that corporations become responsible citizens and pay their taxes like the rest of us do.