WHAT IS A CORPORATION?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

And as far as paying taxes.....many of the largest US business such as GE paid no corporate income taxes last year.

Yeah, problem in the US is that they get too many tax breaks there, corps and individuals, and they have got even smarter with avoiding them.

It's quite different in Canada where corps pay through the nose (despite our lower marginal rates), at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. The only way (almost) to escape tax here is to lose money.

In the US, there is a major industry (big accounting firms) that advises corps on how to avoid taxes. They really, really need to rewrite their tax code. Even ours here in Canada could use some work.

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Yeah, problem in the US is that they get too many tax breaks there, corps and individuals, and they have got even smarter with avoiding them.

It's quite different in Canada where corps pay through the nose (despite our lower marginal rates), at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. The only way (almost) to escape tax here is to lose money.

In the US, there is a major industry (big accounting firms) that advises corps on how to avoid taxes. They really, really need to rewrite their tax code. Even ours here in Canada could use some work.

Not quite true, American corps do seem to have more loopholes, but there is just as big an industry here in Canada working hard to make sure Canadian corp's can utilise as many tax advantages as possible. CRA is pretty quick to close ones that provide an unfair advantage, but many of these "loopholes" are designed as an instrument of policy rather than an unintentional "we forgot to cover that base" kind of loophole. For example, many profitable business get extensive tax credits because the government wants to promote certain industries or provide a break to small business owners, etc.

If you want to shine a light on an industry, look at agriculture. Most corporations I know would kill to get the kind of tax breaks that farms do.

As has been mentioned up-thread, a corporations behaviour is dictated by the ethics of its shareholders. Management answers to shareholders and if the shareholders are tolerating/encouraging unethical behaviour than there is the problem. If you took away the corporate structure, those same unethical people would simply find a different mechanism to make their money.