From DailyTech: Tax day is an unpleastant observance for most ordinary Americans, but for a handful of corporate "people", it's a time of joy. A number of high-tech firms make this year's list of most fortunate of the Fortune 500 -- firms who will pay no taxes this year, according to a report by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), Xerox Corp. (XRX), Priceline Group Inc. (PCLN), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Corp. (PCG), Time Warner Inc. (TWX), CBS Corp. (CBS), JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU), and General Electric Comp. (GE) are among the high-tech corporate "citizens" to pay little or no taxes this year.
GE, for example, is scheduled to pay a mere 0.9 percent of its profits in taxes. Its annual profit stacks up at $5.8B USD. Over the past half decade GE has posted profits of $33.5B USD, all while cumulatively paying no taxes for the five year period. In fact, GE actually received a net refund of $1.4B USD over the last five year period.
How does GE do it? Well, analysts are pretty sure it has something to do with clever accounting based on the GE Capital unit. But to be honest even analysts aren't sure how GE managed to pay so very little. Deane Dray, an analyst with the Royal Bank of Canada's (TSE:RY) (RBC) Capital Markets unit told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview, "It's a bit of a black box."
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