Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The other Murdoch story...

Fox News hosts castigated GE (parent company of NBC) for paying no taxes. The castigation, in this instance, was warranted. But what about Rupert Murdoch?
Over the past four years Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp. has made money on income taxes. Having earned $10.4 billion in profits, News Corp. would have been expected to pay $3.6 billion at the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Instead, it actually collected $4.8 billion in income tax refunds, all or nearly all from the U.S. government.
Did that sink in? News Corp should have paid $3.6 billion. Instead, the gummint paid News Corp $4.8 billion.

2 comments:

Mr. Mike said...

News Corp get to take a deduction for every idiot they hire and put on the air at Fox or allow near a word processor at the print news facilities. It's part of the government's Hire a Lunatic Initiative.

Mazoola said...

Alas, the Reuter's columnist made a mistake in his interpretation of News Corp's financials. It actually paid $4.8 billion in taxes on $10.4 billion profit for 2007 – 2010. Doesn't mean they're any less scum — well, I guess claiming $4.8 billion in tax breaks and credits would actually make them even scummier than they already are, but even without the tax scam they are plenty scummy.