Goldman Sachs is one of the great predators in modern day society. I’m still waiting for the day when Goldman’s top executives face criminal indictments over the financial crisis scam  — and I suspect I will keep waiting since the Obama Administration shows no inclination to go over the big bankers and Wall Street people who finance modern-day campaigns. But, as a side scam, Goldman is fleecing every taxpayer in America — and helping close schools and destroy the social safety net.

In fairness, I’ve singled out Goldman for a particular tax scam because of the great damage it has done to many people. But that company isn’t the only one engaged in a scam ferreted out by our friends at the Citizens for Tax Justice:

Citizens for Tax Justice reported that Facebook Inc. had used a single tax break, for executive stock options, to avoid paying even a dime of federal and state income taxes in 2012. Since then, CTJ has investigated the extent to which other large companies are using the same tax break. This short report presents data for 280 Fortune 500 corporations that, like Facebook, disclose a portion of the tax benefits they receive from this tax break. [emphasis added]

• These 280 corporations reduced their federal and state corporate income taxes by a total of $27.3 billion over the last three years, by using the so-called “excess stock option” tax break.

• In 2012 alone, the tax break cut Fortune 500 income taxes by $11.2 billion.

• Just 25 companies received more than half of the total excess stock option tax benefits accruing to Fortune 500 corporations over the past three years.

• Apple alone received 12 percent of the total excess stock option tax benefits during this period, enjoying $3.2 billion in stock option tax breaks during the past three years. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil collectively enjoyed 10 percent of the total.

• In 2012, Facebook wiped out its entire U.S. income tax liability by using excess stock option tax breaks.

• Over the past three years, Apple slashed its federal and state income taxes by 20 percent using this single tax break.

Goldman Sachs fleeced the taxpayer to the tune of $840 million — in case you wondered how part of Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s huge pay is funded, tap yourself on the back. It’s you, baby.

How does this scam work?

Most big corporations give their executives (and sometimes other employees) options to buy the company’s stock at a favorable price in the future. When those options are exercised, corporations can take a tax deduction for the difference between what the employees pay for the stock and what it’s worth (while employees report this difference as taxable wages).

Before 2006, companies could deduct the “cost” of the stock options on their tax returns, reducing their taxable profits as reported to the IRS, but didn’t have to reduce the profits they reported to their shareholders in the same way, creating a big gap between “book” and “tax” income.

And:

But the book write-offs are still usually considerably less than what the companies take as tax deductions.

It is a fair point to make that the greedy bastards at these companies are only taking advantage of loopholes in the law created by politicians. And that the real blame rests with the people elected to Congress (to single out one person in particular, I’d nominate Max Baucus — one reason I’m not shedding any tears that this corporate shill is retiring). I agree to some extent with that point — particularly because the billions of dollars handed out by politicians in the form of tax breaks allows the same politicians to run around like idiots shouting there is a debt crisis and, “we have no money, the sky is falling, cut the budget”, which, of course, I have argued is bullshit.

And, of course, the money drained from the Treasury into corporate coffers rarely ends up in the hands of regular workers in the form of higher wages. Nope — only the CEO gets to feed at the taxpayer trough.