G.E.‘s American Tax Bill: $0.00

Its American tax bill? $0.00.

[NYT excerpt] That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.

G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion in 2010.