How's does this bit of news make you feel while you're poring over tax returns in preparation for April 15? General Electric took home profits of $14.2 billion last year - $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. So how much are they paying in taxes? Nothing!
On top of that, GE is getting a tax credit of $3.2 billion from Uncle Sam.
But it's not just GE that has become expert in tax avoidance - the corporate share of the nation’s federal tax revenues has declined from 30 percent in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.
The New York Times notes that "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...
(GE's) extraordinary success (in avoiding taxes) 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 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...
General Electric has been a household name for generations, with light bulbs, electric fans, refrigerators and other appliances in millions of American homes. But today the consumer appliance division accounts for less than 6 percent of revenue, while lending accounts for more than 30 percent...many Wall Street analysts view G.E. not as a manufacturer but as an unregulated lender that also makes dishwashers and M.R.I. machines...
UPDATE: Commenter R. Porafatto at Kevin Drum's Mother Jones blog reminds me that GE's Capital division also got a $140 billion slice of the bailout money.
Spreading this kind of information is of vital importance if we've got any chance of avoiding the draconian austerity packages that much of the world is facing. Sure, many countries have spending problems but until we realize that we've also got a revenue problem, the plutocrats will continue to rape and pillage the economy while we suffer. Take a look at www.usuncut.org - they seem to have the right idea.
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