On the last Saturday of March, 500,000 people marched in London to protest the reduction in corporate taxes amidst the 300,000 layoffs planned by the conservative UK government:
“We don’t want to pay for the banking crisis,” said Becca Davies, 32, a UK Uncut organizer and Londoner who works in education. “The people on benefits shouldn’t have to be destroyed to pay for the banks. We all pay our taxes, corporations should do the same.”
The U.K. coalition government plans cuts that will cost more than 300,000 public-sector jobs over four years as it tackles a 146 billion-pound ($235 billion) deficit. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said March 23 that corporate tax would be reduced for the next four years, bringing it to 23 percent. The government said it would raise the bank levy next year as an offset.
A national day of protest was also held in the U.S. to speak out against tax-dodging corporations:
From coast-to-coast, more than forty cities joined in a day of action protesting the tax-dodging practices of massive corporations that they see as the real source of the country’s deficit.
“I’m tired of people calling for shared sacrifice and it’s all coming from the workers and nothing’s coming from the top,” says protester Dave Sonenberg. “I’m sick of companies like Bank of America not paying their taxes.”
Bank of America hasn’t paid a nickel in federal income taxes for the past two years, and in fact raked in an additional $1 billion in tax “benefits.” The bank is enjoying these profits after accepting $45 billion from taxpayers, which the company then got to count as a deduction when they paid back the money.
Two days before the protests, the New York Times ran a front-page story on how the biggest corporation in America paid no taxes in 2010.
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.
The problem is much larger than a simple loss in public revenue. The profits of G.E. are reinvested offshore and used to undermine American workers.
General Electric (GE) plans to sell its aircraft electronics to Chinese companies, and if you don't have a problem with that, maybe you should.
According to The New York Times, GE is signing a deal to sell avionics technology -- electronics that control an aircraft's basic in-flight operations -- to Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (CACC), which aspires to build commercial and military aircraft. GE will do this through a joint venture with a Chinese company, Aviation Industry Corp. of China (Avic). Avic makes avionics for CACC and for China's military -- including its stealth fighter.
Sure, GE is based in the U.S., but that doesn't mean its shareholders expect it to be loyal to U.S. interests. Still, selling technology it developed for U.S. companies like Boeing (BA) to Boeing's Chinese competitors -- which are trying to build a competing aircraft company -- may be going too far. The question facing American policymakers is how to keep GE from crossing the line before it's too late.