ExxonMobil paid no federal income tax in 2009. General Electric owed nothing to Uncle Sam

thinkprogress.org...

Quote from source:

Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. "Most egregious," Forbes notes, is General Electric, which "generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion." Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS:

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

Mother Jones' Adam Weinstein notes that, despite benefiting from corporate welfare in the U.S., Exxon complains about paying high taxes, claiming that it threatens energy innovation research. Pat Garofalo at the Wonk Room notes that big corporations' tax shelter practices similar to Exxon's shift a $100 billion annual tax burden onto U.S. taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found that "two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005."

Seriously?! How does a couple of the biggest companies in the world pay no tax? Yet all the 'normal people' who work hard everyday and make but a fraction of what they do pay upwards of 50% tax?

What a weird world we live in that is so dominated by the corporation. It's sad.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

As my tax consultant likes to say, "It's legal to AVOID taxes, but not to EVADE taxes." Of course when your a massive corporate conglomerate, you can buy off government officials and write your own tax rules.

If you think their corruption is bad here in the US, imagine what it must be like in tiny island nations they use as tax shelters.

reply to post by predator0187


Not only did they not pay any taxes....

Yours and my tax dollars were used to pay subsidies to ALL the oil companies.

www.treehugger.com...

It always astonishes me that the GOP conservatives don't see this as a type of socialism for big oil. Never a complaint about their taxes going to pay to make the rich, even richer. Puts their ideological agenda in perspective, don't you think?

That's our money that can be used to pay for teachers and other public works.

how do we let them get away with this crap.

It's funny you don't see any of this on CNN.

Who owns CNN again? GE, isn't it?

You don't see it on the GOP mouthpiece Fox News either, and who keeps the GOP on a short leash? Exxon Mobil.

They are getting away with murder.

Time to return the favor, in spades.

reply to post by whaaa


I agree. I just do not get how it is possible to get away with this. This just says that money can buy anything. They make more money than all of the working class people of the country and then they end up paying no taxes.

So strange.

Pred...

reply to post by VictorVonDoom

Who owns CNN again? GE, isn't it?

GE owns NBC. Oil companies....who sticks up for them?? HMMMM.

Looks like this kick in the groin hit both nuts of our political system.

But anyway...CORPORATIONS ARE OUR FRIENDS!!!! This is why the media is so awesome all the time.

NO TARIFFS? NO PROBLEM!!!

well I guess The Federal Reserve, Wall Street
and the US Government are not
the only ones cooking the books

seriously, most times the tax is not on
the corporation but on the dividends
of the stockholders.

Add to this that we are deficit spending Trillions.

Meaning we are robbing unborn American babies of the economic prosperity before they take their first breath,

So these freeloaders can use OUR highways, OUR legal system, OUR police, all of OUR taxpayer funded infrastructure.

You are carrying these vile, inhuman, parasites on your already suffering backs.

So they have more lobbyist government hijacking money to buy off the US government.

You pay the taxes, but corporations get represented.

Taxation without representation is Tyranny,

more specifically,

CORPORATE TYRANNY.

Time for revolution,
Peaceful or violent,
WHATEVER it takes.

[edit on 14-4-2010 by slank]

Call your congress people & raise holy freaking PAINFUL hell with them.

do it now, do it today, & tomorrow, & the next day, . . . until it changes.

The painfully squeaky wheel is the first one to get the grease.

Make it hurt.

reply to post by phukme



I like the way you think.
Wish we all could have a chance to screw the corporations in kind !

Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by VictorVonDoom

 

Who owns CNN again? GE, isn't it?

GE owns NBC.

Comcast owns NBC now.

Not that it matters.

When are the conservative republicans going to show up to defend corporations? You know, cause "america has the highest corporate tax rate," and "we need to stay competitive," and "unions are bad for business," and "let the free market figure it out."

Hrm.. Well, maybe if nobody will defend corporations here, I'll just have to turn on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh and get it from there.

Cheers.

reply to post by Pathogen

Comcast owns NBC now. Not that it matters.

You're right...it really doesn't matter...and I actually didn't know Comcast bought NBC.

The big corporations control all of the media...corporations will soon be profiting from other corporations who slander politicians with ads...as it is now legal thanks to the supreme court.

YET people here were saying it was a victory for free speech....RIGHT!!!!!

Most of our politicians should be wearing patches for their corporate sponsors on their suits....just as they do in NASCAR.

Actually this was on CNBC today, I saw it, but not that this thread is about that. But this was on MSM just to clear things up. They had someone arguing on both sides but I wasn't really paying attn.

reply to post by Kaytagg

When are the conservative republicans going to show up to defend corporations? You know, cause "america has the highest corporate tax rate," and "we need to stay competitive," and "unions are bad for business," and "let the free market figure it out."

Yeah...that will happen. They defended the health insurance industry and big pharma on HCR ....EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW OBAMA CUT DEALS WITH THEM LONG BEFORE THE BILL WAS EVER PASSED.

The Republican party lies....they loved the bill...and it's certainly not Socialism...it's Corporatism.