Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Forbes: What Top US Companies Paid In Taxes

The short answer is not very freaking much.

For example, last year ExxonMobil had sales of $311 billion, pretax income of $35 billion, but paid no US income taxes - none. It helps to have a bunch of "wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Or General Electric:

Sales: $157 billion
Pretax income: $10.3 billion
Income taxes: (-$1.1 billion)
Tax rate: N/A
GE's financial services unit, GE Capital, keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years, GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. and make lots of money overseas, where tax rates are lower.

This is nothing new, of course. But I'm still waiting to see Tea Party protests outside of corporate offices, since these American companies obviously hate America enough to deprive it of tax income that could be used to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, fund health care, and eliminate the budget surplus, with money to spare.

I'm guessing the Tea Party is waiting for Fox News to light the outrage lamp.

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