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Video: When GE Pays No Taxes And Gets Billions In Benefits, Daily Show Is All WTF
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 29, 2011
Modified Mar 29, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 29, 2011
Modified Mar 29, 2011
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Last week, the NY Times published an outrageous article about how GE, with the help of its 975-employee tax department, paid no taxes, in spite of $14.2 billion in profits, over $5 billion made in the U.S. The Times added, "In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion." It's good to be rich, isn't it? You get to avoid paying taxes AND get VIP service from the NYPD. So, last night on the Daily News, Jon Stewart covered the matter in a segment called, "I Give Up," noting how GE has cut 20% of its American workforce while moving jobs overseas.
Stewart also complained how President Obama appointed GE head Jeffrey Immelt to be an economic adviser and looked at whether GE's own NBC covered the news:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cI Give Up - Pay Anything...www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook
Here's more from the NY Times story: "Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less. In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back."
Tagged
corporate welfare
daily show
ge
jeffrey immelt
president obama
tax benefit
taxes
video
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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