Comments on: Tops

By: Does Wal-Mart want your child to read?

Does Wal-Mart want your child to read? — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:12:22 +0000

[...] is the largest corporation in America, according to Fortune 500. According to Good Jobs First, Wal-Mart recently posted earnings of $350 billion in annual revenue [...]

By: FinanceGuy

FinanceGuy — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:14:40 +0000

The comparison is a little problematic. We don’t really know what sort of losses these companies carried over from 2001-2003 when calculating their 2004 taxes, without going back to the 10-Ks. Another problem is that this is reporting federal taxes. You can offset foreign taxes paid with federal taxes owed, up to the federal tax rate. Finally, this is reporting taxes paid based on accounting computations. Actual taxes paid are likely to be different, which is how deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities come about.

By: drtaxsacto

drtaxsacto — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:28:01 +0000

I am not sure what the significance is here. The corporate structure among the 10 is different. Some like big tobacco are taxed heavily. Others like the autos have had a lousy couple of years.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:58:25 +0000

I’m curious to hear how they can do that as well. Is Ford not on the top 10 tax payer list because they loose money?

By: Tax Geek

Tax Geek — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:13:13 +0000

It’s interesting when companies that are mostly domestic have effective rates less then the 35% Fed rate. Generally, I’d expect to see these companies with an effective rate of 39-42% depending on the states they’re in. The international ones are likely achieving these rates by sheltering income in lower/no tax jurisdictions. B of A and Berkshire seem low to me, Chevron seems abnormally high, particularly compared to Exxon.