G.E. Paid No U.S. Taxes in 2010

General Electric paid no American taxes in 2010, the New York Times reports:

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

G.E.'s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, is considered Barack Obama's favorite businessman and serves as the head of the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Fred Barnes wrote about Immelt here.