GE antes up to IRS

After maintaining the second lowest net federal income tax of any corporation in the country, General Electric Co.”™s effective tax swung to 11.3 percent in 2011, according to a new report.

Between 2008 and 2010, Fairfield-based GE had a minus 45.3 percent federal income tax rate, according to calculations by Citizens for Tax Justice. GE”™s low taxes stem mainly from its GE Capital subsidiary based in Norwalk, which Citizens for Tax Justice said generates profits but also huge tax “losses” that reduce GE”™s taxable income from its other operations.

GE generated $10.6 billion in tax subsidies over four years, Citizens for Tax Justice reported.

Despite GE”™s higher tax rate in 2011, the Washington, D.C.-based group estimates the company still has one of the two most advantageous tax rates in the country at minus 18.9 percent, even as GE CEO Jeff Immelt chairs a White House panel on jobs and competitiveness.

Pepco Holdings, an energy company based in Washington, D.C., had the lowest effective tax rate at minus 39.5 percent. No other Connecticut-based company was included on the list of the 30 companies with the lowest tax rates, which as a group reported profits of $200 billion.

“These big, profitable corporations are continuing to shift their tax burden onto average Americans,” said Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, in a prepared statement. “This isn”™t fair to the rest of us, it makes no economic sense, and it”™s part of the reason our government is running huge budget deficits.”