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Earth Times
October 10, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: Taxes, Jobs, and Environment
By Melanie J. Martin


The U.S. audits far more small companies than larger ones. As CNN Money reported in 2008, "The IRS recently made an inexplicable decision to increase audits of small companies while easing up on large firms. In fact, the smallest companies saw the taxman 41% more often in 2007 than in 2005." The article continues, "Meanwhile, companies with more than $250 million in assets were almost 40% less likely to be audited than in previous years--even though an average audit hour of large firms earned the IRS about $7,500...while a similar hour directed at smaller companies turned up $474." "I came up empty of any rational explanation," said the director of the study that revealed these figures, conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, as quoted in the article. But there is an explanation: The leaders entrusted with upholding our rights are instead profiting from helping wealthy corporations grow wealthier. Sadder yet, they've convinced portions of the 90 percent of Americans earning an average of roughly $31,000 to support them. The rallies taking place around the nation are a wakeup call to those of us who work and pay our taxes, or search desperately for some job, any job, even one far below our level of education and experience. We must stand up for our own rights and the future of our environment, because wealthy corporations and the politicians who support them certainly won't do so on their own.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2011
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