Under President Trump’s new tax law, 60 of America’s biggest corporations paid $0 in federal taxes. in 2018, despite earning billions of dollars in profits.
Amazon, Netflix, General Motors, Chevron, JetBlue, IBM and U.S. Steel were all among the companies that avoided taxes last year using a diverse array of loopholes and tax breaks, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think-tank.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act dropped the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, while also keeping intact most of the tax breaks that allow profitable companies to zero out what they owe.
“The result, unsurprisingly, has been a continued decline in our already-low corporate tax revenues: in fiscal 2018, U.S. corporate tax revenues fell by 31 percent, according to U.S. Treasury data,” the study said. “This was a more precipitous decline than in any year of normal economic growth in U.S. history.”
In total, the 60 companies paid no federal income tax on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income, according to the study. And instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes at the 21 percent corporate rate, the companies received a corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion.
Netflix, for instance, raked in $856 million in profit but paid no federal taxes because of tax credits, according to ITEP. IBM, meanwhile, earned $500 million but received a rebate worth $342 million, although it’s unclear specifically how the company did so. The company said it used “domestic incentives” to reduce its income tax by about $110 million in 2018.
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax law is set to save U.S. companies $1.4 trillion by 2027.
Bernie Sanders, a 2020 Democratic candidate and Vermont senator, slammed the corporations on Monday for not paying what he said is their fair share of taxes.
“I happen to believe … that we have an absurd tax system,” Sanders told Fox News’ Bret Baier of “Special Report” and Martha MacCallum of “The Story” during a townhall.
The tax law is likely to be front-and-center during the 2020 presidential election. Already, some Democratic candidates have proposed ambitious, multi-billion dollar policies to expand social programs which they hope to fund by rolling back the tax law.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/amazon-netflix-chevron-ibm-federal-taxes-trump-tax-law
Articles such as this one are designed to enrage the American public to the end of concluding that this is unfair to them because they still must pay federal “income” tax, yet these companies don’t. Long story short, every one of us has been bamboozled, period. A few yrs. back we collected unemployment which is taxable & reported it along with our private sector pay which was rebutted on form 4852 which is the substitute form for a W-2 or 1099 due to a third party( company that reported “wages”/ “income” earned) claiming that we had “income.” The companies themselves don’t even know they DON’T owe fed. tax & should NOT be issuing W-2’s to the folks working. The IRS differentiated between the two categories & returned the overpayment of the private sector money, as they should have.
Unless these companies are receiving revenue in which the federal govt. has a direct ownership interest, they should be declaring $00.00 “income” owed & paying NOTHING.
This article will incite the public to clamor for a different tax system which isn’t necessary. But if they get it, they then will most likely be paying on their private sector earnings which could NEVER be. Perfect problem, reaction, solution scenario which always ends with the people getting screwed.
Almost everyone working has been corralled under force majeure; sign the W-4 which then issues forth a W-2, taxes are then extracted, or you DON’T get the job. Again, the private sector businesses are duped, yet not all, as some know the truth.
This issue along with so MANY others; like almost everything we experience, is just absolutely infuriating as well as sad.
I disagree, Katie. Amazon is in contract with the federal government via licencing, and just like the 501(c)3 churches, Amazon is a part of the corporate United States of America.
We are not talking income here, we are talking business profit from the consumer base, which is one of the resources of this country. Not to mention the billionaires at Amazon, as a part of the latest ‘tax reform’, pay a lower tax rate than is demanded of my son who welds for a living.
Amazon, being the corporate power house that it is, is up to its neck in the corporate tyranny. No, Amazon should not be taxed, they should be tried for complicity to treason and hanged, just like the corporate CEOs and United States corporate government employees of Facebook, Microsoft, and Google.
A corporation is not an individual, just like a preacher who signs the 501(c)3, he is a government agent and the church is a corporate building.
A direct interest? I think being an agent of the government is more than sufficient to create that interest.
Not to mention the fact that in state and local unlawful corporate jurisdictions, Amazon is given ‘tax incentives’ to base their businesses in certain areas, said tax incentives being wealth taken from individuals without due process of the law.
Well said katie
Thank you H.D.