by John Byrne
Bank takes $10 billion bailout, then cuts tax rate 33 percent
Say you got a ten billion dollar loan to shore up your finances, and you paid your employees $10.9 billion, and you raked in $2.3 billion for the year.
What would you say you owed in taxes? One percent?
That's what you'd pay if you were Goldman Sachs, Inc. The high-flying brokerage -- and former home of Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- has announced it's paying just $14 million in taxes this year.
Last year, their tax bill was $6 billion, or 34.1 percent. That represents a year-over-year tax rate drop of 33.1 percent, and an actual percentage drop of 97 percent.
Goldman attributed its lower tax rate to "more tax credits as a percentage of earnings" and "changes in geographic earnings mix."
Tax accounting advisor Robert Willens told Bloomberg News the rate drop seems "a little extreme."
"I was definitely taken aback," Willens told the business wire. "Clearly they have taken steps to ensure that a lot of their income is earned in lower-tax jurisdictions."
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Goldman_Sachs_tax_rate_drops_to_1218.html
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