GE Profits up 77 Percent; Pays No Federal Income Tax; CEO is Administration's Economic Czar

Update

Link here.

General Electric, one of the largest corporations in America, filed a whopping 57,000-page federal tax return earlier this year but didn't pay taxes on $14 billion in profits. The return, which was filed electronically, would have been 19 feet high if printed out and stacked.


The fact that GE paid no taxes in 2010 was widely reported earlier this year, but the size of its tax return first came to light when House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R, Wisc.) made the case for corporate tax reform at a recent townhall meeting. "GE was able to utilize all of these various loopholes, all of these various deductions--it's legal," Ryan said. Nine billion dollars of GE's profits came overseas, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. tax law. GE wasn't taxed on $5 billion in U.S. profits because it utilized numerous deductions and tax credits, including tax breaks for investments in low-income housing, green energy, research and development, as well as depreciation of property.

I don't have a lot of problem with depreciation of property -- that's pretty standard, but the oil companies, and GE, have really made an art of investing in money-losing green energy projects: not only do they lose money providing for one way to offset income elsewhere, they get grants, subsidies, etc. in the process, and it's great advertising/marketing PR.GE's CEO is the administration's economic czar; the president's learning curve is probably straight up. Even community organizers don't do this well.

Original Post

Except for the earnings numbers, which just came out this morning, the rest of this has been reported earlier. I was just surprised by the earnings report for GE. Very, very impressive. And even more impressive knowing GE didn't pay any federal income tax for 2010, if I remember correctly.

Profits top expectations.

I can see why the GE/CEO is the administration's economic czar. Anybody who can make that kind of money and not pay federal income taxes gets your attention.

Link here.