I did a little searching, and http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/27/us-microsoft-tax-i... says that in their last fiscal years,
- Microsoft had an overall effective worldwide tax rate of 17.5%.
- Google's effective tax rate was 21%.
- Apple's effective tax rate was 24%.
- IBM's effective tax rate was 25%.
Then with a bit more digging into (independent Senator from Vermont) Bernie Sanders' twitter feed, I saw:
- General Electric had an effective tax rate of -45.3% from 2008 to 2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132791467994386...
- ExxonMobil had an effective tax rate of -38.3% in 2009: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132835853536989...
- Merck had an effective tax rate of -1% in 2009: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132927696131985...
- Boeing had an effective tax rate of -1.8% in 2008-2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132973012763938...
- Verizon had an effective tax rate of -5.4% in 2009 and 2010: https://twitter.com/#!/SenatorSanders/status/132944059814785...
Again, I'm just speaking for myself personally, not on behalf of my employer. My issue with the article was that I felt like it focused on Google when a broader perspective on corporate tax rates would have been more helpful.