Bank of America Pays No Taxes, Gets $1B Refund: Report

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America (BAC) will pay no Federal taxes for 2010, instead receiving a refund of $1 billion, the Charlotte Observer pointed out in an article published Friday.

The bank told the newspaper the reason is that the bank lost $5.4 billion before taxes in 2010.

Nonetheless, a group called U.S. Uncut has been protesting at Bank of America branches around the U.S. and also at Bank of America's investor conference earlier this month.

As TheStreet has pointed out in a series of articles, many banks and financial companies, as well as others that racked up big losses during the crisis will not be paying taxes for several years, even after they become profitable.

Both TheStreet and prominent hedge fund investor Bill Ackman have highlighted Citigroup(C) as one prominent example of a company that will pay no taxes for years to come. Others include Regions Financial (RF)Synovus(SNV), CIT Group(CIT), AIG(AIG) and General Motors(GM).

Indeed, one of the big advantages of GM's acquisition of AmeriCredit is that the car company will be able to "carry forward" its losses to shelter the profits of AmeriCredit, creating an estimated $3-5 billion windfall.

-- Written by Dan Freed in New York.

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