Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.
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.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.

http://www.smokershistory.com/Salk.htm
Excerpt:

Andrew F. Brimmer

Member of the Federal Reserve Board, 1966-1974; President of Brimmer & Co. since 1976; director of Airborne Express, American Security Bank, BankAmerica Corp., BlackRock Investment Income Trust, Carr Realty Corp., Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., The Gannett Co., International Harvester, Mercedes-Benz of North America, Navistar International, PHH Corp., and United Airlines. He was a trustee of the Ford Foundation, a hotbed of anti-smoking activism, from 1974 to at least 1976.
Brimmer was a director of E.I. DuPont de Nemours from 1974 to 1997. Fellow Salk Institute trustee Edgar M. Bronfman was a director from 1981 to 1995, and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly has been a director since 1993 .