[quote=flu] …just like I have an issue with General Electric paying to income taxes. Minute distinction.[/quote]
I think the “GE pays no taxes” meme is over done and overly simplistic.
GE was founded in 1892. You think they’ve never paid taxes all that time? Don’t you think the amount they pay varies year by year?
Their 2012 net income according to Wiki will be about $14 billion on revenue of $147 billion. You think they aren’t paying all sorts of taxes of various kinds on that, in many different countries?
As we all know, if your business has a losing year, you will pay less taxes that year. Maybe no income taxes if in aggregate your expenses exceed your income. Of course if you do that year after year you won’t be in business for long.
Here’s a quote, admittedly from a company spokesman:
GE paid an effective global tax rate of 7 percent in 2010, counting money paid “to the IRS and foreign counterparts” in other nations. That rate was particularly low, Williams said, because the company lost $32 billion in its financial business during the global financial crisis.
According to the company release, GE’s effective tax rate jumped to 29 percent in 2011. The company paid $2.9 billion in worldwide corporate income tax in 2011, and another $1 billion in other U.S. taxes that year, the release states.
