Survey: Corporate financial officers see imbalance in effective tax rates

The survey comes not long after The New York Times reported that General Electric had paid no taxes on its $14.2 billion in 2010 worldwide profits. G.E. has signaled that its comparatively low tax bill was caused by losses from its financial arm and not because of tax avoidance efforts.

The financial officers also agreed with a wide range of policymakers that the U.S. corporate tax system needs a face lift. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents said the tax code was in such disarray that it needed a complete revamping, while 47 percent said it was flawed and needed reform. 

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A variety of Washington officials are working on or pushing for tax reform, but questions such as how comprehensive an overhaul to seek still remain. 

More details about the survey will be in the June issue of CFO. Just over one in four of the financial officers who spoke with the magazine represented companies with $1 billion or more in yearly revenues. More than four in 10 came from businesses with between $100 million and $1 billion, and roughly 3 in 10 worked for outfits with under $100 million in revenues.