According to a new report released by the Wall Street Journal, newly revised data from just before Christmas shows corporate profits reaching a new record of nearly $2 trillion in profits during the third quarter of the year. However, as ThinkProgress points out, corporate tax revenue is still lackluster.
After plummeting from 2007 through 2009, U.S. corporate profits regained their precrisis peak in early 2010, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest, revised data released just before Christmas showed corporate profits before tax rose to a record $1.97 trillion in the third quarter of 2011.
But corporate tax receipts, as reported by the Treasury Department, remain lackluster, even as the economy has gained some ground of late.
Although they have trended higher in recent months, corporate taxes measured on a 12-month basis were still under $200 billion in November. That is well below a precrisis peak of about $380 billion and still far below the government’s fiscal 2012 target of $332 billion.
To be clear -- corporate profits are higher now than they have ever been, but corporate tax revenue is still far below levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis.
The Obama Administration is clearly strangling them to death with taxes and regulations. Or something.
I think they're running out of excuses.