Corporate profits receive a lot of media attention, but what receives considerably less attention are the corporate taxes paid on corporate profits.

I'm pretty sure that Exxon's tax payment in 2007 of $30 billion (that's $30,000,000,000) is a record, exceeding the $28 billion it paid last year.

Exxon pays taxes at a rate of 41% on its taxable income!

According to IRS data for 2004, the most recent year available:

Total number of tax returns: 130 million

Number of Tax Returns for the Bottom 50%: 65 million

Adjusted Gross Income for the Bottom 50%: $922 billion

Total Income Tax Paid by the Bottom 50%: $27.4 billion

Conclusion: In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people!

Further, the tax rate for the bottom 50% is only 3% of adjusted gross income

and the tax rate for Exxon was 41% in 2006