Ethics

Goldman Sachs Pays 1% in Taxes

By Ed Brayton

Bloomberg news reports that Goldman Sachs, while getting billions of dollars from the government, paid only 1% in taxes in 2008 -- and they did so by shifting things around so most of their income would appear to have been made in other countries with lower corporate tax rates.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the U.S. government in October, expects to pay $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008 compared with $6 billion in 2007.

The company's effective income tax rate dropped to 1 percent from 34.1 percent, New York-based Goldman Sachs said today in a statement. The firm reported a $2.3 billion profit for the year after paying $10.9 billion in employee compensation and benefits.

Goldman Sachs, which today reported its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, lowered its rate with more tax credits as a percentage of earnings and because of "changes in geographic earnings mix," the company said.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).