![\"exxon-mobil\"](\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/exxon-mobil.jpg\" "\\"exxon-mobil\\"")
The joke goes, The economy is so bad Exxon Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.\u00a0 If only.<\/p>\nThe joke goes, The economy is so bad Exxon Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.\u00a0 If only.<\/p>\n
Turns out the economy is never really bad for the oil giant, and the last thing they would want to do is cut off support to members of Congress who allow them to pull off the remarkable trick of making $45 billion in profits last year but paying no federal income tax.\u00a0 Think Progress reports<\/a> the stunning news, which, sadly, is not a Steve Martin routine:<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Last week, Forbes magazine published<\/a> what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. \u201cMost egregious,\u201d Forbes notes, is General Electric, which \u201cgenerated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.\u201d Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit<\/a>, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS<\/a>:<\/p>\n Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Mother Jones\u2019 Adam Weinstein notes<\/a> that, despite benefiting from corporate welfare in the U.S., Exxon complains about paying high taxes, claiming that it threatens energy innovation research. Pat Garofalo at the Wonk Room notes<\/a> that big corporations\u2019 tax shelter practices similar to Exxon\u2019s shift a $100 billion annual tax burden onto U.S. taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found that \u201ctwo out of every three<\/a> United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Media Matters adds<\/a>:<\/p>\n Even though Exxon doesn’t contribute anything to the federal government, it spends millions of dollars trying to control it.\u00a0 According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Exxon Mobil spent a whopping $27,430,000<\/a> on lobbying in 2009 alone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Oh, and you’ll be delighted to know that, as the Financial Times<\/em> reports<\/a> today “ExxonMobil, the world\u2019s largest international oil company, has agreed to pay the US government $32.2m in a settlement to resolve claims that it knowingly underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and native American leases, the justice department said on Monday.”<\/p>\n Someday, ExxonMobilShellChevronConocoPhilips will be one big company making tens of billions of dollars in profit, while paying no federal income taxes and spending millions spreading disinformation aimed at keeping us addicted to their toxic product.<\/p>\n\n
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And if this reminds you of an old Steve Martin joke — then you are right.\u00a0 From