GE: $0 U.S. Tax bill... - WTF?

[-Cp]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/index.htm

[Mr. P]

"That's one way of escaping taxes," said Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. "Companies get to deduct their losses, so if there's no earnings, then they pay no income tax."

But GE isn't exactly escaping all tax-related pain: The company paid almost $23 billion in taxes to governments around the world from 2000 to 2009, Eisele said.

Plus, paying the accountants to crank out 7,000 tax returns can't be cheap.

And then there's all the lawyers needed to defend those returns. GE filed tax paperwork in more than 250 jurisdictions around the world last year. "We are under examination or engaged in tax litigation in many of these jurisdictions," the company dryly notes in its annual report.

GE may not owe the IRS, but it still has to file -- and its filings are epic.

This is a perfect example of how the Fair tax would benefit this Country. It would eliminate the 35% corp tax and all associated costs. Companies from around the world would flood this country employing most EVERYONE.

[pete311]

They lost $408 million in the US. How do you pay taxes on money you lost? They payed plenty of taxes, unfortunately it was to other countries. That's just the way business works. You want a company to be taxed twice? Be prepared for much higher priced goods then. That MRI machine just went from $2 million to $3 million. Guess what, your health care just increased too.

fyi, fair tax will not likely come to fruition because it will kill an already hurting US car industry.