Johnston: America is GE's Tax Haven

Reuters, America Is GE's Tax Haven, by David Cay Johnston:

Washington politicians say high corporate tax rates are driving U.S. companies to invest offshore where tax rates are lower. But that is not General Electric's experience. GE's disclosures show that over the last decade it paid much lower tax rates in America than offshore, just the opposite of the Washington political mantra. Even more puzzling, the U.S. corporate giant chooses to take more of its profits in other lands despite the higher tax rates there.

Given that GE has a roughly 1,000-person tax department dedicated to paying as little as possible in taxes, what the disclosures show is that something other than tax policy is driving GE's business decisions. The law gives companies a great deal of latitude in deciding how to arrange where they report profits from multinational transactions. GE won't elaborate on why it takes so much of its profit in higher tax jurisdictions offshore.

From 2001 through 2010, GE's total American corporate tax burden averaged 9.4 percent of its profits in American corporate income taxes compared to its 17.9 percent foreign tax rate.