General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010

christiefan915

christiefan915

Catalyst
How many more out there that we don't know about? :mad:

"The top tax bracket for U.S. corporations stands at 35 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. So how is it possible that a giant of American business, General Electric, paid nothing in federal taxes last year, even as it made billions in profit?

And should the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, be advising the president on business?

For two years, President Obama has been talking about the need for corporate tax reform, declaring that the system is too complicated and that companies pay too much.

"Simplify, eliminate loopholes, treat everybody fairly," Obama said in February.

For those unaccustomed to the loopholes and shelters of the corporate tax code, GE's success at avoiding taxes is nothing short of extraordinary. The company, led by Immelt, earned $14.2 billion in profits in 2010, but it paid not a penny in taxes because the bulk of those profits, some $9 billion, were offshore. In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit.

"Two things are disconcerting. One is, there's disproportionate amount of profits being reported offshore. And then, even for the profits that are reported onshore, they're paying less than 35 percent," said Martin Sullivan, a contributing editor for Tax Analysts.

2010 was the second year in a row that GE recorded billions in profits and paid no taxes."

(Article continues)

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558
 
christiefan915 said:
Are you okay with the no-tax thing?
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If I were a liberal pinhead, I would feel a little embarrassed by it. The company who owns your beloved pinhead network, MSNBC, employer of all those wonderful pinhead "journalists" like Rachel Madcow and Andrea Mitchell, didn't pay their fair share... didn't pay ANY share of taxes! And the CEO is one of Obama's leading advisers. My, my.... how are pinheads going to spin this into the fault of the mean ol' republicans?
 
Dixie said:
If I were a liberal pinhead, I would feel a little embarrassed by it. The company who owns your beloved pinhead network, MSNBC, employer of all those wonderful pinhead "journalists" like Rachel Madcow and Andrea Mitchell, didn't pay their fair share... didn't pay ANY share of taxes! And the CEO is one of Obama's leading advisers. My, my.... how are pinheads going to spin this into the fault of the mean ol' republicans?
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Well, I don't watch those channels or listen to those people but my opinion is still the same.
 
christiefan915 said:
Are you okay with the no-tax thing?
Click to expand...

Not when done in this way. GE did this by shifting production- jobs- out of the country, plus calling in political favors to get the $3.2 billion in tax break. As I've said here many, many times, cut the corporate tax rate to zero and forbid them to contribute to political campaigns. This takes care of both the loss of jobs and the corporate favoritism that you liberals claim to hate.
 
christiefan915 said:
Are you okay with the no-tax thing?
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I actually support the Fair Tax, which would eliminate all corporate tax. We take in the same amount of revenue (some claim more), but it's done through consumption not profits. Think of the number of international businesses who would flock to America if we had no corporate tax? Think of the number of US jobs that would be created, as it became more profitable for an American corporation to keep its operations at home? It spurs job growth, it ends the problems with outsourcing, and best of all, it's FAIR!
 
Damn Yankee said:
Not when done in this way. GE did this by shifting production- jobs- out of the country, plus calling in political favors to get the $3.2 billion in tax break. As I've said here many, many times, cut the corporate tax rate to zero and forbid them to contribute to political campaigns. This takes care of both the loss of jobs and the corporate favoritism that you liberals claim to hate.
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It's unconstitutional to forbid them from contributing to political campaigns, it violates the 1st Amendment.
 
Why isn't Christiefan upset about the rest of the people who pay no federal income taxes?

"nearly half of all Americans don't have to pay any federal income tax. In 2009, 47 percent of all filers paid nothing. It's a number that's gone up significantly in just a couple of years. Robert Siegel talks to Roberton Williams, who's been crunching the numbers at the Tax Policy Institute in Washington. According to Williams, millions escape filing because their incomes are too low or they're eligible for deductions, credits and exemptions."


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997180
 
Dixie said:
It's unconstitutional to forbid them from contributing to political campaigns, it violates the 1st Amendment.
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What are you talking about? There are three parties discussed in the Constitution: the People, the States, and the federal government. The First Amendment then adds "the press". Nowhere are corporations discussed.
 
Rtber said:
Why isn't Christiefan upset about the rest of the people who pay no federal income taxes?

"nearly half of all Americans don't have to pay any federal income tax. In 2009, 47 percent of all filers paid nothing. It's a number that's gone up significantly in just a couple of years. Robert Siegel talks to Roberton Williams, who's been crunching the numbers at the Tax Policy Institute in Washington. According to Williams, millions escape filing because their incomes are too low or they're eligible for deductions, credits and exemptions."


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997180
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Does it bother you that GE got TARP money and didn't repay it, along with paying no federal taxes?

"GE emerged as one of the most skilled practitioners of tax avoidance. Last year it set aside a mere 7.4 per cent of its $5.1billion U.S. profits for tax. But according to the New York Times, this percentage will only be paid if GE brings overseas profits back to the U.S. If it does not do so the company effectively gets money back from the IRS.has And sneaking out of repaying government bailout money isn’t the worst of it; the really rough part is discovering how GE got that money in the first place. As everyone knows, the original intent of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was to bail out banks – which, of course, meant that GE wasn’t eligible for a dime of it. But then, goodness gracious, GE suddenly ‘discovered’ that it owned two banks in Utah. Both of those banks applied for TARP funds, both were approved and, just like that, $80 billion was funneled through them to GE."

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/03/taxpayers-get-short-changed-by-ges-tarp/
 
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Damn Yankee said:
What are you talking about? There are three parties discussed in the Constitution: the People, the States, and the federal government. The First Amendment then adds "the press". Nowhere are corporations discussed.
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I'm talking about the recent SCOTUS ruling on this very issue, they found it unconstitutional to restrict corporations from making political contributions because it violates the 1st Amendment. A corporation is not an independent entity operating of its own volition, it is an organization made of people who have constitutional rights, and those rights can not be restricted based on the fact they belong to a corporation.
 
christiefan915 said:
Does it bother you that GE got TARP money and didn't repay it, along with paying no federal taxes?

"GE emerged as one of the most skilled practitioners of tax avoidance. Last year it set aside a mere 7.4 per cent of its $5.1billion U.S. profits for tax. But according to the New York Times, this percentage will only be paid if GE brings overseas profits back to the U.S. If it does not do so the company effectively gets money back from the IRS.has And sneaking out of repaying government bailout money isn’t the worst of it; the really rough part is discovering how GE got that money in the first place. As everyone knows, the original intent of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was to bail out banks – which, of course, meant that GE wasn’t eligible for a dime of it. But then, goodness gracious, GE suddenly ‘discovered’ that it owned two banks in Utah. Both of those banks applied for TARP funds, both were approved and, just like that, $80 billion was funneled through them to GE."

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/03/taxpayers-get-short-changed-by-ges-tarp/
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Yes. Does it bother you that many people pay no federal income tax?

Would it bother you if you learned that NPR pays no federal taxes?
 
Rtber said:
Yes. Does it bother you that many people pay no federal income tax?

Would it bother you if you learned that NPR pays no federal taxes?
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Maybe if I knew specifics, it would. If the 47% are all tax cheats it would bother me, but that's just not true.

I'd rather have a bigger income to pay taxes on, than a small one that makes me eligible for credits and exemptions.
 
christiefan915 said:
Does it bother you that GE got TARP money and didn't repay it, along with paying no federal taxes?
Click to expand...

It would bother me a lot more if I were a pinhead liberal who slobbered all over MSNBC. Talk about hypocrisy on the grandest scale? Here, the very propaganda outlet for your socialist nonsense, isn't paying ANY taxes? After all the browbeating of rich conservatives, greedy capitalist pigs, those who have versus those who have not.... and the mouthpiece for the message, isn't paying a dime in tax. That's rich!
 
christiefan915 said:
Maybe if I knew specifics, it would. If the 47% are all tax cheats it would bother me, but that's just not true.

I'd rather have a bigger income to pay taxes on, than a small one that makes me eligible for credits and exemptions.
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Your outrage seems a bit selective.

Does NPR pay federal taxes?
 
Dixie said:
It would bother me a lot more if I were a pinhead liberal who slobbered all over MSNBC. Talk about hypocrisy on the grandest scale? Here, the very propaganda outlet for your socialist nonsense, isn't paying ANY taxes? After all the browbeating of rich conservatives, greedy capitalist pigs, those who have versus those who have not.... and the mouthpiece for the message, isn't paying a dime in tax. That's rich!
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I already told you I don't watch MSNBC so there was no slobbering here.

Oh, and it looks as though Faux isn't doing too bad on the no-tax thing either.

“…News Corporation and its subsidiaries paid only A$325m ($238m) in corporate taxes worldwide. In the same period, its consolidated pre-tax profits were A$5.4 billion. So News Corporation has paid an effective tax rate of only around 6%. By comparison, Disney, one of the world’s other media empires, paid 31%. Basic corporate-tax rates in Australia, America and Britain, the three main countries in which News Corporation operates, are 36%, 35% and 30% respectively.”

The article goes on to describe how News Corp used a complex network of accounting dodges including as many as 60 shell companies that were incorporated in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles and the British Virgin Islands. More recently, an investigation by the New York Times revealed that…

“By taking advantage of a provision in the law that allows expanding companies like Mr. Murdoch’s to defer taxes to future years, the News Corporation paid no federal taxes in two of the last four years, and in the other two it paid only a fraction of what it otherwise would have owed. During that time, Securities and Exchange Commission records show, the News Corporation’s domestic pretax profits topped $9.4 billion.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/15032...paying_taxes?akid=6703.237722.G9Yvt7&rd=1&t=8
 
christiefan915 said:
I already told you I don't watch MSNBC so there was no slobbering here.

Oh, and it looks as though Faux isn't doing too bad on the no-tax thing either.

“…News Corporation and its subsidiaries paid only A$325m ($238m) in corporate taxes worldwide. In the same period, its consolidated pre-tax profits were A$5.4 billion. So News Corporation has paid an effective tax rate of only around 6%. By comparison, Disney, one of the world’s other media empires, paid 31%. Basic corporate-tax rates in Australia, America and Britain, the three main countries in which News Corporation operates, are 36%, 35% and 30% respectively.”

The article goes on to describe how News Corp used a complex network of accounting dodges including as many as 60 shell companies that were incorporated in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles and the British Virgin Islands. More recently, an investigation by the New York Times revealed that…

“By taking advantage of a provision in the law that allows expanding companies like Mr. Murdoch’s to defer taxes to future years, the News Corporation paid no federal taxes in two of the last four years, and in the other two it paid only a fraction of what it otherwise would have owed. During that time, Securities and Exchange Commission records show, the News Corporation’s domestic pretax profits topped $9.4 billion.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/15032...paying_taxes?akid=6703.237722.G9Yvt7&rd=1&t=8
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LMAO... This just keep getting better! Now you are going to attempt to smear Fox for paying $238 million in taxes when MSNBC paid NONE? And it doesn't matter if YOU watch MSNBC or not! You don't watch FOX either, do ya? What does that have to do with who is paying their fair share of taxes?
 
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