Again, I'm just speaking for myself personally, not on behalf of my employer. My issue with the article was that I felt like it focused on Google when a broader perspective on corporate tax rates would have been more helpful.
Not to discredit Matt or his point, but I think the illustration of percentages does very little in illuminating valid points when it comes to taxation because most people don't understand the mechanisms and the theory behind tax law at this level.
I agree with Matt that the focus on Google is unfair, but the use of these one off statistics without an in depth review of the companies named above for the last 10 years is also unfair (Yes it takes a review of the past 10 years to establish a proper understanding of a company's tax position).
But, I will qualify that GE has an amazing tax team and the oil and gas industries are a beastly at lobbying.
The reason why people single Google out is because you act like you do no wrong... See the article quote: "flying a banner of doing no evil, and then they're perpetrating evil under our noses"
You are like an in the closet politician that is against gay marriage.
I did a little searching, and http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/27/us-microsoft-tax-i... says that in their last fiscal years,
- Microsoft had an overall effective worldwide tax rate of 17.5%.
- Google's effective tax rate was 21%.
- Apple's effective tax rate was 24%.
- IBM's effective tax rate was 25%.
Then with a bit more digging into (independent Senator from Vermont) Bernie Sanders' twitter feed, I saw:
- General Electric had an effective tax rate of -45.3% from 2008 to 2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132791467994386...
- ExxonMobil had an effective tax rate of -38.3% in 2009: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132835853536989...
- Merck had an effective tax rate of -1% in 2009: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132927696131985...
- Boeing had an effective tax rate of -1.8% in 2008-2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132973012763938...
- Verizon had an effective tax rate of -5.4% in 2009 and 2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132944059814785...
Again, I'm just speaking for myself personally, not on behalf of my employer. My issue with the article was that I felt like it focused on Google when a broader perspective on corporate tax rates would have been more helpful.