This week’s Chairman’s Report is written by Jade Walle. Vice president of Ur-Energy Inc., a CPA and a member of the Americans For Fair Taxation board of directors.
Let’s pit our fellow Americans against each other (Part 1)
Early fiscal year 2026 Congressional Budget Office estimates note that of the $5.6 trillion the Treasury expects to collect, $404 billion, 7.1%, will be from the corporate income tax. While $404 billion is certainly a sizable amount, many politicians and pundits continue to call out many nefarious and infamous U.S. corporations for not paying their “fair share.”
If this refrain sounds familiar, that’s because it is nothing new under the sun. In fact, ever since the income tax was born in 1913, our nation has perpetually been torn apart by one of the seven deadly sins, envy. Let’s take a brief look at the most recent round of class warfare commentary that risks dividing us even further.
Reports from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (“ITEP”) were recently cited in a Thompson Reuters “Checkpoint News” article by Maureen Leddy dated April 13, 2026. The article provides us the following to consider:
- At least 88 of the largest U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax in 2025.
- These 88 companies had $105 billion in collective pretax income.
- Rather than paying the 21% corporate income tax rate, these companies received $4.7 billion in tax rebates.
The companies identified are from a wide range of industries and include Tesla, United Airlines, Yum! Brands (owners of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell), 3M, CVS, and Walt Disney. The ITEP attributes the increase in corporate tax avoidance to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Several provisions in these laws were cited, including but not limited to accelerated depreciation, research and experimentation credit, and revised guidance on the corporate alternative minimum tax.
Now the stage is set. Cue the outrage and class warfare! The article notes that, “The findings come as some lawmakers question corporations for conducting mass layoffs while simultaneously benefiting from tax cuts and posting record profits.” Senator Elizbeth Warren is cited, among others.
The notion that we live in a free country is paramount in a rebuttal to this feigned outrage. Let me pose a question. Whose company is it? Do politicians get to dictate our major corporations’ policies and staffing configurations? Does government control the means of production, or does that control rest with our companies via their boards and stakeholders?
The article goes on to highlight that, “After last year’s staffing reductions at the IRS, some lawmakers questioned the agency’s ability to audit large business and corporate tax returns and close the tax gap.” This protest raises an obvious question. Does anyone believe that the IRS can increase its tax code acumen in a meaningful way that would produce enough corporate income tax revenue to finally be enough? Of course not. It doesn’t matter how much a corporation pays, it’s never going to be enough.
The “fair share” often alluded to by many lawmakers is a mirage of an oasis on the desert’s horizon. They keep moving towards it and pointing to it, but they never define it. We’ve been hearing for decades that corporations are not paying their fair share, but never once has anyone specifically defined what that fair share is. And somehow, no one in the press has ever pinned anyone down and asked “At what point will you be satisfied that a corporation is paying enough in taxes?”
Lastly, we cannot forget the profound truth, that corporations don’t really pay taxes. Their income and payroll tax burdens are simply another cost of doing business that gets accumulated into any company’s cost structure. Corporations then must charge their customer for their product or service based on this cost structure, hopefully with a little markup so they can make a profit. The bottom line is that corporations don’t pay income taxes at all, we do!
So, do these reports and comments exemplify class warfare, strife, and division? When President Lincoln famously said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he was pointing to a larger phenomenon of human nature, that we cannot successfully serve two masters, because we end up hating one and loving the other. President Lincoln was specifically alluding to how a nation cannot be half free and half slave and that it would eventually become one or the other.
Are we also embedded within a similar strand of history and human nature as it relates to the income tax system? If we don’t move to a simpler system, do we risk the final tear of our fragile representative republic experiment?
Stay tuned to next week’s Chairman’s report for the solution. Will the FAIRtax save the day?
CONCLUSION
As Jade makes clear, our present income/payroll tax system breeds envy and encourages Americans to attack tax paying segments—like corporations.
Jade will make the case even clearer in his next article that the FAIRtax is the answer.
The FAIRtax Act (H.R. 25) is more than just a proposal for a retail sales tax; it is a fundamental restructuring of the federal fiscal structure. Unlike other excise taxes which normally are applied to specific products and in different percentage amounts, the FAIRtax applies a 23% rate to all new retail products and retail services.
THE FAIRTAX IS THE ANSWER.
The FAIRtax is a national retail sales tax on new retail goods and retail services which provides a family credit so that all purchases up to the poverty level for each family are not taxed. There is no withholding from your paycheck, and YOU NEVER HAVE TO FILE A TAX RETURN TELLING THE GOVERNMENT HOW MUCH YOU EARNED AND HOW MUCH YOU SPENT, AND YOU’LL NEVER BE HARASSED BY THE IRS EVER AGAIN.
Many of you have labored tirelessly for freedom from the federal income tax and the IRS. You deserve a great deal of credit for your efforts to educate the American people on the need to fund the American government in a way that is good for America and returns freedom to the American people.
It is imperative, though, that we don’t replace the current income tax and the IRS with an alternative system that can still be manipulated by the Ruling Elite. We must let Congress and the President know that the best way to replace the income tax and the IRS is with the FAIRtax.
Make no mistake about it. The FAIRtax is a grave threat to the Ruling Elites. It will strip them of their power and their ability to control us though the tax system. Their opposition to the FAIRtax will be fierce and unrelenting. And don’t think for an instant that they won’t use half-truths, deception and downright lies in their desperate attempt to hang on to their power.
However, with the support of this President, we can finally eliminate the income tax and the IRS!!!
Of course, the best course of action is to not only repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS but to repeal the 16th Amendment as well so no future administration can ever shackle the American people with an income tax again.
We must come together and ensure that real tax reform, the FAIRtax, is not subverted by the Elites in D.C.
This will take the diligent efforts of all of us. We need your financial assistance, and we need your grass roots assistance.
If you have contacts that will allow us to get more information to President Trump about the FAIRtax please let us know.
Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us.
At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax. If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already. If not, ask why not. If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us.
At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax. If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already. If not, ask why not. If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.