55 large companies paid no federal income tax in 2020: watchdog

At least 55 large profitable companies did not pay federal corporate income tax last year, according to a report from the Left Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

The group criticized the GOP tax cuts adopted in 2017 as well as the tax breaks enacted in the first major coronavirus relief bill passed early last year as contributing factors.

“This continues a decades-long trend of corporate tax evasion by America’s largest corporations, and it appears to be the product of long-standing tax breaks preserved or extended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.” (TCJA) as well as the CARES Tax Relief Act enacted in spring 2020, ”the group wrote in its report of the findings.

The report follows President BidenJoe Biden The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden could find no GOP support for the job plan Republicans don’t think Biden really wants to work with them Lack of cyber funds in Biden’s infrastructure plan raises eyebrows MOREthe proposal to pay for a more than $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan by raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Before the 2017 GOP tax cut, the rate was 35%.

In remarks setting out his plan on Wednesday, Biden pointed to the previous year’s report showing that 91 companies paid no federal income tax.

“It’s just plain wrong,” he said. “A firefighter and a teacher who pay 22 percent?” Amazon and 90 other big companies pay no federal tax? I will put an end to this.

The ITEP report found that companies, which collected $ 40.5 billion in collective pre-tax income, actually received $ 3.5 billion in tax cuts.

FedEx, for example, received a rebate of $ 230 million while collecting $ 1.2 billion in pre-tax revenue, Nike took a rebate of $ 109 million on $ 2.9 billion in pre-tax revenue, and Salesforce paid no federal taxes on $ 2.6 billion of pre-tax revenue.

Other large companies may have similarly been able to avoid a federal tax bill, but the company’s study only covered the top 500 publicly traded companies.

The unpaid taxes were not the result of illegal maneuvers, but rather the result of legal incentives for companies to spend and invest money in certain ways, as well as companies taking advantage of additional tax breaks enshrined in the law.