Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, said about 68%of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Senator Byron Dorgan.

An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called "S" corporations use the fiddle of paying taxes under individual tax codes. "Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code," Edwards said.

More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paidno income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.

Dorgan has complained about companies abusing transfer prices — amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities.

All capitalist firms operating in the USA are completely dependent on public provision of roads and communications, power generation and other infrastructure. Why should the workers pay their taxes in  effect to subsidise their profits?