GE Electronically Files the Mother of All Tax Returns -- 24,000 Pages!

[banana republican]

The IRS announced today (IR-2006-84) that General Electric (GE), which has the dubious honor of having "the nation’s largest tax return," filed it electronically this year on May 18:

On paper, GE’s e-filed return would have been approximately 24,000 pages long. After filing, GE received IRS’ acknowledgement of its filing in about an hour. The file was 237 MB....

<SNIP>

GE must have a heckuva broadband connection!


http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/05/ge_electronical.html

[Deja Q]

1. They'll want the tax code simplified too...

[stepnw1f]

2. The Super Rich Pay Taxes...? LOL

fuck them all

[LiberalEsto]

3. Oh, to be an accountant on their payroll! nt

[aquart]

4. Never mind the filing. Did it accompany a check?

Or was it just a 24,000 page excuse for ripping off the nation?

[TahitiNut]

5. 23,996 pages of tax credits ("corporate welfare")

:evilgrin:

[Selatius]

7. Unfortunately, you're not far off the mark

The reason the tax code is labyrinthian is because of so many shelters, credits, exemptions, and other gimmicks written into the code over the decades since the first income tax was passed. Many of them benefit big business.

[TahitiNut]

8. I know. I was a corporate internal auditor (for 6 years).

While I wasn't tax or accounting, I (an operational audit/analysis principal) was involved in preparation of S.E.C. filings, annual and quarterly reports, and some of the underlying tax stuff when necessary. At 2 different Fortune 50 companies, the number of different tax credits and benefits was incredible. General Electric, however, is yet another story. There's no company more detailed and controlled in its various businesses and products than GE. They're in another league completely when it comes to complexity. Their general ledger must be enormous.

[jmowreader]

6. It was that small?

I'm not trying to be a contrarian. We're talking General Electric. This company makes everything from light bulbs to locomotives with a few nuclear reactors and jet engines thrown in for good measure.

[MazeRat7]

9. Sheesh.. I can download 237MB in under an hour.

Point in case the Fedora Core 4 Linux distro. It consists of 4 ISO CD disk each just under 740MB... It took one evening (from like 6-midnight) to download and burn the 4 cd's using a roadrunner connection.

That aside, I am really surprised that the tax return for a company like GE is actually that small.

MZr7

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. GE only has an AOL dialup account.

[e-mail].

I think the CEO's email is [e-mail]. His profile is turned off, though.