Bloomberg News IBM had an effective tax rate of 11% in its most recently completed quarter, which is actually higher than the median rate over the previous five quarters.IBM Corp. somehow managed to maintain its rock-bottom effective tax rate in Tuesday’s earnings report, riding its continuing ability to avoid taxes to an earnings beat and after-hours stock gains. IBM IBM, -0.20% managed to beat expectations for profit and sales despite revenue declining for a 22nd consecutive quarter, to $19.15 billion from $19.22 billion a year ago. Even coming that close to break-even helped IBM stock push higher in late trading by more than 5%, combating a slide that had seen shares decline 11.7% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.07% has gained 14.3%.via