GE Avoids Taxes?

[Geee]

National Review:


April 15 looms like a specter at this time of year, casting a pall over the forsythia and daffodils coaxing us to be cheerful. Like a sick child who longs to play outside on a sunny day but must remain confined, we itemizers are chained to desks or dining-room tables littered with receipts, calendars, checkbook registers, and credit-card statements for the annual spring ordeal.

Not that we file our own taxes. No, like 71 percent of Americans (according to Rasmussen), and like the overwhelming majority of members of Congress, including those on tax-writing committees, we pay someone else to prepare our taxes. The pencil-chewing, dining-room-table tribulation is merely the necessary antecedent to the actual preparation of a tax return by a professional.

The April 15 deadline predisposes one to sympathize with all other harassed taxpayers, so when the New York Times lambasted General Electric for paying no federal income tax, it occasions a second look.
“General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010,” reported the Times. “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.”