WHAT IS A CORPORATION?

[SanguinesDream]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

I'm thinking it's about time that my dog and fish start to pull their weight around this joint... freaking freeloaders...

Snerk.

[windcoast reefs]

[reefermadness]

I'm feeling this dude... I got your back haha.

There is a good documentary called "The Corporation". In the film they make the case that If a corporation was a human being, that human being would be the dictionary definition of a psychopath. The film makes a lot of good points but is kinda long and dragged out. In the end it clearly shows that the system is heavily flawed (corps have obviously done a lot to further mankind but there are always down sides). What is the solution? Corporate money in politics is not right IMO. In the states its unlimited.....the corporations and special interest groups practically run the government.

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary.../MECShares.jsp

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary...p/CoOpFaqs.jsp

Not to imply that is a complete solution. I do think the way the system today is is messed up though....think about how big corporations have got in the last 50 years. Everyone shops at the name brand corporation.

Scary fact: The 6 Walton (Walmart) family members are now worth 93 billion. They are richer than the bottom 30% (108 million) of Americans.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.

I never said a society filled with co-ops is the answer....although it may be part of one. Stiffer regulation, corporate money out of politics, that would help.

Look Im not down playing the important role corporation have had in the past and present but they are larger than ever and more powerful than ever. They only have one purpose and that is to make money at all costs. If the idea of breaking the law and getting caught is less costly (in dollar terms) they do it.

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

[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.

[Slick Fork]

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.

That's not what their audited financial statements say.

http://www.ge.com/sites/default/file...g-Segments.pdf

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

That's not what their audited financial statements say.

http://www.ge.com/sites/default/file...g-Segments.pdf

Im gonna assume that is for GE as a whole and not just the US operations and US corporate income tax. What large multinational corps often do is off load expenses to the countries with high tax rates for deductions and keep the revenues overseas where taxes are often lower.

As far as it not being true....IDK, some pretty reputable sources say otherwise.

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post...3-2949588e90f6

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2852094.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/bu...pagewanted=all

After researching it seems it hasn't been proven but GE did not release anything proving otherwise which tells me it's either true or they paid very little anyway.

An interesting fact in the first article... "Now, the Times reports, only 6.6% of Uncle Sam's tax revenue comes from corporations (down from 30% in the 1950s)."