John Stewart said it, I give up...on America.

GE has 287,000 employees who all paid income tax on what GE was paying them. How much did Jon Stewart's show generate for taxes last year?

Yep, their EMPLOYEES paid taxes... not the corporation as it was supposed to.

The corporation did pay taxes, just not in the US. GE international made a profit last year, but domestically it lost $408 million. That's why the corporation didn't pay any US federal taxes.

Which has already been covered in this discussion - the point being the losses are strategically manipulated by GE to avoid paying the most tax. So no, the corporation did not pay its fair share of taxes.

Taxes aren't some kind of arbitrary penalty devised by schadenfreude-obsessed civil servants, they are a proven and effective mechanism for encouraging the successful to pay back into the communities that make them wealthy.

You can make it seem like that if you move money around with your accountants. How do you think NewsCorp did the same? Or anyone who has money and can pay for good accountants, for that matter?

Yes, smart people operating within the law usually do better than the dumb, uninformed ones. Is that your point?

You mean wealthy people who can afford to employ talented accountants and experts who can further increase their wealth for them by dodging their obligations to the rest of society?

That is no the behavior of a 'smart person' - that is the behavior of sociopath.

So, I'm guessing that you don't try to minimize the amount that you pay on your personal taxes?

Hell, you probably give the gov't a few extra dollars just for good will, right?

As an individual, you have to pay US taxes on income you make anywhere in the world. US citizens who live and work overseas pay federal income taxes to US on all income they make there. Why are corporations exempt from this?

What the fuck are you talking about? I hope you haven't been doing this because, if so, you should fire your accountant. It's called "Foreign Earned Income Exclusion."

And if you must know, foreign corporations (or at least in this case the foreign branches) are not under US law - criminal, civil, or tax law.

Here is a quote from IRS that took me 3 seconds to find:

If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/...

All US citizens pay federal taxes no matter where they live. In fact, there was a recent news story on how a number of our ex-pats married to foreigners and living overseas give up US citizenship (for German, French, UK, etc.) to avoid paying the taxes. Also: GE is not a foreign corporation.

Please, just stop. You obviously don't know anything about international tax laws or accounting. Yes, the rules are "generally the same" except for this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

THAT, is for individuals. You're right, GE is not foreign corporation - they are international and GE's foreign assets cannot be taxed directly by the US gov't. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. The products that come back into the US are charged trade tariffs, just like any other foreign company.

I admit that I didn't know about the exclusion the individuals get on the first 90K of their income. I admit that you know more about taxes than I do. The problem is that you are trying to use your knowledge to mislead people and cloud the issue.
So, let me see if I can prevent you from doing that using what I just learned from you:

First: an individual who is as successful as GE is as a corporation (as in: makes a lot more than 90K), still has to pay full taxes on the income over 90K. You knew that, and still you so easily rushed to state that GE doesn't have to pay taxes on ANY foreign income, simply because - it's foreign.

Second: I Googled a bit more, and (as expected) I found this advice given to people making money overseas: "Depending on the local laws wherever you wind up, you may do better to set up your business as a "company" there under the business rules and then set yourselves up as employees of the business." So, it's a pretty neat little trick: just be an "international corporation", and VOILA, you don't owe any (or so much) taxes, because, you see.. you are now INTERNATIONAL. Now, if you could please explain to me how does an individual become "international", then we can start talking about the rules being the same.

Finally, lets' make sure we keep the issue in focus here: GE has this international business, which oh so happens to be profitable, and a business here in US which oh so happens to be losing money, PRECISELY so that the whole thing can result in them paying as little in taxes as possible.

OK - FINE. We all do that. But, what we don't all do is invest money in lobbying to have laws changed into our favor even further, with disregard for the fact that (having in mind the level on which this is done) it adds up to a destructive detriment of the economy, and then on the top of that get accolades from the president of what a standout job we are doing for the country.

The fundamental issue that bothers everyone here is that we seem to be living in a "one dollar = one vote" system, and not in "one person = one vote" system (also known as democracy).

What a shock?!

I bet Viacom or Jon Stewart's production company (I'm assuming he has one) doesn't use lawyers to help find tax loopholes to save money...

You know why companies do this? Because they have to make money or at least break even, for the most part.

The government spends into oblivion with little fiscal responsibility, so they don't have to deal with the realities of the business world.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/in...

- For Viacom, 627.0million

without access to their books it would be impossible to see how much Jon Stewart's show affected this.

Your assertion that the government spends into oblivion with little fiscal responsibility is unfair to a great many departments and people that work under difficult conditions with a small fraction of the funds needed to fulfill their goals.

Agreed. GE received tax benefits though, hardly a loophole. The tax benefit is absolutely ludicrous. It certainly does pay to be "green" doesn't it?

It also pays for GE to throw pity millions @ Green projects to qualify for the billions in tax savings. Issue @ Gov't or corporate level? Who knows - I thought they're the same people anyway.

And conversely - Business tricks the people and in turn their gov't into spending themselves silly, indirectly catching the drips. Still doesn't mean they're dealing with the reality of business either.

I really wonder who's 'dealing with the reality' of business? The Family that just lost their publically-assisted heat, their only source of warmth for this year and probably next, or the c-team of GE getting $x billion in compensation. Both I would venture to guess.