General Electric: Billions in Profits. Almost ZERO in Federal Tax. Spends 82 Million on lobbyists.

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8. According to Value Line

which is a stock advisory subscription service, here are the current income tax rates for GE (in two more weeks, they will update the info):

2006-16.1%
2007-15.5%
2008-5.5%
2009-Zero
2010-7.4%
2011-27.4%
2012-14.4%
2013-8.5%
2014-10.3%
2015-22.0% (estimated)

Somehow, I find their numbers to be more believable at they have no axe to grind about tax rates.

Walmart's income tax rates over the same period have varied from 30.3% to 34.2%.

The collapse of the income tax rates for GE in 2008-2010 were caused by some "players" in GE Capital wanting to get in on the mortgage and derivatives casino which caused the sad performance of GE stock. GE Capital was formed to help customers finance their purchases of GE products, but some of the boys decided they could make more money in the casino and ended up dropping the price of GE stock from $42.20 a share in 2007 to $5.70 a share in 2008 when the bubble burst. GE is trying to sell or spin off GE Capital so that they can quit being monitored by the Fed as a "Significant Impact Financial Institution" which will free up capital for expansion. The wild swings in their tax rates are caused by various write offs from the GE Capital fiasco.