GE files 24,000-page tax return

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayers who gripe about long returns have nothing on G.E., which filed a 24,000-page tax return this month.

The Internal Revenue Service says the company "stepped up and embraced" the new requirement for companies with over $50-million in assets to file electronicllay.

If G.E. had sent paper forms, the return would have stacked up eight feet high. Instead, it took up 237 megabytes.

A deputy commissioner for the I.R.S' large and mid-sized business division says "not all of the corporate sector has welcomed" e-filing. He says the I.R.S expects at least 11,000 of the biggest companies and maybe up to 20,000 will file electronically.

G.E.'s senior tax counsel says it cost between a-half million and a million dollars to develop a system for electronic filing. But he says G.E. will save “many millions” by shifting from paper.