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Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010

November 3, 2011 Comments off

Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010
Source: Citizens for Tax Justice
From press release (PDF):

A comprehensive new study that profiles 280 of America’s most profitable companies finds that 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years. Thirty companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the three year period, despite combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion. These are among the findings in “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010,” released today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $223 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, Director at Citizens for Tax Justice and the report’s lead author. “This is wasted money that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit.”

The study examines 280 corporations, all from the Fortune 500 list. All of the companies were profitable in each of the last three years and provided sufficient and reliable information in their financial reports about their pretax U.S. profits and their U.S. federal income taxes.

Corporations are lobbying for lower corporate rates and an exemption for profits they shift offshore. McIntyre, however, says “Our study provides proof that too many corporations are already being coddled by our tax system.” Findings in the report include:

  • The average effective tax rate for all 280 companies in the study over the three year period was 18.5 percent; for the period 2009-2010 it was 17.3 percent, less than half the statutory rate of 35 percent.
  • 78 of the companies enjoyed at least one year in which their federal income tax was zero or less.
  • 30 companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the entire three year period on their combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion.
  • Total tax subsidies given to all 280 profitable corporations amounted to $222.7 billion from 2008-2010.
  • Wells Fargo tops the list of 280 U.S. corporations receiving the most in tax subsidies, getting nearly $18 billion in tax breaks from the U.S. treasury in the last three years.
  • Pepco Holdings had the lowest effective tax rate of all the companies in the study, at negative 57.6 percent over the three year period.
  • Some companies within sectors fare worse than others. For example, the report finds that FedEx paid a 0.9 percent tax rate over the three year period while its competitor, UPS, paid a 24.1 percent rate.
  • While retailers and wholesalers in the study generally pay average effective tax rates of about 30 percent, Amazon.com paid a rate of only 7.9 percent on its $1.8 billion in profits from 2008-2010.
  • Financial services received the largest share (16.8 percent) of all federal tax subsidies over the last three years. More than half of federal corporate tax subsidies for companies in the study went to four industries: financial services, utilities, telecommunications, and oil, gas & pipelines.
  • The top ten defense contractors saw their combined tax rate decline from 19.3 percent in 2008 to a mere 10.6 percent rate in 2010.
  • U.S. corporations with significant (ten percent or more of their total worldwide profits) foreign profits paid tax rates to foreign countries that were almost a third higher than they paid to the IRS on their domestic profits.

Twelve Corporations Pay Effective Tax Rate of Negative 1.5% on $171 Billion in Profits; Reap $62.4 Billion in Tax Subsidies

June 3, 2011 Comments off

Twelve Corporations Pay Effective Tax Rate of Negative 1.5% on $171 Billion in Profits; Reap $62.4 Billion in Tax Subsidies
Source: Citizens for Tax Justice

CTJ analyzes the pretax U.S. profits, federal taxes paid and effective tax rates of a dozen Fortune 500 companies over the 2008-10 period. From 2008 through 2010, these 12 companies reported $171 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But as a group, their federal income taxes were negative: –$2.5 billion.

+ Full Report (PDF)

Hat tip: Charles M. Blow

Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes

April 27, 2011 Comments off

Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes
Source: Citizens for Tax Justice

Weeks after the New York Times broke the story of General Electric’s tax avoidance, it’s still hard for many Americans to believe how successfully GE has managed to avoid owing any tax on its profits. Yet some anti-immigrant groups find it much more plausible that undocumented immigrants somehow pay no taxes at all, while relying heavily on state and local government services.

A new report from the Immigration Policy Center, fueled by data from ITEP’s Microsimulation Model, shows that in fact, undocumented families pay a substantial amount of state and local taxes across the nation. The report estimates that these families pay over $11 billion a year in state and local sales, excise, income and property taxes.

It’s notoriously difficult to know precisely even the basic facts about the changing undocumented population in the US, and the IPC report should be understood not as a definitive answer but as a sensible estimate based on the best available data. But the new IPC report serves as an important reminder that undocumented taxpayers make important financial contributions to the fiscal health of state and local governments.

+ Full Report

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