And that really irritates me. Here are the rest of us, from the the family of four having trouble paying for college education to your neighbor just trying to make ends meet, who have to pick up the slack. Is it any wonder that when you combine the tax breaks for the richest Americans with the lack of income tax from corporations, that our country’s infrastructure is headed down the tubes?

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. companies and 68% of foreign corporations do not pay federal income taxes, according to a congressional report released Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined samples of corporate tax returns filed between 1998 and 2005. In that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000 foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes – despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue.

The article says the method for the various companies (who remain unnamed) to escape paying income taxes varies – some of them report $0 income before deducting their expenses and others find deductions equaling more than their reported income. Some of the companies are small businesses, but they say they still end up paying taxes because the income gets moved onto personal tax returns (kind of like individual LLC companies).

“The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hardworking Americans who pay their fair share of taxes,” Dorgan said in a statement.

I could not agree more, and something needs to be done asap. It is not fair to individual tax payers who have to worry about being audited or getting trapped by the AMT. If I somehow found enough deductions to escape paying income taxes, I am sure that I would have a visit from the government. It’s just not right.