Just avoid it

Corporate tax is a cat-and-mouse game. Countries pass tax laws, and that's the cue for an army of $1,000-an-hour consultants, mostly lawyers and accountants, to advise big multinational companies on how to avoid said taxes. The corporations tend to stay a few steps ahead of the government that way.

In theory, the big Trump tax cuts of 2017 were supposed to curb these practices. The U.S. corporate tax rate was cut, thus supposedly lessening the incentives for U.S.-based companies to show their profits in other, lower-tax countries, like Ireland. A system of export subsidies was supposed to encourage U.S. companes to sell to the world from the United States. But along with those carrots were some sticks, including a kind of minimum tax that was supposed to stop the U.S. corporations from paying deductible amounts to their related foreign companies, which are not subject to U.S. tax.

That's the theory. But as was pretty clear from the outset, all the theories were smoke and mirrors. The true overarching goal, which the law achieved quite well, was big tax cuts for the top 1 percent.

This weekend the world is abuzz with a new study showing that many prominent U.S.-based global corporations are still paying zero tax in the United States despite reaping massive profits worldwide. One such culprit is a certain sports shoe and apparel company based just outside of Beaverton, Oregon. The study says that company paid no federal income tax in this country for not just one year, but the last three years.

The mice certainly are smarter than the cats. And it doesn't help that the Republican cats are mice puppets.

There's a new sheriff in town this year, and he says he'll crack down. But they've been saying that for about 65 years now, and nothing ever changes much. So when you look in horror at what they took out of your paycheck, think about how every month, you are paying more in federal taxes than FedEx and Nike combined.