American International Group reported a $19.8 billion profit for its fourth quarter last week. But that doesn’t mean the company pulled a massive turnaround after its government bailout a few years ago.
Looking more closely at the numbers, it turns out $17.7 billion of that profit was actually a tax benefit from the U.S. government. What’s more, AIG won’t pay any taxes this year or for the next decade, according to some estimates.