The Fair Tax

[TrainTrac]

May 31, 2006 08:23 PM ET



G-E files 24-thousand page tax return



All Associated Press NewsWASHINGTON (AP) - Taxpayers who gripe about long returns have nothing on G-E, which filed a 24,000 page tax return this month.



The Internal Revenue Service says the company "stepped up and embraced" the new requirement for companies with over $50 million dollars in assets to file electronically.



If G-E had sent paper forms, the return would have stacked up eight feet high. Instead, it took up 237 megabytes.



A deputy commissioner for the I-R-S' large and mid-sized business division says "not all of the corporate sector has welcomed" e-filing. He says the I-R-S expects at least eleven-thousand of the biggest companies and maybe up to 20-thousand will file electronically.



G-E's senior tax counsel says it cost between a-half (m) million and a (m) million dollars to develop a system for electronic filing. But he says G-E will save "many (m) millions" by shifting from paper.





© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Boortz put this in perspective on his radio show and web site last week:

'War and Peace' is only 1,424 pages long. The full line of Atlanta telephone books is only 5,288 pages long. Do you have any idea how much it must have cost GE in terms of man-hours and direct expenses to prepare this 24,000 page tax return? GE is only one of millions of American corporations saddled with this burden year after year ... an every penny of the cost they incur is passed right down the line to the people who consume their products in the market place. Every penny.

Under the Fair Tax, GE's return would've been zero pages, because they would not have had to file a return.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Something to think about. The Tax's GE paid and paid to file never cost them a dime. We, the end consumer, pays the tax's and accountant fees in the cost of the goods.





Tom

 

[P M]

It can only be passed on to the consumer if the market allows them to price accordingly. In a competitive global market these costs can be difficult to pass on and remain competitive. It's a cost foreign companies do not have to factor in and thus makes it that much harder to be competitive in a global economy. Anyway you slice it, it's wasted money.



Tried to pick up this, or related, book, but nothing was available. Will continue to look at the stores and the library, or just break down and let my fingers do the ordering.



Big question is, who has the fortitude to make this type of reform happen?

 

[Tom Schindler]

It can only be passed on to the consumer if the market allows them to price accordingly. In a competitive global market these costs can be difficult to pass on and remain competitive. It's a cost foreign companies do not have to factor in and thus makes it that much harder to be competitive in a global economy. Anyway you slice it, it's wasted money.

Exactly my point. That is why Toyota has an advantage over Ford when it comes to making cars.Not only does Toyota not have many retired employees, but they don't have the coroporate tax burdon Ford and GM have. The is a big problem the US companies have in being competetive in a world economy. When countries like Germany refund the VAT tax charged to DCX on cars made there then shipped to the USA, but Ford building a car in the USA, then getting shipped to Germany does not get the same tax break. The USA tax's the building of the caar, so to speak, then once it gets to Germany, they tax it again. When a Mercedes, or VW, Audi, Porsche, etc. leaves Germany, it is un-tax's until it hits the shores of the USA.



Your library should have it there. Our Library has the Catalog online. I can reserve a book online and they pull it for me. I just stop in and pick it up.





Tom

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Who would be opposing this in a stronger way?

Corporations, politicians?

It sounds very reasonable, but I'm sure there are detractors with good reasonable points too... Just curious, I haven't had the chance to read the book, but I'm reading excerpts in Amazon.com

 

[Rich Stern]

Big question is, who has the fortitude to make this type of reform happen?

It's up to us, the American people. Not gonna be easy, but then again, neither was winning our independence from the British crown.

Who would be opposing this in a stronger way?

Corporations, politicians?

Most corporations will favor this. It removes big inefficiencies from doing business.



Politicians lose power and control with this. Most will try to torpedo it by inciting tax-class warfare.



Lawyers always lose economically when law is simplified. They will be against it. Same for most accountants, tax preparers. It's not in their best interest.

 

[P M]

Excuse me, Mr President, I have a bill here for you to sign...



I absolutely agree US companies are at a disadvantage. The only point I disagree with is that the cost to file taxes is not a burden to the company

The Tax's GE paid and paid to file never cost them a dime

. In a global economy they may not be to pass on the costs due to competition, thus leading to an advantage to foreign companies by making greater profit on an equally priced product. Dollars that could have been put to use in research, modernization, or enabled, lower more competitive prices is completely wasted. Bottom line, our tax system is broke and needs a repair truck to come along.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Lawyers always lose economically when law is simplified. They will be against it. Same for most accountants, tax preparers. It's not in their best interest.

Ironically, those are people most people don't like. Who really like a lawyer? Who like to pay someone to prepare your Tax's? Who really likes getting screwed by accoutnats?



It is a win-win for everyone.





Tom

 

[Dre L]

Okay, let's do it.