The Breakdown: Why Aren’t Corporations Paying Their Taxes?

The Breakdown: Why Aren’t Corporations Paying Their Taxes?

With pressure for deficit reduction mounting on both sides of the aisle, will legislators go after uncollected corporate taxes? Christopher Hayes asks David Cay Johnston why this revenue stream is off the agenda.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

With pressure mounting for both sides of the aisle to pursue a more fiscally responsible budget plan, Chris Hayes talks to David Cay Johnston about why generating more revenue from uncollected corporate taxes isn’t on the agenda.

While pressure mounts for both sides of the aisle to pursue more fiscally responsible budget plans in Washington and around the country, many are rightly wondering why generating more revenue from uncollected corporate taxes isn’t on the agenda. There’s even a citizens’ movement called US Uncut afoot to hold corporations accountable for their tax evasion. On this week’s episode of The Breakdown, DC editor Chris Hayes talks with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Cay Johnston about the manifold maneuvers corporations carry out in order to avoid paying their share of contributions to civil society.

Resources:

Johnston’s page on tax.com with links to his writings.
Previous Breakdown episode with Johnston, How Much Will Tax Sweeteners Cost Taxpayers?
Johann Hari’s report on the Uncut movement, How to Build a Progressive Tea Party.
Nation slideshow, 8 Corporations That Owe You Money.

Subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes to listen to fresh takes on the confusing concepts that make politics, economics and government tick. A new episode every week!

Hold the powerful to account by supporting The Nation

The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week.

Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire.

At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is more determined than ever before to hold the powerful to account.

In just the last month, we’ve published reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to other countries, exposed the administration’s appeal to obscure laws to carry out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of brave student activists targeted by universities.

We also continue to tell the stories of those who fight back against Trump and Musk, whether on the streets in growing protest movements, in town halls across the country, or in critical state elections—like Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court race—that provide a model for resisting Trumpism and prove that Musk can’t buy our democracy.

This is the journalism that matters in 2025. But we can’t do this without you. As a reader-supported publication, we rely on the support of generous donors. Please, help make our essential independent journalism possible with a donation today.

In solidarity,

The Editors

The Nation

Ad Policy
x