Among lowest taxpayers were companies whose CEOs have become high-profile advocates for corporate social responsibility

Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including General Motors, Citigroup and Netflix, have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits and 23 paying nothing, a report has found.

The 2017 law cut the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. But the new assessment of corporate tax avoidance, published on Thursday by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (Itep), found that during the first five years the law was in effect, many profitable public companies in the US paid a far lower rate in practice.

  • @[email protected]
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    4 months ago

    23 corporations, including T-Mobile US and Xcel Energy, paid zero (or less) federal income tax over the five-year period

    So… Does that mean they paid zero taxes and got a return? How the hell do you pay less than zero dollars in taxes?

    • forty2
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      394 months ago

      Yep, you got it. Tax credits for things like RnD and green initiatives, depreciation of assets like buildings and machinery , and the evergreen strategy of exploiting tax loop holes

    • @Grumpy
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      154 months ago

      Unfortunately many large corporations actually get money from the gov rather than pay. Negative tax is a real thing and only takes a quick search to find corps that’s very profitable actually getting paid billions by the government.

      Like these companies got money from gov while being profitable. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/03/07/27-giant-profitable-companies-paid-no-taxes/81399094/

      It fluctuates quite a bit from year to year as grants and various benefits change every year.