Obama and the leftists want to raise taxes on individuals they deem "rich", but sit idly by as GE makes billions in profit and pays no income taxes AGAIN..

What is wrong with this picture?

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether

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.

That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.

While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less.

In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back.

Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts — from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.

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.

“He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy,” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Immelt, on his appointment in January, after touring a G.E. factory in upstate New York that makes turbines and generators for sale around the world.

A review of company filings and Congressional records shows that one of the most striking advantages of General Electric is its ability to lobby for, win and take advantage of tax breaks.

Over the last decade, G.E. has spent tens of millions of dollars to push for changes in tax law, from more generous depreciation schedules on jet engines to “green energy” credits for its wind turbines. But the most lucrative of these measures allows G.E. to operate a vast leasing and lending business abroad with profits that face little foreign taxes and no American taxes as long as the money remains overseas.

Company officials say that these measures are necessary for G.E. to compete against global rivals and that they are acting as responsible citizens. “G.E. is committed to acting with integrity in relation to our tax obligations,” said Anne Eisele, a spokeswoman. “We are committed to complying with tax rules and paying all legally obliged taxes. At the same time, we have a responsibility to our shareholders to legally minimize our costs.”

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=1&hp

Huh? Do you pay any attention at all, or are you just on psycho-conservative auto-pilot?

This is the Company that YOU choose to make light of????


Really???
'Cuz I decide.... on my bill.... what to pay...Green, Hydro Power, wind...ect.......


You REALLY have missed the point!

So "GE"....(PGE here were I'm at.....) Doesn't have to pay some kind of taxes....which means MY BILL HASN'T GONE UP AGAIN!!!!!!!!

so you think that is a good thing?

I don't really expect you right-wingers to know what lefties want . I don't listen to your gurus either. Corporate tax avoidance has always been a huge deal for Progressives.It's all a part of the Free Trade Agreement/offshoring syndrome. These multinationals may be chartered in an American state, but it's hard to consider them to be American Companies when they pay no taxes in America. . Guess yu didn't hear about Uncut America's big protests at B of A . MSM doesn't find these things interesting enough to report on.

I have to fly the plane in manual when I delve into leftist bizarro world..

Because the $hit is so deep I have to take evasive action often..

For fun let's change the names of the players and see how it goes..

Oh lets say we change Obama to Bush.. GE to Halliburton

I post the same article and should I expect to get the same response from the leftists?

Ha ha ha.. I doubt it..

How about those windfall profits taxes on the oil companies that the leftists were screaming for the last time oil was above $100?

Don't see much of that..

I am sure that Obama and Immlet are going to solve all these problems. They are going to work hard and make sure that all the money GE spends on beating the system is used for philanthropic enterprises like Obama's re election campaign or their trips to the golf course..

I get the point.. They spends millions of dollars to get out of paying income taxes..

If you are cool with that then so be it..

so what your saying is when the lefties do something, it is ok, and when the right does it, it is not ok?... why can't they all work together to make our country strong again? i understand they both have their agenda, but i think the agenda should be about what is best for the country and it's citizens, not how much they can pocket...

I know you think you're deeply wounding us liberals by insulting President Obama. He is not wildly popular with progressives, He has hired much of his cabinet and most of his advisors right off a wall street and big corporate America. do you really think this is OK with Progressives?

If we seem positive toward Obama it is only in contrast to the choices from the right. I would vote for Alvin Green before I would vote for any Conservative for any office.

My original post did not say "Obama and Artlo".

I know that not all leftists are hypocrites. Just most of them..

I know that you personally are in line with my views on NAFTA.

I get sick of reading about the evil rich man making $300,000 a year getting slammed by "elements" of the left saying they need to pay their fair share when companies like GE get a pass..

Immelt and Obama seem to have a cozy relationship..

So when he riles up the masses with his redistribution of wealth BS and hangs out with someone that is CEO of a company that purposely avoids paying income taxes I have a problem with that.

If that makes me a psycho right winger then I gladly accept your compliment.. hahaha

At his press briefing Friday afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked to square Mr. Obama's call for corporate tax reform with his embrace of Immelt. Asked if the story bothered the president, Carney responded that "he is bothered by what I think you're getting at, which is that Americans, I'm sure, who read that story or heard about it are wondering, you know -- you know, how this could be."

Carney went on to make the case for corporate tax reform, noting that companies pay "armies of tax lawyers to understand how it works and to take advantage of the various loopholes that exist."

He stressed, however, that he was "not addressing this specific company because I don't know independently about that." (According to the Times, "G.E.'s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world's best tax law firm.")

Carney was asked why, if the president wants corporate tax reform, he appointed "to the head of the Competitiveness and Jobs Council a person who is now the poster child for abusing the system to get out of paying taxes."

"The jobs and competitiveness council is designed for just that," Carney responded. "And he has brought together a lot of voices on that. And he wants to hear the opinions of every member of that council. And we have said, with regard to questions about other members who have been appointed, that the president obviously doesn't want a council of people who agree with him on every issue; he wants to hear diversity of opinion."

"In the end, the decisions that are made about which policy to pursue on corporate tax reform will be the president's decision and his policy," he added.

Carney said later that Mr. Obama continues to have faith in Immelt to run the council.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20047212-503544.html

get real... just because i don't like obama does not make me a republican... i didn't like bush either, so what does that make me?

are you sure, where is your proof?

How about I take both my wings, and give Invictus and Artlo a great big hug

hey... what about me? i don't get a hug?

That's correct. Everything the righties do is wrong and everything lefties do is right. (I don't know what you're talking about).

thats a lefty for ya...blame the right and move on... good work, you have my vote for lefty of the week

Not only do they avoid paying taxes they also received some bailout money too. The chairman and CEO of GE is buddies with Obama and made handsome campaign contributions so Hussein is just scratching Jeff Imelts back, all crooks do this.

fixed it for you....

lol

Alright, hug for you to then