Murdoch’s U.S. tax savvy

Original Link: http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0711/Murdochs_US_tax_savvy.html

By Keach Hagey

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. actually made money in taxes last year, according to David Cay Johnston in his debut column for Reuters.

Over the past four years, Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp. has made money on income taxes. Having earned $10.4 billion in profits, News Corp. would have been expected to pay $3.6 billion at the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Instead, it actually collected $4.8 billion in income tax refunds, all or nearly all from the U.S. government.

This kind of maneuvering is not particularly unusual for a company, Johnston notes.

Many other companies may follow similar practices, but most of corporate America doesn't own one of the country's most powerful newspaper editorial pages.