Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010

By MICHAEL ALLEN

Tokyo

Regarding Stephen Hesse's July 25 column, "Wherefore art thou, corporate social responsibility?": I know that Hesse is not the author, but I just wanted to set the record straight about the claim he cited that Exxon Mobil did not pay U.S. income taxes for 2009. As of July 2, Exxon Mobil has made more than $1.3 billion in estimated payments toward its 2009 and 2010 federal income tax liability.

In fact, Exxon Mobil is one of the largest taxpayers in the United States with income and other tax expenses totaling more than $60 billion over the past five years. I suspect that the claim of tax avoidance may be based on a misreading of Exxon Mobil's financial statements in its Form 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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