Okay, I found their reference (I think.) Where did they get it? And do they take into account any OTHER taxes paid?

Oh yeah, and the corporations who don't pay taxes are owned or belong to the guys that pay the politicians to re-write the tax empt laws in their favor.

No argument at all with that statement.

I would be the first to agree with you that a huge chunk of our current tax code is designed to either penalize political enemies or reward political friends. Special breaks are tossed in for political contributors. Taxes are imposed or removed for social engineering reasons. One thing you learn doing business taxes on a computer is just how prevalent such things are. The program asks bizarre questions about what special fuels I use, or research credits. I swear that there are some taxes or tax breaks pointed at a single person, particularly at the state level. Certainly there are many pointed at specific industries.

The current income tax system is a huge, stinking ball of corruption.

This is the real source of the massive government resistance to eliminating the income tax in favor of a sales tax, or going over to a flat tax. The result would be not a loss of revenue, but a huge loss of power for the politicians. Which is a great reason for throwing the tax code out the tenth story window in my opinion.