“I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, Exxon

“I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America. That means somebody is gaming the system.”

This article at ThinkProgress sums up nicely the growing disconnect between main street and wall street. I've heard about how the poor pay more taxes than the rich but I never seen it summed up like this:

• BANK OF AMERICA: In 2009, Bank of America didn’t pay a single penny in federal income taxes, exploiting the tax code so as to avoid paying its fair share. “Oh, yeah, this happens all the time,” said Robert Willens, a tax accounting expert interviewed by McClatchy. “If you go out and try to make money and you don’t do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?” asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice. The same year, the mega-bank’s top executives received pay “ranging from $6 million to nearly $30 million.”
  
  
• BOEING: Despite receiving billions of dollars from the federal government every single year in taxpayer subsidies from the U.S. government, Boeing didn’t “pay a dime of U.S. federal corporate income taxes” between 2008 and 2010.
  
  
• CITIGROUP: Citigroup’s deferred income taxes for the third quarter of 2010 amounted to a grand total of $0.00. At the same time, Citigroup has continued to pay its staff lavishly. “John Havens, the head of Citigroup’s investment bank, is expected to be the bank’s highest paid executive for the second year in a row, with a compensation package worth $9.5 million.”
  
  
• EXXON-MOBIL: The oil giant uses offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Although Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, not a penny of those taxes went to the American Treasury. This was the same year that the company overtook Wal-Mart in the Fortune 500. Meanwhile the total compensation of Exxon-Mobil’s CEO the same year was over $29,000,000.
  
  
• GENERAL ELECTRIC: In 2009, General Electric — the world’s largest corporation — filed more than 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing to U.S. government. They managed to do this by a tax code that essentially subsidizes companies for losing profits and allows them to set up tax havens overseas. That same year GE CEO Jeffery Immelt — who recently scored a spot on a White House economic advisory board — “earned total compensation of $9.89 million.” In 2002, Immelt displayed his lack of economic patriotism, saying, “When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China….I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to 5 billion.”
  
  
• WELLS FARGO: Despite being the fourth largest bank in the country, Wells Fargo was able to escape paying federal taxes by writing all of its losses off after its acquisition of Wachovia. Yet in 2009 the chief executive of Wells Fargo also saw his compensation “more than double” as he earned “a salary of $5.6 million paid in cash and stock and stock awards of more than $13 million.”

Full article: thinkprogress.org...

reply to post by ayoss


Poor corporations. No wonder they have to flee America. We tax them so heavily, and the cost of labor and everything is so unreasonable they simply cant make a profit.

Never had it so good How much longer can corporate America keep on delivering bumper increases in profits?

The current profit-reporting season is shaping up to be one of the best ever. For non-financial firms in the S&P 500, earnings per share are now higher than they have been for at least a decade. With over half of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported, profits in 2010 were up by 17% compared with 2009. (The year-on-year increase is far greater if financial firms are included, since they plunged in 2009 and then rebounded spectacularly.)

Nice post. I recently read an article where the similar thing in Britain is occurring. I don't think the average Joe recognizes how the system works here in the US. For the average Joe, things are still left/right. And that's not be attempting to sound superior, just stating the paradigm where the average Joe is stuck. Obviously, those of us on the journey have come to learn of these energy wasting eddies intended to capture the average Joe's attention for the obvious misdirect.

The issue I think is at heart here, other than the obvious gross BS reality you've identified here, is who the hell is writing the laws in this country? Who the hell is approving them? Obviously, it is Wall Street and Corporate America lobbying folk, using corrupt politicians to allow these mega-corporations do this BS. Anyway, nice thread.

While other ATS members, myself included, are posting more and more on this corporate fascism, I don't think we can strive hard enough to keep this issue present in the minds of members here and about us.

By the way, where the hell did you get a dollar?

Reference to Banks in England:
www.telegraph.co.uk...
www.express.co.uk...
news.carrentals.co.uk...

reply to post by ayoss

Yea and GM has reprted profits!! YeeHaw!!
they took @47 billion bailout, denied share holders due monies etc...
recieved @4 billion for green cars initiative
recieved @14 billion tax break.
So that is @65 billion still outstanding, and you turned a profit...needs an * and some footnotes.

They are basically government owned, look at who the major stockholders are...

reply to post by ayoss


"I pledge allegiance, to the United Corporations of America, and to the oil, from desert sands. One nation under Fahd, so despicable, with no liberty, and injustice for all"

It is so vile that these corporations that make billions of dollars pay no federal taxes. Exxon alone made 18 billion dollars in profits the past fiscal year. Surely we can do better as a country.

reply to post by ayoss


Most of that is very wrong, except the banks which well.. technically it would have been impossible for them to pay taxes in 2009, as they were recording massive losses? no profit, no taxes.

Exxon however, when that article was written, had not even filed taxes for 2009 yet.

What the financial statement says is that ExxonMobil, in 2009, after a handful of deferrals, recorded a total U.S. income tax benefit (i.e., a refund) of $46 million. Next to this, it shows total non-U.S. income taxes of $15.165 billion.

PS, this article I'm quoting was the guy who originally wrote the official article that your source is sourcing.

So it says Exxon was paid by the US Gov $46m for OVERPAID taxes, and $15b in non-us based taxes.

My mistake was in thinking that these figures somehow reflected actual tax benefits and liabilities.

Research sucks, I know..

Our article only focused on income taxes, but it’s worth noting that the 10-k also records $7.7 billion in other taxes in the U.S. (like sales taxes) and more than $50 billion of other taxes and duties paid (I mean recorded) overseas.

Corporate laws do not regulate a company say how much they "overpaid" in taxes, only what outstanding tax liabilities it owes..

blogs.forbes.com...

For the impossibility: If oil companies like Exxon, paid no taxes at all.. it raises a unusual anomoly in our Tax system... Why? Because after the Federal Income Tax, oil companies are the next largest source of income.

The main reason Exxon has a low tax bill is that the majority of it's taxes come in the form of royalties, local taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, and land usage taxes/fees. In the end, they had a profit of $35billion and a tax bill of $15billion, and a Federal refund of $45m

From 2003 to 2007, Exxon's earnings grew by 89%, while income taxes grew by 170%. Much of that growth was overseas. Oil-producing countries charge companies like Exxon dearly to dig for oil. Arrangements vary from country to country, but Russia and Libya charge companies up to 90% of the revenues they collect for extracting oil, according to Fadel Gheit, senior analyst for Oppenheimer (OPY). These arrangements—whether production share agreements or royalty contracts—are not disclosed by companies and governments.

In tax terms, the U.S. government is kinder to oil companies. According to Securities & Exchange Commission filings, Exxon paid an effective tax rate of 34% to the U.S. government in 2007, or $5.12 billion. While cheaper than rates from some foreign governments, it's still a higher rate than many U.S. companies pay.

www.businessweek.com...

Average corporate tax rate in the US is 26%