NY Times Lost Their Way

Losing Our Way

According to the NY times, GE pays no taxes. Let’s do the math, shall we?

GE Employees number around 300,000 who pay taxes. Assuming their average pay is say $30k, and depending on the state we pay at least 50% of our income in various taxes, 300,000 employees X $30,000 X .5 = $4.5 BILLION in taxes.

GE stocks pay dividends to perhaps 100 million shareholders who pay taxes. There are $13.5 Billion shares, and GE pays $0.14 per share per quarter, or 56 cents per year per share X 13,500,000,000 = $7.56 Billion paid to shareholders of which at least 50% will eventually go to government. So that’s at least $3.78 Billion in taxes.

That’s $8.28 Billion in tax revenue generated by GE per year.

Taxing the corporation itself only cuts the corporation’s ability to pay dividends to shareholders and salary to employees, and or increases the price of products and services. This just passes the tax on to the consumers, of course, but businesses have to do that. All taxes on business are merely hidden taxes paid by their customers.

And who are the shareholders of GE? They are mostly investment funds of various sorts, owned by millions of Americans with 401Ks, etc. They are primarily working people and retirees, not mega-rich Wall Street pencil pushers.

If we take the twisted ideas of the leftist radicals like the NY Times and place heavy taxes on companies like GE, they’ll pay less to employees, less to share holders, and charge more to consumers. GE’s profits will remain the same unless the taxes run them entirely out of business. Either way, the tax bill paid by GE would likely be the same or less than government would cease to get from the shareholders and employees. And with higher prices of the goods and services, there would be decreased sales, fewer employees. And with lower dividends, a lower stock value, which would also hurt investers, including retirees and working people.

The NY Times should have their people learn economics before attempting to critique it.

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