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General Electric Faces Occupy Protest Over Its Low Taxes, CEO Falsely Claims It Pays A High Rate
By Pat Garofalo on Apr 24, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Occupy protesters chanting we pay taxes and you should too interrupted General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt today during a speech in Detroit before the SAE World Congress. Other protesters in the hall chanted we are the 99 percent before being escorted off the premises by police.
We pay 29 per cent, Immelt responded. A GE spokesman later told CBS that the 29 percent tax rate was what the company payed globally in 2011. In the U.S., the rate was 25 percent.
However, that doesnt jive with what Citizens for Tax Justice found in a recent report. CTJ calculated that GE paid an 11.3 percent tax rate in 2011, which is actually a huge increase over previous years. In 2010, for instance, GE paid -76.6 percent. In 2009, it was -52.9 percent. So in each of those years, the government subsidized the hugely profitable mega-corporation:
GEs low taxes stem mainly from its finance arm, GE Capital, which makes big profits, but generates huge tax losses that reduce GEs taxable income from its other operations. Over the past decade, GE has paid virtually nothing in federal income taxes, paying a paltry 2.3% tax rate on its $83 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
26 major corporations, GE included, had no federal income tax liability for the period between 2008 and 2011 (thought they might have owed something in an individual year), while they made billions in profits. Occupy protesters plan to protest GEs annual shareholders meeting in Detroit tomorrow.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/24/470342/general-electric-tax-protest/?mobile=nc
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Bozita
(26,955 posts)April 22, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Column: Trashing GE will hurt Detroit
Nolan Finley
74 Comments
Before leaving office, Gov. Jennifer Granholm helped recruit corporate mammoth General Electric to hold its 2012 annual meeting in downtown Detroit.
Her hope was that the high-rolling investors who make up GE's shareholder base would get a chance to see first-hand the city's potential.
But with the meeting set to convene Wednesday in the Renaissance Center, there's a real risk those investors will witness instead a confirmation that Metro Detroit is ground zero for the destructive war against wealth and business.
Groups tied to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the United Auto Workers' 99% Spring action SWAT team have been recruiting protesters to stage an anti-World Trade Organization-style protest in the streets around the RenCen.
more...
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120422/OPINION03/204220309#ixzz1t1GSdIxx
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BTW, I really didn't have to tell you that Mr. Finley is full of shit, ... as usual.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)late 80s, I was enthusiastic for its recovery...then it fell back
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)We should not be letting our great cities -- and their people -- simply crumble.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)they leave in about 3 hours. Two weeks ago, I was part of a team that held an 8 hour class on non violent direct confrontation, to ready people for the 99% Spring. Many of those I taught will be there tomorrow.
Mc Mike
(9,111 posts)Good luck to Labor, Occupy, and Spring today!
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)history geek here.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)I'm nearly 5 hours away up in Traverse City though. I hope there's a big turn out! Go Detroit! Go Michigan!
Julie
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)they are not talking to the average worker who already pays their fair share.