‘The Moral High Ground’: Senator Bernie Sanders Names & Shames America’s Top 10 Corporate Tax Dodgers

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, America’s only more-or-less openly socialist lawmaker at the national level, has issued a press release in which he lists what he calls “the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.” The list was published on Mother Jones’ website; we’ve taken the liberty of summarizing it here.

Says Mother Jones:

Sanders, you’ll recall, made headlines for his epic 8.5-hour speech/filibuster this past December, dealing with how Obama’s pending tax-cut deal with the GOP would be bad for America. The speech—published this month as a paperback simply titled The Speech—was in vain: Congress passed the deal, extending tax breaks not merely to the poor and middle-class, but to America’s richest people.

It also slashed the estate tax from 55 percent to 35 percent and exempted the first $5 million of an estate’s value ($10 million for a couple)—up from $1 million pre-Bush. In his speech, Sanders warned against this change, noting, “Let us be very clear: This tax applies only—only—to the top three-tenths of 1 percent of American families; 99.7 percent of American families will not pay one nickel in an estate tax. This is not a tax on the rich, this is a tax on the very, very, very rich. (Click here for our blockbuster charts showing just how rich the very, very, very rich actually are.)

If the estate tax—which Republicans have cleverly rebranded the “death tax”—were to be eliminated entirely (another GOP goal), Sander says it would cost US taxpayers $1 trillion over 10 years. “Families such as the Walton family, of Walmart fame, would have received, just this one family, about a $30 billion tax break,” he said in the speech.

As one of few voices in Congress calling seriously for balance between cuts and new revenues, Sanders wants to close corporate tax loopholes and get rid of tax breaks for Big Oil. He’s put forth a bill that would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on household income north of $1 million, and earmark that money for deficit reduction. He estimates it would bring in $50 billion a year, whereas Congress’ recent tax-cut deal will add around $700 billion to the deficit.

Now here’s Sanders’ dubious “Top Ten” list:

#10- Carnival Cruise Lines: Made $11 billion in profits over the last five years, but its federal income tax rate during that period was 1.1%

#9- ConocoPhillips: $16 billion in profits from ’07-’09; received $451 million in tax breaks through dubious deductions.

#8- Citigroup: $4 billion in profits in 2010, paid no federal income tax AND received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury.

#7- Goldman Sachs: $2.3 billion profit in ’08; paid only 1.1% of its income in taxes AND received an $800 billion bailout.

#6- Valero Energy: $68 billion in sales last year; $157 million tax refund AND $134 million deduction.

#5- Boeing: received $30 billion Pentagon contract to build 179 airborne tankers; received $124 million IRS refund.

#4- Chevron: $10 billion in profits in ’09; $19 million refund last year.

#3- General Electric: $26 billion in profits over the last 5 years; received $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

#2- Bank of America: $4.4 billion profit + trillion dollar bailout (that’s 1 with 12 zeros– $1,000,000,000,000); received $1.9 billion IRS refund.

#1- ExxonMobil: $19 billion profit in ’09; paid $0.00 in federal income tax AND received a $156 million IRS rebate.

Tagged 10 worst corporate tax evaders, bank of america bailout, bank of america tax refund, Bernie Sanders, bernie sanders filibuster, bernie sanders mother jones, bernie sanders names and shames america's top ten tax dodgers, bernie sanders the speech, boeing pentago contract, boeing tax refund, bush tax cuts, carnival cruise lines, chevron record profits, chevron tax refund, citigroup bailout, citigroup paid no tax, conoco phillips tax breaks, death tax, deficit reduction, estate tax, exxon mobil paid no tax, exxon mobil record profit, exxon mobil tax refund, GE paid no tax, general electric paid no tax, goldman sachs bailout, mother jones, sanders top 10 list, senator bernie sanders, tax breaks for big oil, tax breaks for the rich, valero tax refund, walton family tax breaks