Tax Policy

US income in billions.

Interesting. GE finally paid some taxes.

Did our extremists in Washington forget to mention how little corporations were actually paying due to loopholes and other tax avoidance schemes? Yes. It is called cherry picking. They cited the 35% corporate tax. But forgot to mention how little corporate America really paid. I believe that actual number was somewhere just above or below 20%.

Companies who hire more bean counters and less product innovators tend to have least taxes. GE had a 400 man corporate office just to manipulate spread sheets so that GE paid no taxes in many years.

When was the last time in thirty years that GE made an innovative product (other than in their aircraft engine division)?

I don't know anything about most of those companies, but I know a fair bit about the financial comings and goings of Activision Blizzard--they paid negative federal tax this year because they also lost a shit ton of money on games that didn't pan out as expected. Compare it to their year-over-year tax rate, and the picture becomes a little more reasonable:

Dec 31 2018..........3.41 %
Dec 31 2017..........76.28 %
Dec 31 2016..........12.66 %
Dec 31 2015..........20.43 %
Dec 31 2014..........14.88 %

Can't say whether the same is true of the other companies. And I don't know that a 5-year average of 25.5% is necessarily high enough, or low enough, or anything. But I doubt anyone would say they got off easy in 2017.

Griff;1031734 wrote:

US income in billions.

Really? Billions??

xoxoxoBruce;1031794 wrote:

Really? Billions??

Nope. I messed that up.

Millions, billions, what's a few decimal places among friends.

It always pays to CYA with a link to the source though.

Don't want to give the Republicans more fake news to squawk about.

Just millions makes many of those numbers Billions.

Fake news isn't a necessary ingredient for people to squawk about fake news.

xoxoxoBruce;1031843 wrote:

Just millions makes many of those numbers Billions.

But billions makes many of those numbers trillions which fakes their significance A THOUSANDFOLD!

BigV;1032170 wrote:

Fake news isn't a necessary ingredient for people to squawk about fake news.

OTOH, when there's fake news to squawk about, who needs fake squawking[SIZE="3"]⸮[/SIZE]