Original Post
August 1, 2011
Morning Report (news roundup)
By Brian Lambert
By now, we know that a fact-based discussion of taxes is nearly impossible, given the split between the “reality-based” world and the other one. But U of M Economics professor C. Edward Runge drops in some familiar but useful statistics in a Strib commentary: “In June, Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington watchdog group, released a partial list from a major forthcoming study of effective tax rates paid by Fortune 500 companies. The 12 corporations analyzed were American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon, Wells Fargo and Yahoo. From 2008 through 2010, these companies together reported $171 billion in pretax profits, but as a group, their federal income taxes were a negative $2.5 billion. In other words, they were collectively subsidized. Eight of these firms reported negative taxes, including Minnesota's Honeywell International, with three-year profits of $4.9 billion and federal taxes of a negative $34 million. Wells Fargo, with $49 billion in profits, received a net tax benefit of $681 million. GE was the largest net negative taxpayer from 2008-2010, with $7.7 billion in profits and $4.7 billion in negative taxes.”