This Wall Street Journal ($) article reports on a new General Accounting Office disclosure that more than 60% of U.S. corporations didn’t pay any federal taxes for the boom years of 1996 through 2000.
Corporate tax receipts have decreased markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years. In 2003, corporate tax receipts dropped to 7.4% of overall federal receipts, which is the lowest rate since 1983 and the second-lowest rate since 1934. Collections from the federal corporate income tax rose from $171 billion in 1996 to more than $200 billion in 2000. Receipts fell over the next three years, bottoming out at $131.8 billion in 2003, which is the lowest annual total since 1993. They are projected to reach $168.7 billion this year.
Predictably, politicians are already attempting to gain political mileage out the GAO disclosures:

“Too many corporations are finagling ways to dodge paying Uncle Sam, despite the benefits they receive from this country,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who requested the study along with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.). “Thwarting corporate tax dodgers will take tax reform and stronger enforcement.”

Of course, Senator Levin fails to mention that corporations simply pass higher corporate taxes on to consumers through charging higher prices for the corporation’s goods.
And from the other side of the political spectrum:

Conservatives depicted the GAO report as an argument for tax-code overhaul for both corporations and individuals. Dan Mitchell, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, also noted in corporations’ defense that they have an obligation to shareholders to pay as little tax as they legally can.

While this is closer to the correct response than Senator Levin’s, it artfully dodges the fact that the Bush Administration — even with a Republican-controlled Congress — has done precious little to overhaul the utterly absurd federal income tax code.
Until either political party gets serious about tax reform in this country, expect to continue having stories such as this treated as a political football that is put away once the political campaign is over.