G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether (GE's Immelt is Obama's new corporate liaison)

[brentspeak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: March 24, 2011

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.

snip

Yet many companies say the current level is so high it hobbles them in competing with foreign rivals. Even as the government faces a mounting budget deficit, the talk in Washington is about lower rates. President Obama has said he is considering an overhaul of the corporate tax system, with an eye to lowering the top rate, ending some tax subsidies and loopholes and generating the same amount of revenue. He has designated G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, as his liaison to the business community and as the chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and it is expected to discuss corporate taxes.

snip

The assortment of tax breaks G.E. has won in Washington has provided a significant short-term gain for the company’s executives and shareholders. While the financial crisis led G.E. to post a loss in the United States in 2009, regulatory filings show that in the last five years, G.E. has accumulated $26 billion in American profits, and received a net tax benefit from the I.R.S. of $4.1 billion.

But critics say the use of so many shelters amounts to corporate welfare, allowing G.E. not just to avoid taxes on profitable overseas lending but also to amass tax credits and write-offs that can be used to reduce taxes on billions of dollars of profit from domestic manufacturing. They say that the assertive tax avoidance of multinationals like G.E. not only shortchanges the Treasury, but also harms the economy by discouraging investment and hiring in the United States.

Don't expect Immelt to give Obama pointers on how to make GE pay its fair share of taxes.

[msongs]

1. Obama: the give away that keeps on giving. next thing ya know a Wall Streeter as Treasury Sec nt

[truedelphi]

4. I share your fears.

Any day now, Obama will be announcing that his "good buddy Tim" deserves the top spot at Treasury!

[Autumn]

2. I've learned not to expect anything from

any of them.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Two-thirds of corporations don't pay taxes.

That system has evolved over the past few decades. Quite a stretch and conflation of issues to get to what's really the point of your OP and that's that you don't like an adviser (one of hundreds) to President Obama.

Yes it sucks that corporations are deadbeats. Tax law needs to be changed to close the massive corporate loopholes. Pres Obama has proposed on numerous occasions discontinuing actual corporate welfare.

[Armstead]

5. The point is that Obama appointed him to chair commission to revitalize economy

This is not some low level figurehead position.

Not someone who should be setting polict

[Runework]

6. keep moving

nothing to see here

[golfguru]

7. GE is the ultimate insider corporation

GE was a big backer of Obama during campaign and have contributed heavily to politicians.
The president recently appointed GE Chief Jeff Immelt to a advisory position in the White House.

The sooner we move to publicly funded only elections, the less corruption will occur.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Well it could be worse... a JP Morgan bankster could be Obama's Chief of Staff

Oh wait a minute, a JP Morgan bankster is Obama's chief of staff.

We're seriously fucked.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. And yet some still refuse to see.

[otohara]

10. Fuckers

I pay more property taxes than our new Governor Hickenlooper.

My home is 1300 square ft.
Hickenlooper land 240 acres.