As much as it grates on us to hear it, Leona Helmsley was right. “Only the little people pay taxes.” In the news today, we learn that that goes for corporations as well:

At least 23% of large U.S. corporations don’t pay federal income taxes in any given year, according to a report by the investigative arm of Congress.

The Government Accountability Office also found that in a given year at least 60% of all U.S. corporations studied — which also includes many smaller companies — reported no federal income-tax liability during the period studied, 1998 to 2005.

The article goes on to say that companies will report big earnings to their shareholders and then plead poverty on their tax returns. The report doesn’t mention any companies by name, but it makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Unfair though it may be, it sort of puts all large companies under a cloud of suspicion. Are the large companies located in Peoria in the 77% that are paying their fair share of federal taxes?