How G.E. made $5.1 billion in the U.S. tax-free

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: MSNBC

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bespectacled, bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42260137/ns/business-us_business/

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Well, if corporations legally don't have to pay taxes, then it is only fair the lower and middle classes should pick up the slack. And government workers also need to take the brunt and become the villains, because.., governments don't have a revenue problem, they have a spending problem! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

[Rage for Order]

1. Congress can fix this problem anytime they want to

That they have yet to do so speaks volumes

[defendandprotect]

3. Been rereading Wm. Greider's "Who Will Tell the People?" .... back to 1978 Dems were collaborating

with Repugs on overturning the tax code for benefit of elites!

[Rage for Order]

5. Exactly. It's not "R" vs "D", it's "have" vs "have not"

I found this part of the article interesting:

The shelters are so crucial to G.E.’s bottom line that when Congress threatened to let the most lucrative one expire in 2008, the company came out in full force. G.E. officials worked with dozens of financial companies to send letters to Congress and hired a bevy of outside lobbyists.

The head of its tax team, Mr. Samuels, met with Representative Charles B. Rangel, then chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which would decide the fate of the tax break. As he sat with the committee’s staff members outside Mr. Rangel’s office, Mr. Samuels dropped to his knee and pretended to beg for the provision to be extended — a flourish made in jest, he said through a spokeswoman.

That day, Mr. Rangel reversed his opposition to the tax break, according to other Democrats on the committee.

The following month, Mr. Rangel and Mr. Immelt stood together at St. Nicholas Park in Harlem as G.E. announced that its foundation had awarded $30 million to New York City schools, including $11 million to benefit various schools in Mr. Rangel’s district. Joel I. Klein, then the schools chancellor, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who presided, said it was the largest gift ever to the city’s schools.

G.E. officials say the donation was granted solely on the merit of the project. “The foundation goes to great lengths to ensure grant decisions are not influenced by company government relations or lobbying priorities,” Ms. Eisele said.

[defendandprotect]

10. Wow ... this "foundation" stuff should also be seen for what it is ... PR --

How many people still think Gates is a great guy!!

Our public schools have to be free from any strings attached to anyone but the

taxpayer!

One can see, however, how easily this would be accepted -- both by Rangel and by those

in his district! What could possibly be wrong with it!!

Many in Congress have sold their souls, either to get there or to stay there --

IMO, Secret Swiss bank accounts are a huge threat to democracy!!!

[sarcasmo]

2. Congress bought and paid for by the corporation.

[defendandprotect]

4. GE for a long time was one of the major defrauders on government contracts ....

they weren't barred from doing business with US afterwards --

but a lot of other defrauders joined them in the next years!!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. Tea partiers's? Any response? n/t

[Rage for Order]

7. Tea Partiers? How about Dems or Reps?

Hell, Ronald Reagan led the charge to make sure GE and other corporations were paying their fair share of taxes, only to be undermined by members from both parties at a later date:

As it has evolved, the company has used, and in some cases pioneered, aggressive strategies to lower its tax bill. In the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan overhauled the tax system after learning that G.E. — a company for which he had once worked as a commercial pitchman — was among dozens of corporations that had used accounting gamesmanship to avoid paying any taxes.

“I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line,” Mr. Reagan told the Treasury secretary, Donald T. Regan, according to Mr. Regan’s 1988 memoir. The president supported a change that closed loopholes and forced G.E. to pay a far higher effective rate, up to 32.5 percent.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

8. It is the evolution into a corporate stranglehold.

My comment is phrased as such because there are advocates for further abuses and deregulation.

No doubt that we are poorly represented in comparison to PACs, and other lobbyist concerns.

[underpants]

9. Kick for the morning read

[Angry Dragon]

11. Hey maybe Obama could ask the CEO of GE if he could help

figure out how to create jobs here in the US before GE ships them all overseas

[Bozita]

12. Great timing! ... GE owned MSNBC up through February.

Now, it's Comcast.