G.E. and its $3.2 Billion Dollar Tax Benefit

[heliochrome85]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/busin ... ml?_r=3&hp


someone on the right care to explain why we need to slash entitlement funding when companies like G.E. do not pay any taxes in the US?

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business ... xes/36088/

[szh]

Never a simple story: http://www.gereports.com/setting-the-re ... /?kmed=ppc

GE paid almost $2.7 billion in cash taxes in 2010 on a consolidated basis (almost 19% of pretax income from continuing operations).

GE paid significant U.S. income tax in 2010 and in total from 2006-2010. Over the past 10 years, GE has paid almost $23 billion of corporate income taxes to governments around the world, making it one of the highest payers of corporate income taxes. As disclosed in the cash flow statements of the 10-K, we paid over $14 billion of income taxes to governments around the world over the past 5 years.

A tax “benefit” is not a refund or a rebate. GE did not receive payment back from the government as a result of the tax benefit. The “tax benefit” reported in our financial statements was the “U.S. current tax provision on continuing operations” which is a book accounting concept and is not the same as our cash tax liability or cash tax payments. There was a benefit in our current tax provision because we didn’t end up owing taxes we had accrued in prior years. This tax benefit resulted from reversing the taxes we had accrued in prior years, but much of this benefit was offset by increases in our tax liability for future years.

Your choice as to who to believe.

For me, the NY Times doesn't come high on the list ...

Z

[srellim234]

Neither does G.E.

[szh]

Neither does G.E.

So, look at their 10-Q filings ... those are required to be correct by SEC law.

Z

[srellim234]

The major problem is the tax code. Note that G.E.s response refers to "governments around the world" and avoids referring to the United States. I'm pretty sure that what they did was technically legal; doesn't mean that it's particularly ethical. Much the same way that our Congress operates.

My distrust of companies like G.E. comes from their closing of plants here in the U.S. and moving the manufacturing overseas to places where not only the workers have no rights but companies knowingly can wipe out workers' health and know that those workers have no recourse. A great example is G.E.s recent closure of their last light bulb manufacturing plant here in the U.S., moving that part of the operation to China while the workers in that industry are testing positive for mercury poisoning. All the while G.E. is using loopholes in our tax laws to avoid paying taxes here in the U.S.

Then our lovely POTUS appoints G.E.'s CEO Immelt to an advisory board???????? Who's looking out for the United States in this scenario? Corporate America and the United States government are certainly not!

[stebo0728]

Hey ... we are a nation of plunder, and our entire political system has become a machine to control the plunder. Everyone partakes of the plunder, individuals and corporations alike. Thats the only inevitable outcome of a system of plunder, and until we see the err of our ways, and return to liberty above all, nothing will change, only get worse.