From todays NY Times Business section, "G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether",
by David Kocieniewski. Surprise, Surprise Surprise. Ya see taxes are just for the little guys who can't hire high priced tax accountants or move their businesses offshore......
OK, maybe I'm still pissed about the repair to our GE range. The oven stopped working after 8-9 yrs because the thermocouple died. To get a service technician to come out wasn't worth it. Might as well buy a new stove. So I ordered the part - genuine GE replacement part for about $80. Part comes, thermocouple and a high temperature wire nut. Should be pretty simple. But the thermocouple wires are too thin so the wire nut doesn't keep the wires together. Place a call to GE service. Their response, well, thats a problem; so they recommend getting some wire to bulk up the thermocouple wire so the wire nut holds. You mean I sent you guys $80 and I have to supply my own wire??
But I digress.....
Mr Kocieniewski's article really got me annoyed.
No Taxes for You
GE is apparently the US's largest corporation and
"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."
Say what? For some reason my wife and I had to pay taxes this year. How about you?
And you wonder why we have no money for health care, education, NPR, funding clean energy research, etc.....Seems GE can afford the very best in their tax accounting department while they lay off 1/5 of their domestic workforce. In fact their tax department is considered a profit center.
Read it and weep......
In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back.
Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts — from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.
And some of these same companies complain they are paying too much tax.
And who gets the benefits? You guessed it, the "executives and share holders". And how does GE obtain these benefits? The old fashioned way, using high priced lobbyists and buying influence.
Interestingly the article states Pres Reagan, former pitchman for GE, was concerned about the increasing use of loopholes by corporations to avoid taxes so he asked Treasury Secretary Regan to change the law effectively increasing GE's tax rate. Put one into Reagan's column.
Yes, GE "Brings Good Things To Life" and.......
GE, Increasing the Income of CEO's So They Can Buy Expensive Things...or
GE, Giving workers more free time by laying them off.....or
GE, Moving profits offshore to support our friends overseas.....or
Your Turn.......