Further proof we need to lessen corporate America's tax burden, to create jobs

To put those numbers in perspective, 78 corporations made $155,872,000,000 in profits and had a negative tax rate of 14%, resulting in lost revenues to the U.S. Treasury of $21,826,000,000.

To give just one -- not the worst -- example:

In 2010, Verizon reported an annual profit of nearly $12 billion. The statutory federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, so theoretically, Verizon should have owed the IRS around $4.2 billion. Instead, according to figures compiled by the Center for Tax Justice, the company actually boasted a negative tax liability of $703 million. Verizon ended up making even more money after it calculated its taxes.

If you're a multibillion corporation, cool beans.

You can read the full report here.